"The best defense against modern-day slavery is a vigilant public. Be the nosy neighbor."
That's what anti-human trafficking activist Kevin Bales wrote in his book, The Slave Next Door. He had to instruct us to be nosy because these days, we won't do it on our own. As neighbors, we mind our own business. We may not know the names of people who live across the street or recognize the faces of the tenants down the hall. We don't know or care enough to speak up when something's wrong. We have become very bad neighbors.
Last week, three kidnapped girls were found alive in Cleveland, after being held captive for more than a decade, in their own hometown, just miles from where they were abducted. That haunts me on what being a "good neighbor" looks like.
As we follow the news, we listen for individuals to come forward with past suspicions about the suspect, Ariel Castro, who captured the women as teens and beat, bound, and raped them over the years that they were kept locked in his house. Castro lived in the city. He had neighbors. He had family. Someone must have suspected something, and indeed, a few stories have surfaced. According to one story, children living nearby saw a naked woman in the backyard and told their mom. Another neighbor said he saw a little girl's face from the attic windows several times.
On CNN, people living nearby wondered how they could be so oblivious to Castro's crimes. In his neighborhood, like in many others, people avoided getting too nosy, were willing to live and let live. "People here say they are neighborly, but cautious — of authority and, sometimes, of one another," CNN said. "They socialize, but they never pry."
On top of our societal expectation to keep this socially appropriate distance from our neighbors, we also are naive. We don't imagine sex slavery taking place in American cities and suburbs. We see it as a distant problem happening in dark, sordid corners of Cambodia and Indonesia. And if it did happen in America? Well, it's not our neighborhoods, not on our streets.
We are taught to keep to ourselves. We are programmed to not judge. As long as they are not bothering us, we won't bother them. But that mindset puts our own comfort, our desire to conform to social norms, above the Christian call to know, love, and care for our neighbors, especially the ones who are victimized, vulnerable, and need our help. As women and as Christians, we must wake up to the reality of modern-day slavery. This criminal entity and network is alive and well in our midst. As it has been said, "We must get thick skin, yet keep our tender hearts."
Polaris Project, a leading organization in the global fight against human trafficking and modern-day slavery, estimates that the average runaway gets approached by a trafficker within 48 hours. Named after the North Star "Polaris" that guided slaves to freedom along the Underground Railroad, Polaris Project is transforming the way that individuals and communities respond to human trafficking, in the U.S. and globally. Polaris Project manages our Human Trafficking National Hotline.
The three girls in Cleveland, Ohio were not runaways, but make no mistake, they were slaves. They were victims of a premeditated, deliberate, and depraved plan. They were held against their will for years. It is joyful they are alive and yet harrowing they are alive. As a mother, as a woman, I cannot imagine the hell they lived.
I can't help but ask, "Where were their nosy neighbors for all those years?"
Each year, an estimated 100,000 American teens and children face the risk of sexual slavery, the fate of Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus, and Michelle Knight, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Hundreds of thousands more suffer physical and sexual abuse in their homes. During the same time, at least 2 million American women are injured at the hands of husband or boyfriend. These crimes don't take place in woodsy cabins far from civilization, but yards away from neighbors… people who are often too concerned with keeping to themselves to notice or alert authorities when something shady may be happening.
We must also ask ourselves, "What is going on in my own neighborhood to which I have a blind eye? What am I missing in my own backyard?" Slavery has been documented in everyday places in the U.S., including housecleaning services, landscape and gardening services, agricultural operations, construction sites, casinos, hotels, nail salons, strip clubs, and domestic violence situations in homes.
Here are just some signs that someone might be a human trafficking victim. Any one of these signs should be enough to raise concern and a reason to call the National Human Trafficking Hotline or local law enforcement. A person might be a victim if he or she:
· Is not free to come and go as he or she wishes
· Is not free to change employers
· Is afraid to discuss him or herself in the presense of others
· Does not control his or her own earnings
· Has few or no personal possessions
· Is not in control of his or her money and has no financial records or bank account
· Is living or working in a location with high security measures, such as boarded up windows, bars on windows, or barbed wire
· Avoids eye contact
· Appears flat affect
· Appears malnourished
· Repeatedly runs away from home
· Does not know what city they are in
· Claims they are "just visiting"
· Cannot tell you how they came to America
· Lacks control over her or his schedule and identification documents
We have power to fight slavery and not just watch the news in horror. This isn't about vigilante justice or hypersensitivity, but about being a good neighbor, the kind of neighbor we are called to be. The Bible instructs us again and again to love our neighbors (Matt. 7:14, Mark 12:31, Gal. 5:14, James 2:8) and to build them up (Rom. 15:2).
If you see or hear something around you that doesn't seem right, do not take the situation into your own hands. Instead, contact authorities who may be able to help. Polaris Project manages our National Human Trafficking Hotline number. If you do one thing today to be a nosy neighbor, put this number in your phone: 1- 888-373-7888.
Shayne Moore is the author of Refuse to Do Nothing: Finding Your Power to Abolish Modern-Day Slavery.
