Trafficking

I stumbled upon recent news about prostitution invasion in some European countries, and of course I heard more and more about Eastern Europeans in London. The fact that Oslo politicians are even mentioning making prostitution illegal made me think, though somewhat random.

I'm sure there are trafficking in US and LA, but for ordinary people, you don't get to see that. Like in many places else in the world, either trafficking is reserved for the rich, who pays a lot and actively looking for those things, or the outclasses of society, who think they are as exploited by society as much as the victims. Ordinary people aren't made of the right moral fabric to be trusted to enter those secret worlds. Or you just don't dare to drive into those neighborhoods.

It's not possible to have aggressive street walkers in LA. SW is the number one form of prostitution not tolerated in LA. They even go after Madam's for movie stars, what do you expect? SW can only find in places where you can get a lot more money than the fines, eg Sunset, when it's not barricaded totally by LE from time to time. It's like traffic ticket, you pay more and more fines before you need to spend a little time in jail.

Then it's the numerous massage parlors. If you open in a neighborhood that people are willing to drive into, you can't have much secrecy. Out of LA, you always heard of the famous news about 40, 50 year old women doing massage and get arrested. That said it all. You have a hard time connecting those women to trafficking. The types in LA are varied. Most are over the hill types, with the youngest model materials about mid-twenties. Most are here legally and the older ones are certainly locals. The fact is, even if they are near model materials, mid-twenties are a little old for Asian standards. If you have the connection to come here once a while on tourist vista, you dig gold.

US vista is pretty easy. I came across a Czech girl who came on her own and apply for "jobs" at top LA agencies with online presence. She is young, don't have much education and I'm sure she didn't have a steady job. She observed all the regulations, only came here about two trips per year. Now she must had brought a brand new big house (no mortgage) and laughing at her university graduated peers.

So how difficult it is for foreign citizens to get Visas, whose country produce cars that you can buy in US? Renaults?

The other LA phenomenon is as much traffic as trafficking. Every Saturday, a traffic jam will be peak at noon, all the way from LA to San Diego border crossing. It must be some 200 miles of traffic, sometimes jam at 70 mph, or 20 mph, doesn't matter, it's a congestion, never fails. Another jam peaks at Sunday evening, on the reverse direction, San Diego back to LA. The Exodus scale is mind boggling. M25 looks like a country road.

At the border crossing itself, it's not like a friendly Canadian crossing, waving you good luck and wishing you good hooking in Victoria. It's a lot more friendlier. Right up to 9/11, when you come back to US, it's a random password system. People walking shoulder to shoulder, chest to back, walking through a bridge with a width of two to 4 car lanes. You get about hundreds to one chance of being asked for the password. And the password is, not surprisingly, "US". And being in LA, all sorts of accents are accepted. I was told, a decade ago perhaps, you can bring a girlfriend back with good reasons, like taking her to Disneyland. Just promise you will bring her back to Mexico the same day.

I have done a little thought analysis as to what these people cross the border for. Shopping is a good reason but not enough to go there week after week with all the gas/petrol. Medicine is the specially good reason. You don't need much prescription so you save a lot on doctor's fee. But again you don't need to go there too often, and that fake drugs are common.

It's not for families either. There's the long drive. And now a bit of waiting to cross. You have to stop at the US side along the road to get insurance into Mexico. Once through in Mexico you better stay in the toll roads. It's safer if you go straight to your family resort at speed, and that damages are covered in private toll roads. Then you get off your destination resort right at a toll road exit.

So my conclusion is that most are down there for the legal red light district. If LA loosen up a bit, you can visualize how many more hookers are required to deal with the Exodus instead, and that's only the tip of the iceberg that you can see.