The Faithful Skeptic

The world can be a pretty crappy place...

I now work for a police agency and so I get to hear all sorts of wild stories. Some of them are pretty interesting, but one today was very sad. Our detectives are on the verge of breaking up a large, local prostitution ring. Their big break was when one of the prostitutes was sent to the hospital by her pimp.

This girl is 16 years old and has been "hooking" for two years. She's pregnant and a meth user, but has been trying to cut back since she learned that meth is bad for the baby. She's turning 20-30 tricks a week for $35 each. Her pimp (who happens to be a woman) would drop her off at migrant camps and she'd work her way through one man at a time.

One of the officers was talking about prostitution in our town and kept referring to these women as hookers, whores, and street-walkers. I understand that officers can become jaded and not see the humanity of the people they work with, but I kept thinking how cruel it was to refer to this girl as a whore.

I'm sure her life is more complicated and filled with more pain than I can imagine. How is it our society can tolerate a system that turns 14 year old girls into prostitutes? What is America to this girl? What is the American dream to a 16 year old girl supporting herself through prostitution?

I don't have an answer, but I wish I did.

posted by Brian @ 9:32 PM