Task force busts alleged online prostitution ring at Southfield hotel:

26-year-old Deante L. Brown of Detroit, Michigan is facing federal charges of sex trafficking after he allegedly prostituted several women on Backpage. What makes this story even more tragic than usual is one of the women he was prostituting. I can’t do her plight justice so I’ll quote the article.

“April” turned out to be an alias for a former Eastern Michigan University teaching student who developed a blood disorder that resulted in her losing multiple fingers, court records show. After the amputation, she became addicted to pain-killers, heroin and crack cocaine and turned to prostitution because she believed she had “no place to go and no one to turn to for help,” according to court records.

She says that Brown turned her out at a hotel in the Detroit suburb of Southfield, Michigan where she was forced to have sex with men sometimes ten times a day. In return Brown would giver her a baggie of crack for each date and that Brown would not allow her to sleep. She says that was the only way she could get through it. When police set up sting she told them that there is a large group at the motel involved in sex and drug trafficking. Brown was arrested when he returned to the hotel room.

Again this should go as the ultimate myth buster when it comes to consenting adults. A lot of times pimps and traffickers use women who are already hooked on drugs or get them hooked on drugs to work for them. This is a practice you’re supporting when you use a prostitute and try to justify it to yourself by claiming they’re consenting.

Also in this article an FBI agent stated that Backpage is not part of the problem.

“Backpage really isn’t to blame. … It’s the exploiters out there who are taking advantage of the minors and these females,” said Edward Price, an FBI officer with the task force. He noted that several media outlets run adult material and escort ads, which are not illegal.

While I’m not going to call for Agent Price’s badge I have to vehemently disagree with him. While some other publications may carry ads for prostitution none of them have as many and make as much money on them as Backpage. Brown was said to have kept most of the money that April earned so the only people making money off of her were Brown and Backpage. To me that makes them 100% complicit in the sex trafficking trade. It’s sad to see that an FBI agent can’t see this.