Not in My Hometown

The Human Trafficking Law Blog recently posted a NY Times article reporting on the sentencing of two human traffickers recently convicted and given life sentences.  Here's the link. While this is an obvious victory for justice, the case hit close to home for me - literally.  The ring was operating on a side street on my way hope from work.  People were enslaved just blocks from a place I work, five houses down a side street I drive past several times a week.  

This nightmare doesn't just happen on the other side of the world, it happens on our commute home.

The clock in my dusty dashboard reads 9:17 am as I cruise past, too afraid to stop.  The dented street sign reads ‘Rose’ but nothing is blooming.  Sparse grass sprouts stubbornly from thin cracks in the littered sidewalk.  An orange cone balances precariously on the edge of the road, as if I needed a warning to be careful here.  Swarthy men lounge beneath a brightly colored billboard encouraging them to shift their priority to faith.  Which of them knew, which were involved and which are as horrified as myself to find out what's been happening here? It's hard to tell from inside my car, but I am too afraid to stop and ask.

Photo Credit: The photo is my own.