My Ambitions as a Blogger: Social Justice

Sunday, March 8, 2015

The Well-being of a Human Trafficking victim

Victims of trafficking in humans can be found in a variety of situations, so I will provide a list of some general indicators. That way you can play a role in identifying such victims.

Economic

Receive little or no payment
Have no access to their earnings
Be unable to negotiate working conditions
Be unable to leave their work environment
No days off
Work excessively long hours over long periods
Be under the perception that they are bonded by debt
Have had the fees for their transport to the country of destination paid for by facilitators, whom they must payback by working or providing services in the destination
Be forced to work under certain conditions

Social

Be subjected to violence or threats of violence against themselves or against their family members and loved ones
Be unable to communicate freely with others
They often have acted on the basis of false promises
Believe that they must work against their will
Be threatened with being handed over to the authorities
Be disciplined through punishment
Be in a situation of dependence
Have limited or no social interaction

Health (mental and physical)

Show signs that their movements are being controlled
Allow others to speak for them when addressed directly
No access to medical care
Suffer injuries that appear to be the result of an assault
Show fear, anxiety, or timid behavior
Suffer injuries or impairments typical of certain jobs or control measures
Act as if they were instructed by someone else
Be afraid of revealing their immigration status
Distrustful of the authorities
Suffer injuries that appear to be the result of the application of control measures

Living Conditions

Feel that they cannot leave
Be found in or connected to a type of location likely to be used for exploiting people
Not know their home or work address
Live in poor or substandard accommodations
Come from a place known to be a source of human trafficking
Have limited contact with their families or with people outside of their immediate environment
Be unfamiliar with the local language.

Other

Claims of just visiting and inability to clarify where he/she is staying/address
Lack of knowledge of whereabouts and/or do not know what city he/she is in
Little to no education
Loss of sense of time
Has numerous inconsistencies in his/her story
Have false identity or travel documents
Not be in possession of their passports or other travel or identity documents, as those documents are being held by someone else.

This list is not exhaustive and represents only a selection of possible indicators. Also, the red flags in this list may not be present in all trafficking cases and are not cumulative. Despite the presence or absence of any of the indicators, neither proves nor disproves that human trafficking is taking place, but their presence should lead to some investigation.

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Saturday, December 6, 2014

On Eric Garner's death and the Grand Jury's decision.

In light of all the protests and anger ensued over the results from the Eric Garner trial, I think its important to remember that not all police departments act the same. We often like to make comparisons like this picture entails, but we don't know if the police department would have reacted the same way had the cop choked a black man.

This comparison is like judging people in the high order societies because of the things people in low-order societies do.

I cannot defend the way those cops took down Garner, though I can see why they tried to take him down in the first place. I do know that the chokehold the cop used was a banned practice, but I dont understand how its not illegal. I do not really see racism in all of this (and if at all, then not racism alone), but i do see stereotypes (which often lead to racism). You cant tell me, from the cops position, that you would feel no ounce of hostility from eric garner because of the ghetto-black stereotypes (which you can trace for yourself where this may come from) in combination to resisting arrest, yet from Garner's position, you cant tell me he didnt feel anxious/scared abut the cop approaching him because of trends of cop-civilian engagements wen involving black civilians (which you can see is a bit of a cycle here).

However, in both positions there is a better way to do things. Garner, black, white, red, or blue, should not have been talking back the way he did. You'd have to be a fool to tell the cops to not touch you, making it look like you about to do something. The cops shouldnt have been so naive about the whole take down. The cops are taught a hold around the neck to cut off circulation until the arrestee faints. Say what you want about Garner's health, but NYPD officer Daniel Pantaleo put on a chokehold which it lead to Garner's heart attack. That probably would not have killed a more healthy person, but don't you think it should have been adjusted for Garner? In the moment, maybe not something one would think about, but in retrospect, yes. Now the public sphere is fueled with the narrative of an unarmed (black) man suffering a heart attack because of the "police brutality".

My issue isn't about resisting arrest, because Garner was out of line and totally deserved to get arrested, but when he screamed he cant breathe, I thought that the cops would have tried to respect that. I didn't get how there were many cops present and yet they were still on him for as long as they were after the fact. Where was the man going to go? Cops have huge responsibility with their power, and when they make a mistake on it, they should own it, at least. It was probably an honest mistake for the most part, but Garner died rather unnecessarily. The police ain't a bunch of robots. Again, it is no a secret Garner should have been arrested, but you cant say a better way of handling the arrest couldn't have been thought up.

With the cop walking away from this whole thing without indictment is perhaps a big blow to the status on authority-community relationships. More and more people are beginning to trust cops less by the minute.