Thinking ahead.....
"New report suggests rise in Police health issues, with blindness and RSI being the biggest problems"
London cops focus on extreme porn, human trafficking
A new command within the Metropolitan Police service will have responsibility for policing extreme porn and indecent images of children as well as prostituion and human trafficking. The creation of the unit is either a vital step forward in the fight against human trafficking and exploitation, or a serious waste of police …
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Tuesday 13th April 2010 11:30 GMT Anonymous Coward
Crime and organisations
I like the non answer when challenged.
Human trafficking is a problem but like most things when people with vested interests start talking about imaginary numbers you have to doubt their motives.
We live in a world of finite resources so surely everything has to show it is cost effective - otherwise why should the tax payer be forced to subsidise it? It seems to me that this is a unit with an effectively blank cheque and the moral authority to redefine its own boundaries and goals. (Not that SOCA would be any better at it, but the Met...)
Now if we are happy to work on vague claims of unreported events, I have a magic hat in my house. If it remains full of money, there is an 80% reduction in the number of unreported crimes which take place. As it is impossible for you to prove that this isnt working, I will await my Government subsidy - something in the region of £5k per month should keep it happy. Dont baulk at the costs, think of all the benefit its doing for less than price of a Met specialist copper....
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Tuesday 13th April 2010 22:05 GMT Anonymous Coward
Still not the Swedish solution.
At least we're not quite replicating the Swedish solution to this problem. Over there, they've taken to locking up prostitutes who are in the country illegally and then deporting them with a note to their home government. Unless of course they testify that they were forced into it by the illegal traffickers, in which case they get to stay out of jail and return home "voluntarily". The police make sure that this is made entirely clear to them, of course, and don't look too closely at their stories.
Net result? 100% of prostitutes working illegally in the country were victims of sex trafficking, at least according to the police.Many anti-trafficking organizations - including the UK based ones - consider this a model setup that should be replicated everywhere.
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Tuesday 13th April 2010 13:01 GMT Anonymous Coward
Figures
Wow, Human Trafficking, yes it's bad, but I'm sure I remember seeing somewhere, that in the last 6 years, there have been around 140 convictions and less than a thousand arrests.
Not a lot in a population of ~60Million so you have to ask, "Is it worth it?"
Or, is it a cover to hide the fact that they're going to be going after extreme porn?
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Tuesday 13th April 2010 14:52 GMT Richard 120
For the purposes of debate...
What about a picture of a person having sex with another person made up to look like a corpse with a caption that says "you're a wanker you are"
How could you actually tell if the person made up like a corpse were alive or dead?
To be honest I'm expecting it'll most likely catch a bunch of people with horse fucking clips on their computers, probably ones they long forgot about after getting goatsed with them and forgetting to delete them.
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Tuesday 13th April 2010 13:17 GMT Anonymous Coward
UKBA and IPS
Hang on a minute. The UKBA and the IPS are responsible for preventing:
Trafficking for any purpose;
The facilitation of human beings into the UK;
Identity document abuse
If there is such a huge problem with trafficking and people entering the UK illegally, it means that the UKBA is not do its job properly (probably not news to anyone). This should be fixed first, before dreaming up new and exotic ways to further increase public spending.
If the Met want something to worry about in connection with the Olympics, they could reflect that people travelling between the Olympic site and central London or London airports will likely to pass through an area of London where the local population may have higher than average support for extremist Islamic views.
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Tuesday 13th April 2010 19:46 GMT Anonymous Coward
Empires
Spot on.
This is all part of the barely controlled Met trying to expand its empire.
It is already big enough that its senior officers can legitimately claim to having no idea that the bobbies supposedly protecting the public are running around (without badge numbers, but demanding our ID) killing random passers-by or electricians.
Human trafficking falls under the remit of at least three other Government agencies (SOCA, IPS, UKBA), but obviously the Met have smelt funding and want more....
Why do we even have SOCA when the Met want to do it all? (let alone the UKBA/IPS)
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Friday 16th April 2010 14:21 GMT Anonymous Coward
It's All About Rearranging The Finances...
"...Why do we even have SOCA when the Met want to do it all? (let alone the UKBA/IPS)..."
It's a very good question, but I doubt you'll ever get a sensible answer out of the Police Service or their Government Lobby firm, ACPO. This all about getting as many bogus (and wholly unwarranted) 'specialist units' set-up within the Police Service as possible before a change of Government, and getting them tied into large chunks of public funding. The Police Service know that if 'call me Dave' gets in on May 6th he's not given the Old Bill the same funding assurances as he's extended to the NHS.
Just how many police units do we now have across the UK dealing with 'extreme porn', 'child porn' and suchlike? That's anyone's guess, but I'll wager it's far more than people think and very probably a hugely disproportionate figure, compared to the actual 'threat' involved. And it's no surprise to find that the usual band of child salvationists from the child protection industry are riding the slipstream, no doubt hoping to tie themselves into (well funded) 'partnerships' with these outfits. Times are hard, you know, and they're going to get harder - best to establish those fully-funded links now before those cut-backs really kick in.
We know that whoever gets in at the next election won't have the balls or the common sense to tell these idiots where to go - moral panics are good for business, good for favorable headlines in the gutter press and good for preening, ignorant politicians looking to improve their public profile. The Police Service are old hands at cynically cashing in on such fads, with their well-connected mates in ACPO shaking all the right hands, collecting all the right cheques off every naive Minister they can hoodwink.
