The Oklahoma Stands Up group, along with the C7 Texoma Anti-Trafficking Coalition hosted an informational presentation on July 10, 2021. Mike Henry of Denison, Texas spoke to the group and attendees about human trafficking.
The C7 Texoma Human Trafficking Coalition, as well as several other groups, are involved in the fight against human trafficking. Henry mostly deals with child sex trafficking.
Donna Beard of Oklahoma Stands Up spoke about how the group came into existence.
“In February of this year, I was very concerned about the direction our country is headed,” she said. “I post a lot of political things on Fb, but I realized that complaining will not accomplish or change anything. I had seen FB groups in other states that were working to push back against things that were happening.”
“I private messaged a few of my friends on FB to see if they felt the same way as I did and if maybe they would be interested in getting together and try to make our voices heard by maybe supporting a group in our state,” she continued, “but come to find out I couldn’t find such a group in our state.”
Bearden said sharing her concerns of the fact that there were no existing groups really struck a chord.
“My friends shared my concerns and quickly began sharing my message with their friends and families,” she said. “In a matter of days, there were 300 people in our group.”
She said that within five months, the group touted over 1,900 members from all over the country. Bearden then enlisted the help of others to run the group.
“I had never run a FB group before, so I enlisted the help of a long-time friend, Patti Cantrell, and another friend from Tishomingo, Janis Stewart, to help me monitor the group,” she said. “
Bearden and the other moderators made sure to set rules that members had to follow, and to be sure members’ purposes aligned with the groups’ purpose.
“Some of the goals for this group are for us to keep each other informed about news, legislation, events, etc. and to give people the resources necessary to find information, and to contact elected officials to voice their concerns and opinions,” she said. “Most importantly, it is our goal to fight to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, our liberties, and freedoms.
Bearden said that the group has held four meetings, so far.
“At one of our meetings, we had Laura Coulter from Norman come to speak to us about how to navigate government websites to find information and to teach us about informational warfare,” she noted. “At our most recent meeting, Mike Henry educated us on human trafficking.”
The group has also held two American flag-waving events; one was held in Kingston on Memorial Day weekend and the second was in Kingston and Madill for the 4th of July weekend.
At the event, Henry listed the demographics of the dangerous human trafficking. He noted that females are two and a half more likely to be trafficked than males, and the average age is 14.
When a teen winds up on the streets, the average time for a human trafficker to circle in on the vulnerable teen is two days. Sometimes, the initial meeting between the trafficker and the teen can be mere minutes.
Hotspots for human trafficking is around casinos, massage parlors, nail salons, oil rigs and truck stops. Henry also informed the group that trafficking can even happen in Marshall County. The rate of trafficking increases for the Native and Black populations. Many children are at risk of being trafficked by their own parents or foster parents.
Human trafficking is a 150 billion global industry. Henry also went into the history of how long the state of Texas has been dealing with this and of the many resources they have to battle this situation.
"Texas has been aggressively working to battle the issue for many years,” Henry said. “It has been at the top of Texas Governor Abbott’s list as far back as 2013 when he set up a task force to study trafficking. In 2018, the task force partnered with organizations in all Texas counties and worked to get grants to help. In 2020, a human traf ficking coordinating council was formed.”
According to Henry, Texas is the first state to make it a felony to buy sex. There are a substantial number of resources and beds available for victims in Texas.
Henry continued informing the group and told them that Oklahoma's resources are far behind those of Texas.
"Oklahoma, on the other hand, is way behind Texas,” he said. “There are only three resources in the state and just two of those have beds for victims. Those two places are in Tulsa and Oklahoma City.”
“Statistics on human trafficking in Oklahoma are very hard to find,” Henry continued. “Three key law enforcement agencies in Oklahoma are in charge of trafficking: Bureau of Narcotics, OKCPD, and Tulsa. To make progress in Oklahoma, the offices of the Governor and the Attorney General are going to have to put an emphasis on this growing problem and get organized."
Oklahoma Stands Up encourages everyone to contact those offices and put pressure on them to address this issue. Go to governor.ok.gov to reach Governor Stitt. The attorney general may be reached at oag.ok.gov.