Don't have an account yet? Get the most out of your experience with a personalized all-access pass to everything local on events, music, restaurants, news and more. Ask Megan Lundstrom how she reacts to those who believe prostitution is a victimless crime and her response is as fierce as it is swift.
This reaction is based on personal experience. And on one of them, it said I had victimized society. After a pause, she says, "I remember looking at that and thinking, 'I'm a single mom, and I'm stuck in something I don't know how to get out of. I don't even know if there's an option to get out, but everyone around me thinks I'm choosing to do this or choosing to hurt other people. Women in prostitution have fatality rates that are forty to fifty times higher than the average woman.
That's not victimless. Free Our Girls recently made news because of its participation on June 7 in what the Larimer County Sheriff's Office dubbed "a human trafficking demand-reduction operation along the I corridor between Wellington and Loveland" during which eight men were arrested and charged with patronizing a prostitute and soliciting for prostitution, both misdemeanors.
According to the sheriff's office, "The goal of a human trafficking demand-reduction operation is to ultimately deter those who would illegally patronize a prostitute, which in turn can lessen the abundance of prostitution activity in our community. It is known that prostitutes are often engaging in illegal activity on behalf of pimps or human traffickers, frequently against their will. Human trafficking regularly victimizes underage minors. As for the decision to proactively disseminate the identities of arrestees, the practice has a lengthy history in Colorado.
The DPD has also staged high-profile johns roundups, including a pair in that resulted in 29 arrests, and the Colorado Springs Police Department utilized similar tactics in and The latter stirred controversy online, with critics arguing that such stings waste resources on what is essentially a moral crusade, while others feel the arrests and subsequent public shaming are a worthwhile way to fight human trafficking.
