Community United for Safety and Protection

Do you have a business? Would you employ s*x trafficking survivors or former s*x workers *and* not be creepy? This could include hiring someone with a criminal record or someone with extra safety concerns in being exposed to the public. We all have great sales skills though! Email s*[email protected] if we should add you to our list of potential employers.

Customer Extortion Alert!

Over the past months, Fairbanks and Anchorage clients of s*x workers have reported extortion attempts by two bad actors pretending to be Fairbanks and Anchorage Police Department Detectives. The impersonators appear to call from a spoofed number associated with the police departments, but when one client called FPD to verify they were told that FPD had no detectives by those names and that the callers were impersonating police.

The Community United for Safety and Protection (CUSP) is concerned that these recent crimes targeting clients of s*x workers are a result of hostile rhetoric about clients during the 2023 legislative session, which created an environment where our clients are prime targets. In 2016 SB91 gave immunity from prostitution charges for s*x workers and s*x trafficking survivors reporting heinous crimes, but there is no such protections for clients reporting crimes like extortion or s*x trafficking. Extortion and impersonating police officers are both felonies under Alaska state law.

The extortion attempts seem to be associated with fake es**rt ads. Because the criminalization of prostitution has forced s*x work into the underground, it is important for clients and s*x workers to vet each other for safety and to avoid bad actors.

The Community United for Safety and Protection is a group of current and former s*x workers and s*x trafficking survivors working towards safety and protection for everyone in Alaska’s s*x industries.

Edit: links in comments so that the share function works properly. How can you help? Email [email protected] and tell them to vote NO on HB68.

For Immediate Release
April, 28, 2023

Alaska- On Monday, April 24, HB 68, Governor Dunleavy's s*x trafficking bill, was moved out of the House Judiciary Committee. If passed, HB 68 will make ordinary prostitution a class B felony for s*x workers and s*x trafficking survivors.

House Bill 68 initially criminalized common safety measures taken by s*x workers and s*x trafficking survivors alike as s*x trafficking in the first degree, an unclassified felony. Some of the safety measures the bill would criminalize are communicating about clients or sharing work spaces. On March 30th, 2023, the House Judiciary Committee heard public testimony about the shamefulness of criminalizing s*x workers and s*x trafficking survivors in this way (listen starting a couple minutes in here). Deputy Attorney General John Skidmore clarified that he absolutely would charge two s*x workers engaging in common safety practices with an unclassified felony under the bill (listen starting at 1hr 56 minutes here).

The House Judiciary Committee later adopted a committee substitute for HB 68 Section 11, creating the crime of felony prostitution for having a place of prostitution or organizing with other workers. The 59 sections of the bill have been referred to the House Finance Committee to address the five million dollar fiscal note which will be used to fund additional prostitution sting operations.
“If passed, this will be the first time since Alaska’s so**my law was repealed in 1980 that Alaskan legislators openly felonize consensual, private, adult s*xual conduct”, said Tara Burns. “This would be in direct violation of our US Constitutional Fourth Amendment and Alaska State Constitution privacy rights. We oppose HB68”

The Community United for Safety and Protection is a group of current and former s*x workers, s*x trafficking survivors, and our allies, advocating for safety and protection for everyone in Alaska’s s*x industries. # # #

*****ACTION ALERT*****

Oppose House Bill 68 - Public Testimony Friday at 1pm

The House Judiciary has not been adding letters of opposition to the bills documentation so public testimony might be our only way to get opposition on the record.

On Friday at 1pm, call 907-465-4648 and ask to be transferred to give public testimony for HB68 in House Judiciary.

Senate Bill 66 and House Bill 68 are the same bill and would make almost all pr******tes and s*x trafficking survivors in Alaska guilty of unclassified felony s*x trafficking!

Please email or call the chair of the House Judiciary Committee Sarah Vance and tell her you oppose HB68 - [email protected] or call at 907-465-2689. You can also email the house judiciary committee at [email protected]

Talking points for calling in, emailing or leaving a message:

House Bill 68 and SB66 would make it an unclassified felony, s*x trafficking in the first degree, to have a place of prostitution - something all pr******tes who don't work outdoors are guilty of - or to work together for safety. We saw in the aftermath of the 2012 trafficking bill, when an independent s*x worker was charged with trafficking herself, that police and prosecutors can't be trusted to use their discretion to not charge those they say they want to protect. That’s why we oppose SB66 and HB68.

House Bill 68 and SB66 also creates a Class B/C felony, not for those who buy s*x from s*x trafficking victims, but from those who merely solicit someone who meets the definition of a trafficking victim created by this bill, which includes practically every pr******te in Alaska. The bills focus on those who solicit, rather than engage, in a commercial s*x act revealing law enforcement's intentions to do sting operations where they pimp out fake victims and then arrest customers for solicitation.

As the s*x industry is self regulatory, due to being too criminalized to call the police for help, many of the customers soliciting these fake victims would likely be doing so out of concern, to offer assistance. Customers of actual trafficking victims would risk being charged with a felony if they called the police. This drives s*x work and actual s*x trafficking further underground, where abuse and violence proliferate. Instead, customers who encounter a s*x trafficking victim should be able to call the police and make a report without being arrested at all.

