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Two stories bring to mind the continuing scourge of chattel slavery.
It’s vital to note that while Britain, America and Western Europe eradicated chattel slavery over a century and a half ago, it STILL remains the rule, rather than the exception in most places around the world...and all too often, in the hearts of men.
In the Arab Mideast, in large tracts of Asia and throughout sub-Saharan Africa, chattel slavery is alive and well TODAY.
According to the Associated Press, Lassissi Afolabi, a man from the West African nation of Togo has confessed his role in the smuggling of dozens of young women who were forced to work at hair braiding salons in New Jersey (one of the salons is pictured above).
Mr. Afolabi pled guilty Wednesday in federal court to conspiring with his ex-wife and others to commit forced labor and related crimes in Newark and East Orange, where he lived.
Mr. Afolabi has been held without bail since his arrest in September 2007.
Prosecutors claim that between October 2002 and September 2007 at least 20 young women were taken from Togo using fraudulent visas and brought to Newark, NJ, where the girls were forced to work six or seven days a week and to turn over all of their earnings to the defendants.
AND this from the bowels of California, where Phillip Garrido and his wife, Nancy (both pictured above), were arrested after the bizarre abduction and forced imprisonment (sexual slavery) of Jaycee Lee Dugard, when she was just eleven years old.
Garrido, held Ms. Dugard prisoner, hiding her in various tents in his large backyard. He impregnated Jaycee Dugard when she was barely fourteen y/o.
Jaycee Dugard was freed after the arrest of the Garrido’s. She is now 29 and the mother of two children, by the pedophile, Phillip Garrido.
According to the AP, Phillip and Nancy Garrido are in jail, suspected of abducting Dugard 18 years ago and subjecting her to nearly a lifetime of torment in a squalid backyard compound. They pleaded not guilty Friday to a total of 29 counts, including forcible abduction, rape and false imprisonment.
Saturday, three police agencies on Saturday searched the Garrido’s home to see if there is evidence linking him to other open cases in the area, including the unsolved murders of prostitutes.
The invest igations are "preliminary," said Jimmy Lee, a spokesman for the Contra Costa County Sheriff's Department, east of San Francisco Bay. He declined to discuss what cases were being reviewed. My ONLY question is, "Why did they take these two ALIVE?"
Both these cases highlight the depths of human depravity.
And it SHOULD serve as an instructive lesson to those obsessed with American and Western Europe’s shameful role in the practice of chattel slavery. America and Western Europe eradicated that practice OVER a century ago, while it’s still going strong in many regions around the world, including, ironically enough, in sub-Saharan Africa!
It’s vital to note that while Britain, America and Western Europe eradicated chattel slavery over a century and a half ago, it STILL remains the rule, rather than the exception in most places around the world...and all too often, in the hearts of men.
In the Arab Mideast, in large tracts of Asia and throughout sub-Saharan Africa, chattel slavery is alive and well TODAY.
According to the Associated Press, Lassissi Afolabi, a man from the West African nation of Togo has confessed his role in the smuggling of dozens of young women who were forced to work at hair braiding salons in New Jersey (one of the salons is pictured above).
Mr. Afolabi pled guilty Wednesday in federal court to conspiring with his ex-wife and others to commit forced labor and related crimes in Newark and East Orange, where he lived.
Mr. Afolabi has been held without bail since his arrest in September 2007.
Prosecutors claim that between October 2002 and September 2007 at least 20 young women were taken from Togo using fraudulent visas and brought to Newark, NJ, where the girls were forced to work six or seven days a week and to turn over all of their earnings to the defendants.
AND this from the bowels of California, where Phillip Garrido and his wife, Nancy (both pictured above), were arrested after the bizarre abduction and forced imprisonment (sexual slavery) of Jaycee Lee Dugard, when she was just eleven years old.
Garrido, held Ms. Dugard prisoner, hiding her in various tents in his large backyard. He impregnated Jaycee Dugard when she was barely fourteen y/o.
Jaycee Dugard was freed after the arrest of the Garrido’s. She is now 29 and the mother of two children, by the pedophile, Phillip Garrido.
According to the AP, Phillip and Nancy Garrido are in jail, suspected of abducting Dugard 18 years ago and subjecting her to nearly a lifetime of torment in a squalid backyard compound. They pleaded not guilty Friday to a total of 29 counts, including forcible abduction, rape and false imprisonment.
Saturday, three police agencies on Saturday searched the Garrido’s home to see if there is evidence linking him to other open cases in the area, including the unsolved murders of prostitutes.
The invest igations are "preliminary," said Jimmy Lee, a spokesman for the Contra Costa County Sheriff's Department, east of San Francisco Bay. He declined to discuss what cases were being reviewed. My ONLY question is, "Why did they take these two ALIVE?"
Both these cases highlight the depths of human depravity.
And it SHOULD serve as an instructive lesson to those obsessed with American and Western Europe’s shameful role in the practice of chattel slavery. America and Western Europe eradicated that practice OVER a century ago, while it’s still going strong in many regions around the world, including, ironically enough, in sub-Saharan Africa!
these are awful stories and serve as reminders that too many americans are focused on the wrong things. there are scary scenarios unfolding all around us and some of us are oblivious.
ReplyDeletethis is happening in haiti also. children are being sold by parents who feel hopeless about their economic situations.
I have already made my thoughts known on the Garridos, since law enforcement didn't see fit to shoot them both dead. It has to do with some time in a prison full of Bubbas, followed by both of them being staked down in the path of an army ant colony.
ReplyDeleteThey really are Maria....and though the latter one (the Duggan kidnapping) is really more a tale of pedophilia and the paucity of justice in our justice system, the Togolese slave-trading ring is astounding.
ReplyDeleteAnd you're right about Haiti....and Zimbabwe and much of the Mideast today too.
Maybe this can be used to make the case for REAL "prison reform" SF.
ReplyDeleteI once believed that only violent offenders should be imprisoned and those who commit crimes against property be assigned to work camps to make restitution befor being given another chance.
Prisons for the violent would NOT be places with cable TV and libraries and gyms....only hard labor and maybe a five-year lifespan in that place at most.
But I've come to believe that perhaps some sort of bounty program, say $50,000 or so (depending on the severity of the violent crime) "dead or alive."
There are a lot of returning Special Forces folks with a unique skill set, who could hook up with others who might have other compatible skill sets (ferreting out and finding people, for instance) and they could put those skill sets to good use AND make a good living in the process.
The Garridos BOTH should've been brought down in a hail of gunfire.
Agreed. I'm neither judge nor jury (I don't live in CA, and will never get to sit in official judgement on this one), but these two should never have seen jail. Shot while attempting to escape is too good for them, but I could live with it.
ReplyDelete"Shot while attempting to escape is too good for them, but I could live with it." (SF)
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Yes, I agree, SF.
In fact, one of the few things the Islamists get right is their swift and draconian punishments for rapists, pedophiles and other violent miscreants. In my view, there's no way that a grisly public execution doesn't deter other misanthropes from "expressing themselves."
Nothing says "THIS is unacceptable HERE" like a flogging at the pillar, followed by a salutory stoning by the families of the agrieved and capped by a hanging via a slip knot, from the end of a crane.
If it wasn't for their "honor killings" and their stoning of female adulterers...and about 90% of their other customs, they'd actually be, at least "on the right track".....as they certainly ARE in regards to punishing the most vile, violent scum.