Looks Like Human Trafficking IS a Big Concern After All

As many of you know, we had a notable presence at the “Crime on the Northside” townhall last week: our VP Denise Gutierrez-Homer, Outreach Liaison Suzie Bayne, Editor and Policy Director Chris Baecker, and Special Needs Outreach Director Connie Aescht. Suzie’s husband Mel and new Infusiast Maria Galaviz were there as well.

Also present in the crowd of more than a hundred was concern about human trafficking. It was first on their list of worries. It almost seemed like an afterthought though, to Bexar County District Attorney Joe Gonzales. Same goes for the report on the townhall published today, four days after the event, in the San Antonio Express-News.

Given the events of last evening in southwest San Antonio, the reader can be forgiven for wondering if both the DA and the EN are out of touch.

By now we’re well aware of the horrible tragedy that was discovered last night: “stacks of bodies” of migrants were found in an 18-wheeler near the southwest interchange of Interstate 35 and Loop 410. There was “no sign” of air-conditioning, nor of water. The current death toll stands at 51.

Are we properly concerned yet?

The report in the EN was accurate for the most part in what it did say. An interesting point Chief McManus brought up was that “leading a high-risk lifestyle, including drug use or prostitution, puts people at risk of violent crimes.” This is regrettably still a point of contention of too many on the right these days.

In fact, the Texas GOP recently backtracked on the issue of decriminalization of marijuana at its convention in Houston. For the chief’s part, when Chris spoke to him Monday morning following up on his question from Thursday night (starting at the 1:43 mark), the chief reaffirmed his stance that he stays out of politics as much as he can. That was arguably the correct answer for a civil servant.

It’s the job of citizens and their elected representatives to differentiate between fake crimes and real crimes. The former distract us, and subsequently law enforcement, from the latter. When we’re too focused on what others are doing that is hurting no one else, we lose focus of real violations perpetrated by one party against another.

Since DA Gonzales has appropriately deemphasized such crimes, it’s unclear why he seemed to do the same with an issue that was clearly at the top of the list of those who showed up last Thursday evening. Nor did it merit any attention from the EN.

If there was an visible (or audible, in this case) response from the crowd about anything, it wasn’t about smoking weed, but rather about human trafficking, and the panel’s (mostly DA Gonzales) incessantly erroneous reference to the “pandemic” (starting at the :49 second mark of Chris’ question above) as the root of most of our problems the last couple years. As Chris reminded them, it was the government shutdowns that were to blame.

It wasn’t a virus, whose victims were highly concentrated in a couple demographics, but rather policy choices. And when the state started to loosen up (albeit too slowly), municipalities pled for more flexibility to maintain their tightened grip.

So now, in addition to the strife of the last two years, the increase in violent crime, the economic meltdown that’s recovered mostly in the sense of a command and control ‘sugar high’ that can’t overcome the centrally-planned destruction of supply chains resulting in inflation, we have a DA and mainstream media implying that there’s not much of a human trafficking problem.

FIFTY-ONE deaths, including children, say otherwise.

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Sidenote: We are a group that has been motivated enough to stick around, meet almost weekly, add Infusiasts here and there, for about a year now. But this is a big city/county. As you can see from the powers that be, including the media, there’s much more to do, cover, UNcover, etc. If you value this type of coverage, plus the work we do like the workshop last week assisting the deaf community with advanced directives, please consider becoming a sponsor.

Helping with tips about these kinds of townhalls, or some shenanigans going on in your or a friend’s neighborhood is certainly helpful, and we’ll be happy to address it as we can. But like you, who are doing your best to help your community, we also have the future to raise in our children, the prosperity to create for them via the jobs we have and/or create. Time and resources are limited.

If this accountability check takes hold, how likely do you think we’ll be to saturate, visually as within this EN story or otherwise, the public’s consciousness in the mainstream media? Help us establish a #noBSzone platform to rival those of the spinsters that dominate Bexar County.

A newsletter and another mixer are in the works. Stay tuned …