Posted by Friday Night, April 5, 2024
President, Patty Burkhead called the convention to order at 5 p.m. The group heard presentations from Rochelle Redbone Arebalo from the MMIW (Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women) and Tom Zivkovic from Red Cord the anti-human trafficking organization representing southwest Oklahoma.
The groups provided startling details about the people impacted by their organizations and provided ways that our groups might work with them as part of our Signature Program of Domestic Violence Awareness and Prevention. To find out more about MMIW visit the national website at https://www.nativehope.org/missing-and-murdered-indigenous-women-mmiw.
According to the site, Murder is the number 3 reason for death for Indigenous women.
Red Cord is Southwest Oklahoma’s Anti Human Trafficking organization. To find out more visit their website at https://theredcord.org/.
UNMASK THE BEAST
A predator is a being that relentlessly stalks its vulnerable victims seeking to exploit them for personal gain. The predator may be unseen, but only a click away on a computer screen. Today, traffickers have hidden their faces to groom their victims through online apps and take their time building a relationship and trust. It is often over time that this relationship is built and a victim falls prey to clever disguises.
Traffickers may be wearing one or more of the following faces:
What masks do traffickers use to lure victims?
1.“The Friend” — Using Victims to Recruit Others: A victim is told to recruit others to replace her current work requirement. This happens in schools when a student befriends a vulnerable student and creates a trust with this person. Then she will invite them over to a party or sleep over. The purpose is to expose the victim to the trafficker which can give opportunity for a grooming process to start.
- “The Planner” – Using Disguised Meetings: This could happen through a “random” text or direct message from someone looking to “meet up” to buy or sell merchandise. Watch for red flags when selling or buying from Facebook Marketplace and other online shopping sites. This can also look like being invited to a party at someone’s house you do not know.
- .“The False Advertiser”-Using Enticing Opportunities: This could be modeling opportunities, or jobs offering high pay with little to no previous work experience required. Or it could be an advertisement for someone with knowledge of a foreign language offering free accommodations, free visa or travel procurement. The opportunities can be advertised in legitimate newspapers using a registered business as a front.
- “The ‘Loverboy” – Using False Relationships: This trafficker uses blind dating and online relationships, sugar daddy/sugar baby websites. They invest their time and resources to buy their victim’s trust, flatter her, and shower her with love, romance and promises of a better life until they are comfortable enough to make their move.
- “The Family Member”- Sale by Family: Parents may sell a child out of greed and receive a monthly income. These families often build relationships with traffickers and will intentionally misrepresent the nature of the work to entice other families to sell their children. Traffickers will target families that are poverty-stricken or dependent on drugs.
- “The Needy Person” – Seeking help in disguise: This could look like a homeless person asking for money or a ride. It could be someone asking for directions or someone who needs to use your cellphone in an “emergency” situation.
- “The Religious Abuser” – Using Religious Beliefs: This is when religion is used to control a victim and/or abuse of power. This could be having a victim take an “oath”. Victims make all kinds of promises such as they won’t run away; they will obey their trafficker; they will keep silent and never speak to officials; They will pay back all the money they owe their trafficker. Indeed, the girls believe that breaking the oath would cause grave, if not fatal consequences, for the victims’ families and would be in danger of going to hell.
All of these masks are in use today in our state, in our country, and around the world.
The Red Cord offers professional training for the community, schools, churches, first responders, hotels, and casinos. You can contact someone from the Red Cord organization to find out how you can support their efforts in your community through their website.