SC attorney general discusses human trafficking with Winthrop students

Human trafficking is not an “exotic” crime limited to mafia organizations and third world countries – it’s happening across the United States and in South Carolina – including York County.

That was what S.C. Attorney General Alan Wilson wanted 150 Winthrop University students to understand during his visit to Rock Hill on Tuesday.

Wilson called human trafficking “modern day slavery” and one of the fastest growing criminal enterprises.

“Slavery is very much alive in the U.S. and it is certainly alive in South Carolina,” he said, adding that last year, state law enforcement and service providers assisted 155 human trafficking victims.

To illustrate the point that anyone can become a victim of human trafficking, Wilson told the story of a 15-year-old Michigan girl, who was drugged by a male student who offered her a ride home from school. She later found out he and four other boys raped her while she was unconscious and took pictures of the assault.

Her captors used the photos and threats to coerce the girl into doing what they want, Wilson said. She endured two years of being “sold,” on average, a dozen times a week.

“She was not kidnapped,” Wilson said. “She went home every day, she went to church every Sunday. She went to homeroom. She ate dinner with her parents. She wasn’t backpacking through Europe. She wasn’t in a third world country.”

Wilson lauded new laws on human trafficking that, he says, have taken South Carolina from one of the worst states in the country addressing this crime to one of the best. Last fall, the state prosecuted its first two human traffickers under the new laws.

“Anybody and everybody is susceptible to being a human trafficking victim and, sadly, anybody can be a trafficker,” he told the students. “If you see something, say something.”

David Meeler, director of the legal studies program at Winthrop, helped coordinate Wilson’s visit Tuesday and said the program sent a message to students.

“It literally could be anyone,” he said. “It’s just very different from the everyday perspective we might have of human trafficking, which may be sweat shop garment workers on one hand or truckloads of people being snuck across the border, brought in on some shipping container.”

This story was originally published March 1, 2016 at 10:27 PM with the headline "SC attorney general discusses human trafficking with Winthrop students."