I’ll be honest with you. I started this site for money.
when I first started this site I was getting paid by b5media to do MyCrimeSpace. It turned out to be somewhat lucrative. It was a nice piece of coin that I got from b5 to do something I liked to do while also doing something I believed in. I thought I could get lightning to strike twice. So I started craigscrimelist. While doing MCS I also included craigslist stories because craigslist was technically the very first social network. However like most things that start out small with noble beginnings become large and corrupt with their success. It did not escape my notice that craigslist had become that corrupt. I thought it was a great idea for a blog and I believed in its core message that craigslist had become corrupt and that corruption needed to be brought to light. And if I could make a little money doing it so be it. My primary responsibility is to keep my family housed and fed.
However b5 was having none of it. They decided that they no longer wanted to have blogger owned blogs in their network. I understand that is the way of business and economics so I harbored no ill will towards b5. I did miss the money though but such is life. If you obsess over things like that it will drive you mad. I didn’t stop blogging here at CCL though. There were stories that needed to be told that needed to be brought to a much wider audience. I realized I was tilting at windmills but sometimes a lone voice in the darkness is all that is needed to bring about change. Or so I thought.
While I was attending the screening of Call + Response with Greg from Geebo he said something to me that stuck with me. He said something to the effect of you would think people would have not forgotten about craigslist after New York and Boston murders. Of course he was referring to the murders of Julissa Brisman and George Weber both of which were facilitated through craigslist.
That got me thinking. I went through the names of the lives who had been claimed before. I thought things would change after the murders of Katherine Ann Olson and Heather Snively. I thought things would change after the orchestrated rapes in Wyoming and just a few towns over from me in North Carolina. I thought things would change after I personally went on national and local TV to discuss about all the horrible things that take place on craigslist. I thought things would change after the reports came out that craigslist was hording the money they take for the sex ads that are nothing more than false fronts for human trafficking and child prostitution. You know what has changed?
Nothing.
Nothing has changed. After all the scandals and lies that have been put forth by craigslist nothing has changed. Recently CNN had an expose about the sex trafficking on craigslist and it will change nothing. I don’t even want to go into the lies and inaccuracies put forth by craigslist’s mouthpiece because it will change nothing.
Do you know why nothing changes? It’s because you don’t care. Maybe not you because you’re reading this and not me because I am writing this but for the most part no one cares. They don’t care that people are losing their lives in the name of a bargain or a job. People say that these victims deserved it because they weren’t smart enough. People don’t care that women and children are being trafficked all over the supposed land of the free as long as they can get a cheap sofa or a deal on an apartment. Hell, I can barely get people to type a few words on this website to get a free t-shirt because they just don’t care. But you know what? That’s ok.
I forgive you.
That’s right. I said I forgive you. I feed off of your apathy. I relish your disdain and callousness. It means I just have work even harder to get the message out. I will not rest until craigslist removes not only its ‘adult services’ section but its casual encounters section as well. And it’s not just craigslist either. It’s also sites like the Village Voice Media owned backpage.com or any other site that may pop in their places that is the stalking grounds of killers, rapists, pimps and thieves.
For those of you that do care I need you to step things up. Tell people about this site or any site that dares to call craigslist out on its abominable record on human trafficking and child prostitution. You don’t even need to tell them about this site. Just tell them what is being perpetrated on craigslist and its twisted progeny like backpage. Be proud to enlighten people of the error of craigslist’s ways. Change does not always come from within, sometimes in needs to come from without. Knowledge is power.
Now who wants a damn t-shirt?
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