A pimp makes a half million dollars a year.

It's a new year, and I'm hopeful 2017 will help many young people, girls, boys from challenging situations and/or crisis situations find hope and help. I'm doing my best to do what I can, and I appreciate the supporters of Rayebird, the mission and helping us all help them. Since you're helping to fight a global human trafficking industry, some facts on a domestic level will help you see where your contributions are going. Nationally, The average age girls prostituted (trafficked) for sex are first victimized is 12-14 years old. In Minneapolis, about 50% of adult women interviewed as part of a 2010 study focused on North Minneapolis stated that they first traded sex at the average age at 13. Fifty percent (50%) of domestic prostitution (sex trafficking) victims are classified as runaway youth living on the street, and 75% of those girls entangled in prostitution networks are controlled by a sex trafficker or ‘pimp.' This isn't some guy standing on the street corner pushing a girl to do something. These are fairly sophisticated business operations with phones, connections, websites, computers, video equipment, apartments, and it's all worth it. A pimp with a “stable” of three girls or women often enforces an average nightly quota of $500, or $1,500 a night. If these quotas are met consistently, the pimp can make as much as $547,000 (or more) in a year ($1,500 a night x 365 nights a year = $547,500), entirely tax free. I get upset, hurt, angry for those who need our help when I hear so-called "women's rights" and "women's lib" advocates make statements like, "Oh a woman can do with her body what she wants," and "She could leave if she really wanted." Do not fool yourselves. This isn't about choice. This is slavery, pure and simple, that, and a whole lot of psychological brainwashing and mind-games. There is no way out, except if someone rescues them. The FBI, authorities, us. These girls are trapped by greedy, money-hungry people who see them as nothing other cash in hand. They are kept hostage by violence, drugs, threats against family. They have no phone, no money and no one. When they're arrested for prostitution, rather than being viewed as a victim, they are viewed as a criminal. We need to find a way to remove the stigma from this situation and expose it for what it is. Slavery. Help save these young girls, everywhere, and help them heal. Do what you can, wherever you are. Get educated. These are our sisters, friends, daughters, neighbors, cousins.