- Jeri Williams tells her story
Portland is currently ranked number two in the country for human trafficking. This includes prostitution and people held prisoner for labor.
Community Activist Jeri Williams spoke for an hour at the event, recounting her story of surviving sexual child abuse, domestic violence, rape, gangs, drugs and prostitution in Portland.
“It starts in the household—the things that happen there determine how you’re going to think of yourself and the choices you’ll make in your life,” Williams said.
Williams says teenage girls are a common commodity. She herself was 20 when she was raped by ten men to induct her into a gang, and then forced out on the street to sell herself, while by day she was kept locked in her room as a prisoner. Horrifying as this was, Williams also witnessed her pimp recruiting girls as young as 12 — 14. “These were good girls from Beaverton, Hillsborough,” she said. She explained that the pimps look for runaways, teenagers who have had fights with their parents. They’re recruited in malls, parks, trains and bus stations.
Williams discussed the old solution Portland had come up with, the Prostitution Free Zone. “It didn’t bust any pimps, it didn’t help people who needed help. It just moved the problem to a different location. If it wasn’t 82nd it would be 102nd, or 122nd.” Williams went on to talk about how we could make a difference (solutions below the break).