A rallying cry and walk for human trafficking awareness

At 17, Bekah Charleston ran away from home and thought about suicide daily until she thought someone saved her from the drug dealers who abused and exploited her. Her supposed rescuer had a kind face, she thought. There were no weapons or anything threatening or menacing — just someone with a fake name who offered her a place to stay.

“I remember one of my best friends was telling me, ‘Bekah, we were trafficked,’ and I started laughing at her," Charleston told USA TODAY.

Charleston was sold for sex alongside dozens of other girls — some still under the trafficker’s thumb until this day," Minnah Arshad reported in her story "Human trafficking: A network of crime hidden across a vast American landscape."

The runaway wrote a list of all the things her trafficker had beat her for, thinking if she just did everything right, she wouldn’t get hit, Arshad reported. "But before the abuse began, Charleston remembered him acting as a mentor and encouraging her to quit drinking and drugs."

That's how human trafficking often begins. It starts with seemingly well-intentioned saviors who promise a better life and nurturing support, but like the proverbial frog that's slowly boiled to death and has no idea anything is happening, the exploitation — including coerced sexual acts, forced labor, drug dealing, acts of fraud and theft— consumes victims' lives gradually until they have no idea of how to run away again.

This weekend, concerned citizens of Lake County will be out in force to bring awareness to the horrors of human trafficking at Lake-Sumter State College, 9501 U.S. 441, Leesburg, on Saturday, Oct. 14, at 8 a.m.

A21 Walk for Freedom Lake County is a day of global awareness and local action in the fight against human trafficking, sponsored by The Father’s House Church Sisterhood Ministry. It's free to participate in the walk, but you must register online before the event."Local anti-trafficking organizations and health services organizations will have booths set up with free resources and will allow participants to find out how they can get involved in the fight against human trafficking and protecting our vulnerable populations," explained event organizer/Next Steps Director Tanya Thompson.

"We currently have 470 walkers registered," Thompson said.  "We have several anti-trafficking and health services organizations attending."

The annual walk against human trafficking has the following organizations confirmed: United Abolitionists (who present a discussion panel after the walk at 10 a.m. in the college's health sciences center), LifeStream, Flite Center, UF Health, E3 Family Solutions, Hopeful Mom, Lake Sumter Children's Advocacy, First Step Therapy, the LifeSouth Blood Mobile.

Vendors include FootPrint AV, Sipping Grounds Leesburg, JLew  Photography, Hunter Signs, Card My Yard and UCF Lake County Alumni.

There's something fishy about your seafood. China uses human trafficking to harvest it.

The Lake County Sheriff’s Office (LCSO) Human Trafficking Task Force receives around 25 to 50 reported cases each year, according to an informative report by freelancer Cindy Peterson in the Lake-Sumter Style magazine. Peterson also contributes to the Daily Commercial.

U.S. presidents over the years have enacted executive orders related to human trafficking enforcement. President Joe Biden was criticized for rescinding an executive order by former President Donald Trump, but the accusations were revealed as unfounded.

Trump's order tasked the existing Threat Mitigation Working Group with coordinating the government's response to transnational organized crime, a category that includes human trafficking.

Biden's Dec. 15, 2021, order replaced that working group with the United States Council on Transnational Organized Crime. Both the working group and the Biden council included the secretary of state, attorney general, secretary of homeland security and director of national intelligence. Biden's group added the secretaries of defense and treasury to the list as well. The president also released an updated National Action Plan to Combat Human Trafficking.

In Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law new legislation around human trafficking protections and enforcement around five months ago: Senate Bill (SB) 7064 supports victims of human trafficking and strengthens penalties for human traffickers by establishing a civil action for victims of human trafficking against traffickers and providing a way for victims to recover damages and attorney’s fees from adult entertainment establishments.It also allows seized property from a human trafficker to be sold and proceeds paid as restitution to victims, and it requires adult establishments to verify the identity and ages of all employees. A third-degree felony will be charged against owners or operators of adult establishments that do not retain such records.

In addition, the law requires offenders of prostitution, lewdness or related acts to attend an educational course on the impacts of human trafficking and the negative impacts of commercial sex on people and their communities.

Other recent state legislation includes HB 1465, which makes human traffickers eligible for mandatory minimum sentences when they possess or discharge a firearm during the course of their crimes. The governor also signed SB 1210, which provides that a petition for human trafficking victim expunction and all pleadings and documents related to the petition are confidential and exempt from public records requirements.

Some say that it isn't enough. Victims have reached out to Florida lawmakers and the media to voice their disapproval of the omission of hotels and motel proprietors, who are often involved but not included as culpable human trafficking participants.

“I’m very disappointed to hear that they’ve taken out the hotel component,” state Rep. Webster Barnaby (R-Deland) told WFTV-Ch. 9.

Lake County organizations that provide shelter for human trafficking include Christian Care Center at 115 N. 13th St., Leesburg (bill@christiancarecenter.org;) Find, Feed & Restore, 830 W. Montrose St., Clermont (Info@findfeedrestore.com;) and Haven Of Lake And Sumter Counties, 2600 South St., Leesburg (havenlscnty@aol.com).

You can reach the National Domestic Violence Hotline by calling 800-799-SAFE (7233).

This article originally appeared on Daily Commercial: Lake County citizens hit the pavement to protest human trafficking