Sex Worker Entrapped by Law Enforcement in Super Bowl Sting
Sting operations further criminalize people law enforcement claims they rescue.
Each year, without fail, police departments across the United States decry the incoming spike of sex trafficking associated with America’s big game day: the Super Bowl. There’s just one issue — it’s not true. In fact, law enforcement actively participates in the sex trade.
At a press conference held on February 15, 2022, at the Hall of Justice in downtown Los Angeles by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (LASD) in collaboration with San Bernardino Police Department and California Highway Patrol, Sheriff Alex Villanueva detailed the results of a week-long Super Bowl campaign dubbed Operation Reclaim and Rebuild. Ironically, Reclaim and Rebuild was the name used by Reclaim and Rebuild Our Communities, a group of unhoused organizers who were violently evicted by CHP in the early hours of Thanksgiving 2020.
Villanueva said 34 people suspected of trafficking or exploiting sex workers were arrested, along with 201 people who were allegedly entrapped to buy sex. Villanueva firmly proclaimed during this press conference: “All across the state, law enforcement agencies joined us to send a message to pimps, exploiters, and buyers that it is unacceptable to buy another human being for sexual purposes.”
Lorena (whose name has been changed for her safety), a BIPOC sex worker based in San Bernardino, was of the many arrested during the week-long sting operation. She says that she was lured in and entrapped by a law enforcement officer.
Knock LA reached out to LASD for comment, and they hung up.
“They found me on Skip The Games,” she tells Knock LA. The officer was able to pass her screening process by sending a copy of a fake Florida ID and providing a bogus work reference. Lorena says she ignored her intuition and met the man at a Days Inn in San Bernardino. He greeted her with a kiss and began to grope her breasts and genital area. “He asked me about Star Wars and what I thought about Chewbacca. I was like, ‘Chewbacca?’ Cops flew into the room, [female] officers yelling at me to get dressed.”
Law enforcement’s history of exploitation against sex workers and civilians is as old as the profession itself. Furthermore, officers have repeatedly engaged in sexual acts with people in their custody. In 2017, teenager Celeste Guap reported that she had been trafficked by 24 Bay Area police officers from a number of different agencies.
FOSTA (the Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act) and the Senate bill SESTA (the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act) became law on April 11, 2018. Both bills censored internet speech by criminalizing people in the sex trade who advertise, screen clients, and share information about workplace safety online.
According to the law, people entering into “illegal” sex work of their own volition are held and regarded as sex traffickers and, if arrested, charged with felonies. But if arrested sex workers say they were trafficked, they are still charged with a misdemeanor. If SESTA/FOSTA was supposed to protect people by making it easier to prosecute traffickers, it failed.
So-called “rescue” missions like the ones carried out by Southern California law enforcement during Super Bowl week are counterproductive to the goal of aiding victims of sex trafficking. Rather than giving them resources or a living stipend, this operation further criminalized people law enforcement claims they were attempting to rescue.
“I’m an old broad and they’ve been doing this forever!” said Norma Jean Almodovar, a longtime advocate for sex workers’ rights since leaving the Los Angeles Police Department in 1982. “The cops haven’t changed their method of operation. The way they [LAPD] use touch, use sex, they’re not supposed to, but they get away with it. You shouldn’t arrest anyone who is a victim, [but] they arrest everybody; there are no resources left to help victims… Would you arrest victims of domestic violence and rape?”
Sexual abuse isn’t inflated due to the Super Bowl or other large-scale events. Sexual abuse happens year-round, often at the hands of those charged with protecting people from it. How is this of service to sex trafficking victims?
“I’m an old broad and they’ve been doing this forever!” said Norma Jean Almodovar, a longtime advocate for sex workers’ rights since leaving the Los Angeles Police Department in 1982. “The cops haven’t changed their method of operation. The way they [LAPD] use touch, use sex, they’re not supposed to, but they get away with it. You shouldn’t arrest anyone who is a victim, [but] they arrest everybody; there are no resources left to help victims… Would you arrest victims of domestic violence and rape?”
“I’m an old broad and they’ve been doing this forever!” said Norma Jean Almodovar, a longtime advocate for sex workers’ rights since leaving the Los Angeles Police Department in 1982. “The cops haven’t changed their method of operation. The way they [LAPD] use touch, use sex, they’re not supposed to, but they get away with it. You shouldn’t arrest anyone who is a victim, [but] they arrest everybody; there are no resources left to help victims… Would you arrest victims of domestic violence and rape?”
“Prostitution must be decriminalized,” says Almodovar. “It is our right to do whatever we want with our bodies, period.”