Progress in Sarasota -- first (!) human trafficking conviction in county (pizzagate)

submitted ago by SoberSecondThought

This is a follow-up to previous posts here and here about the Sarasota airport being run by the head of SOBIB, and Selah Freedom, a new foundation dedicated to rescuing sex trafficking victims.

According to this 2016 story, Sarasota county got its first "guilty" verdict for human trafficking, against a 22-year-old pimp. It may not seem as though this case has larger implications, but then they rarely do in the beginning.

What is interesting is that Elizabeth Melendez-Fisher, the founder of Selah Freedom, thinks that the key to the successful guilty verdict was that the victim had somewhere to go, and thus was willing to testify.

TL;DR The good guys are invading a major Florida stronghold of the pedo scum, and getting results. We should keep paying attention to this one.

EDIT: This is an excellent newsletter from the Human Trafficking Resource Center in Southwest Florida. It caught my eye because of one of its "20 Fast Facts," which reads: "Airports are often used by human traffickers to hold 'slave auctions,' where women and children are sold into prostitution." It also mentions the important role of corrupt government officials.

I see a real fight shaping up down in Florida ...

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Commoner ago

This Royal order of Jester out of Tampa #89 is a private pilot. Notice his email 'av8r':

Merrill C. King, II, 774 36th Avenue, St. Petersburg, FL; Ph. 727-527-3785; [email protected];Tampa #89 Occupation: Private Pilot

https://airportguide.com/airmen/A1019987/MERRILL_CHARLES_KING_II http://archive.is/fcwD2

Is he related to Charles Merrill of Merrill-Lynch who grew up in Florida?

CHARLES MERRILL: Main Street Broker

CHARLES MERRILL With a fervent belief in the small investor as the foundation of the stock market, Good Time Charlie made America the shareholder nation.

In 1940, the year Charles Edward Merrill founded the firm we now know as Merrill Lynch & Co., he was 54 years old and had already lived an extraordinarily productive and visible life. A poor boy from the backwaters of Florida, Merrill was forced to leave college by lack of funds. But he schemed his way to Wall Street and made himself wealthy by the time he was 31. http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,989774,00.html http://archive.is/ySXBr

carmencita ago

Pierce was part of that name and Barbara Bush's real maiden name was Pierce. The Pierce of the famous Meryll Lynch Pierce Fenner & Smith. I find very little information on the internet about that except in your link. I learned that from one of the links you included about the ancestors of the Bushes. I presume they are trying to keep that under wraps. You are really on a roll.

Commoner ago

Yeah, I can't find much either. I think there is a lot that has been wiped clean that they are trying to keep under wraps.