The legislature changed the trafficking statutes in 2016 and 2017. Let's respect their good work.

Please contact your representative now!
Tell them you OPPOSE Senate Bill 66 and House Bill 68!

Thank you for your continued support for the Community United for Safety and Protection. We are a group of current and former s*x workers and s*x trafficking survivors.

We're having a webinar! Come hear real data about s*x work and s*x trafficking in Alaska, learn about how we're stopping s*x trafficking, and hear about the laws we're changing.

Nov 14, 2022 1pm Alaska Time 02:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)
Topic: How S*x Workers and S*x Trafficking Survivors are Stopping S*x Trafficking in Alaska

Register in advance for this webinar:
https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_QCpNvUblT0iV-0KHmgcjlw

Alaska S*x Workers Condemn Prostitution Stings
http://s*xtraffickingalaska.com/alaska-s*x-workers-condemn-prostitution-stings/

On January 24th the Department of Public Safety announced that it’s Special Crimes Investigative Unit (SCIU) had posed as s*x workers and conducted prostitution stings on 22 men (https://dailydispatch.dps.alaska.gov/Home/DisplayIncident?incidentNumber=AK21146350).

The SCIU has recently been reinstated after a hiatus. Previously the SCIU operated between 2014 and at least 2017, with the it’s “main purpose to locate and rescue juvenile victims that [sic] are being forced to work as pr******tes in the commercial s*xual exploitation of children.” During its years of operation, the SCIU, which consisted of one Sergeant, two Investigators, and a Technician, did not find anyone to charge with s*x trafficking of a minor. They refused to take reports from s*x workers (https://www.vice.com/en/article/kwpkqm/alaska-declares-open-season-on-s*x-workers-922) and when a woman tried to report that she was being s*x trafficked, they followed up with her months later by conducting a prostitution sting, during which the Investigator can be heard moaning and saying, “Oh baby I’ve never had that before! Can you feel my heartbeat?”

Colonel Bryan Barlow is quoted representing that arresting clients of s*x workers will address s*x trafficking, and the complaints make similar claims with no documentation.

In fact, clients of s*x workers are our first responders in the war on s*x trafficking, and often the only people that genuine s*x trafficking victims have unsupervised contact with. The 2019 arrest of Alex Asino for s*x trafficking of a minor was due to a report made, in part, by a s*x work client he had confided in. Mr. Asino was, at the time, the only person to be charged in Alaska with s*x trafficking an actual, non-ficticious minor in the commercial s*x industry in a decade.

The arrests and public shaming of clients by naming them before they’ve even been charged alienates those who are most likely to encounter s*x trafficking victims from police. Without access to equal protection, s*x workers and our clients are left to attempt to help victims on our own, with no training or resources. This is in direct opposition to public safety.

“I’ve had customers call me for help after helping a woman get away from a trafficker,” said Terra Burns, “and it’s just a travesty that neither the customer nor the victim felt safe to call the police.” Senate Bill 91, which established immunity for s*x workers and s*x trafficking survivors reporting heinous crimes, did not include immunity for clients.

The SCIU’s 2014 personnel budget was $578,239. Alaska's public resources are so limited that one must wonder which budget is being cut to fund police arresting people who are attempting to engage in consensual, private, adult s*xual activities.

The Community United for Safety and Protection is a group of current and former s*x workers, s*x trafficking survivors, and our allies, advocating for safety and protection for everyone in Alaska’s s*x industries.

dailydispatch.dps.alaska.gov

Four years later, APD has finally solved the murder of Patricia Phelps (Peppermint Patty). When he allegedly murdered Patty, Jones was under investigation for stabbing his roommate at a residential treatment facility and was on probation for second degree murder. Since murdering her, Jones hit someone in the head with a hatchet in a potential hostage situation, had a standoff with police, and who knows what else. The other alleged murderer, Phillips, went on after killing Patty to help burn and hide a body in Wasilla in 2019. Imagine if police had stopped these two after they (allegedly) killed a s*x worker instead of taking four years to investigate. Justice for s*x workers is imperative for public safety.

Anchorage Community Safety Alert:

Today, Troy Lyle Smith was once again released from jail and is again free to prey on vulnerable Alaskans. Mr. Smith is known to our community to be a violent, sadistic pimp who has targeted minors. We believe him to be a serious and ongoing danger to vulnerable Alaskan women and young people.

CUSP has never done a community safety alert like this before. In this case we believe it to be warranted because of the danger to minors and the justice system's repeated failure to hold Mr. Smith accountable and protect our community. Our primary concern is for the safety of his victims and potential victims, and we are also concerned for the integrity of any potential criminal investigation(s). For those reasons, we will not be answering questions or providing any additional information.

CUSP is a group of current and former Alaskan s*x workers, s*x trafficking survivors, and allies working towards safety and protection for everyone in Alaska's s*x trades.

http://s*xtraffickingalaska.com/anchorage-community-safety-alert-troy-lyle-smith/