Stability For Our Time

UPDATED: The TBI just released a report on human sex trafficking in Tennessee. If you think that my suppositions below are overblown and sensationalistic, you need to take a look at this study. The graphic on page 27 should make you sick to your stomach. According to the TBI, there have been over 100 cases of sex trafficking of minors in Knox County over the last 2 years.

Over 100 cases, many of which include multiple victims. Don't tell me it doesn't happen here because it is happening here, and frequently. Don't tell me that the Knox County Sheriff's office is unaware of the problem because if they are, then every single member of the department should be fired.

If you really want your stomach to start churning, look at the graphic on the next page which shows the conviction rate. Knox County has no convictions for the trafficking of minors.

Not one. Over 100 cases in two years and no convictions.

Are they even trying?

As I watch Katie fight for justice for her son, I can't help but wonder what makes his case so different? Why aren't the authorities interested in pursuing it? She's found several cases, (here's the most recent) from other Tennessee counties where people who gave drugs to young people in circumstances very similar to what happened to Henry were charged and successfully prosecuted. If small counties around Knoxville are able to do this, why can't they do it in Knox County?

Maybe they aren't really trying. That's a common explanation. After all, Katie was told to her face that Henry wasn't "an attractive victim," as if justice is delivered based on our appeal to the public rather than our inherent value as a human being. As nauseating as this attitude is, it is a real part of our legal system, but it shouldn't be, and as Katie's investigation continues, bringing more inconvenient facts to light, I don't think that attitude explains the willingness of the Knox County Sheriff's office to look so totally incompetent rather than investigate Henry's death more fully.

It's almost like they are afraid of what they might find.

There's an aspect to Henry's case that we don't talk about much, because it is very painful for Katie and her family, but it is this aspect that make's Henry's case different from the drug overdose deaths that have been successfully prosecuted elsewhere in Tennessee. According to Katie, Henry told her that Y and R not only sold/gave Henry drugs, including the methadone overdose that killed him, they prostituted him and other drug addicted young men. Now, without getting overly graphic, you can't sell unless somebody is buying, which means that there is a market in Knoxville for paid sex with young men, and apparently, two low life drug dealers supplied that market. And this brings up a new character in this story, one that nobody has discussed until now.

And that is the john. We don't know anything about them because so far, our law enforcement officials have shown no interest whatsoever in going after them.

Who are these men who are willing to pay for sex with drugged out boys? What price do they pay for sex with a strung out kid from the suburbs?. And more to the point, what would they do to keep from getting exposed as a pederast?

Let me pull on my tin foil hat and see where this line of speculation takes us. Let's see if it can make sense of the facts concerning the appallingly inept investigation of Henry's death.

First, who has the most to lose if Henry's case is investigated to the fullest?

Not the KCSO; they already look callous and incompetent. Any movement on the case at all can do nothing but make them look better. Same goes for the DA's office.

Not the dealers/pimps; given their activities, it's only a matter of time before they go down for something. Since they are well known to Knoxville's young drug users, surely they are well known to Knox County law enforcement as well. Eventually, whatever protection they currently have will fail, and they'll take a fall.

That brings us to the johns and they have a lot to lose. If the truth comes out about Y and R's pimping, and they get outed as a result of the investigation, not only does their participation in prostitution become public, they will be revealed not only as gay, but as potential pedophiles, depending on the age of the young men they bought and paid for. There will be publicity, and they could lose everything, their jobs, their families, and their position in the community. Remember what happened to Larry Craig; how much worse would this be? That's a lot to lose and I'll bet that they would do almost anything to avoid that possibility.

So what happens if one of the johns happens to hold a place of power and influence in Knox County? What happens if he gets a panicked call from his pimp one day, saying that a young man is overdosing in their trailer and if he doesn't do something to protect them, his name just might come to light in a very ugly manner. What would the john do? Would he stand by while everything he worked for stands on the brink of destruction? Or will he act to preserve it? Would he use his influence to make sure that the investigation is quietly written off as just another tragic overdose? Would he apply pressure to the investigator, maybe even vouching for the two pimps, pushing the idea that they were nothing more than "Good Samaritans" trying to help a young man in trouble?

Remember, this is all speculation, a simple fantasy, but if you were the investigator assigned, and you were told by an important person, maybe even one in your chain of command that this case needed to go away quietly, would you risk your career over a brain damaged junkie, no matter how much his mother begged you? Or would you go along to get along, tell yourself that while it was tragic, the kid was asking for trouble by using drugs anyway?

What would you do?

Again, this is all speculation, just trying to find a reasonable explanation for why a young man can be assaulted, badly beaten, drugged, and then allowed to lie on the floor in a trailer choking in his own vomit for hours, and the KCSO can't seem to find a crime anywhere in all of that.

It just doesn't add up. The pieces don't fit.

On the other hand, the idea of a powerful john using his influence to protect himself and squash the investigation, well, that does fit.

It's disgusting and heart breaking, but the pieces fit.

Your logic fits. The only reasonable explination is that someone with a position of power is doing their darndest to keep this all under wraps. It's absolutely disgusting.

Ah...so glad it wasn't just me seeing that elephant standing in the middle of the room.

Yup. And said it over at Justice for Henry. Henry was the tip of the iceberg.

Whoooooa! VERY interesting theory. I wonder what all the naysayers who troll Katie's blogs have to say about this? <crickets chirping>

Good points. ENTIRELY possible - no, more like probable - in Knoxville.

Indeed, this is all speculation and just a fantasy of some people, nothing real.

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