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Tuesday 13th April 2010 13:17 GMT Graham Marsden
So now...
... pictures of consenting adults engaged in consensual activities will be covered under the same remit as:
Forced Prostitution and the violence and forced drug addiction that may be involved;
Violence at music events;
Money laundering through dodgy casinos;
And the use of fake ID documents.
Nice to see that they're going to be targetting specialist resources effectively on relevant and related areas...!
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Tuesday 13th April 2010 22:05 GMT Anonymous Coward
At least the anti-prostitute brigade failed...
Look on the bright side: at least the forced prostitution laws are actually restricted to prostitution that actually involves force, despite the best efforts of the anti-sex trafficking groups pushing for the law. I suspect they got lax and an actual sex worker managed to slip past their barricades and talk to a politician.
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Tuesday 13th April 2010 13:28 GMT Inachu
My advice to those police in eurpoe.
Dear Mr. Eurpean police officer,
Please never visit Japan.
Because in Japan all people of all ages and backgrounds read hentai comic books.
Not just at home but on the bus and on the metro and all over and is considred standard
in Japan.
What may be againt your moral principles is common everday practice in japan.
Reminds me how before American Gi invaded Japan men and women and childrena ll took hot baths together nude but no the false christian moral ethic invades and now this is considered a sin.
Why haven't you Mr. policeman gone to africa and complain about the tribal topless females there? What morals are preventing you? its bad for Japan but ok for africa?
Oh wait.... it is not a moral issue until said country becomes a threat.
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Wednesday 14th April 2010 09:13 GMT Anonymous Coward
What Appalling Conflations
So, we don't just have extreme porn - photos of entirely legal acts between consenting adults - conflated with sexual abuse of children, we have it mixed up with a whole load of other stuff, too.
Is this the Met displaying its ignorance and prejudice, assuming that no one could freely want to engage in such depraved acts (when it's just BDSM) of their own free will? Are they mistakenly, ignorantly assuming that those shown in such photos must surely have been coerced?
This is no better than lumping homosexuality together with child molestation!
DISGUSTING!
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Wednesday 14th April 2010 09:24 GMT Lotus 80
Human trafficking - the reality
I lived in Eastern Europe for a long time. A very long time. Most of my adult life, in fact. One thing I learned was this: Genuine human trafficking in the way most of us imagine it (i.e. women taken against their will or lured out of their country under false pretenses and forced into prostitution or similar) is INCREDIBLY rare. In the vast majority of cases these women know exactly what they are doing when they get involved. More often or not they do it for a while, save some loot, buy some bling and go home, or get ripped off and go home. Mama, Papa and everyone in the village gets told they were a barmaid, waitress or holiday rep and think she's been a good girl.
But when plod nabs them on the job, they insist they were scammed and held against their will... sounds a lot better to the folks back home than just coming clean and admitting they were willingly turning tricks.
There's just so much naivety about Eastern Europe in the UK.
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Wednesday 14th April 2010 13:33 GMT SteveMD
Typical sop to lobby groups
The first human trafficking unit was shut down because they could not find any "sex slaves". This unit covers a wider area of trafficking and lumps in various "concerns" of lobby groups along with some odds and sods no one else can be bothered to investigate. This is the "remedial squad", the last resort, where the rejects will be sent. Created entirely to for the benefit of shouty nutters, who are out of touch with reality.
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Tuesday 27th April 2010 15:58 GMT Anonymous Coward
No such thing as a willing prostitute.
Human trafficking happens all the time. It's just that the victims choose not to come out because they are quite content with their current situation.
Victims usually have their passport confiscated for short period of time, or sexually exploited for short period of time and the threats of violence and aftermath is usually far greater than anything they had encountered that they would rather just walk away with little money they had made during the time. If you have been drugged, raped, sexually exploited in some way, you would be angered but if you were given some money as a compensation, I guarantee you will walk off than dealing with untrustworthy, less sympathetic policers and truly evil people, especially if that means it could get you killed and your loved ones back in Home country. That is why, you think it is very rare.
If you were a woman just got married to an amazing guy, would you tell him that you've been just gang raped by some guys whose name you don't even know? do you think he would be relieved that you told him or do you think your life will be better if you didn't share that with him?
You have to think from these vulnerable women's perspectives..they do not have much options in life to survive otherwise.
the ones who are truly victimized are already -BRAIN-DEAD..No chance of recovering from it.
She will be raped non stop for few years and probably die, suicide or get locked up in mental institute. Truly tragic case....and How often do you get to see women like that? not easy.
It doesn't matter the degree of sexual exploitation they encounter, Exploitation is wrong and unjustified. These women deserve far more sympathy than simply being treated as willing prostitutes. and there is no such thing as a willing prostitute. either they are addicted to drug, or sex, and mentally very very sick. they are all chemically controlled.
I repeat, "there is no such thing as a willing prostitute".
Once that has been cleared up, we can look at sexual violence and prostitution in different light. 'Same goes for porn industry.
There is No sane woman who would want to be gang-raped in front of camera.
and Raping insane woman or women on drug is a rape and torture in serious form.
We live in a society where sexually abusing a minor or handicapped person gets much more sympathy than raping perfectly beautiful woman with brain-damage or drug issues.
it's absolutely tragic that these women are not getting the support and sympathy they need.
and Men are too horny to really see things in clear manner.
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Biting the hand that feeds IT
