National Youth Rights Association

Can you find a legal way out of there? How old are you?

have no idea

I'm trying to think how parents in this scenario would react to what you show them, as they might go check with the person's siblings who've been sent to a BMF before who in turn might not readily back up one's story out of fear of going back, etc. In such a case, given that they've already used BMFs and escort services in the past, they may simply dismiss what one show them.

Talk with their siblings first; see if they'd go over their experiences with their parents. Regardless of their response, I'd then follow up to the parents with the link Thephantom provided above, some survivor statements such as CAFETY has, this article on escorts (highlighting the incest and sexual assault incidents) and then this to drive home the point. Such a horrifying salvo should sow enough fear and doubt into their minds that the individual shouldn't have to worry anymore.

Let me state at this point that I feel that every young person should show their parents the aforementioned links to prevent possible use of these "services."

SG1;422390 wrote: We need a contemporary 'underground railroad' to get kids out of these situations to safe houses until they reach 18.

The problem is, where would it go? The Underground Railroad helped black people get to places where they were safe from legal efforts to return them to slavery. Where can people under 18 be safe from legal efforts to return them to custody?

arc;422396 wrote: The problem is, where would it go? The Underground Railroad helped black people get to places where they were safe from legal efforts to return them to slavery. Where can people under 18 be safe from legal efforts to return them to custody?

the same place as the slaves underground rail road….
take them to canada or mexico
also europe is a possibility if you can get past customs (perhaps getting them into canada/mexico frst and then on a plane to europe)

also since they are only in danger until they are 18 simply hideing them would be viable.

Tengu;422433 wrote: If you want to risk a kidnapping charge, yeah, go for it.

I checked out this possibility in depth a LONG time ago – it's a dead end. First you have the legal problems: escort services can do what they do as they get parental consent to abduct a young person – an "underground railroad" would inherently not have this permission, thus making it illegal, and thus putting anyone involved in it's operation in serious legal jeopardy. So there's issue number one: what is legal is not always just, and what is just is not always legal.

Kidnapping is a serious crime – rarely do offenders face less than 10 years in prison. Thus, problem number two is if you get caught, that's it. There's no real chance here for anyone involved here to be able to cry "civil disobedience" and face maybe a month in prison or a fine. They'd be out of action for a good, long while.

Third, you'd have to have literally hundreds of dedicated activists involved for such a railroad operation to work. Should any of these individuals be caught and face prosecution, we'd be losing much-needed assets for periods of incredible time. We don't have the manpower in the first place to set this up, and even if we did we'd be risking a major part of our activist base.

Lastly, is the problem of public appearance. Such action, although it may be morally justified, will not be seen as such by an ageist system and an ageist society. The project would become a big target for our foes to easily aim at for "encouraging teens to run away/quit school," etc etc. The entire movement would pay dearly for the actions of a few because of how our society and its media is rigged-up to paint such actions. We have to be more subtle.

So, long story short, it's simply not possible.

However, we can move to prevent the use of these places through dedicated and focused education, as well as reaching out to families who have already placed a youth in one of these places (and the youth's friends) and working towards getting them out. This is where my focus is, and I am currently refining plans for a dedicated campaign (keyword: DEDICATED) on this front that I intend to spearhead. I hope to iron out some of the more crucial details in the next month (as well as at the annual NYRA meeting) to present for consideration and implementation.

I fully understand that
we all fully understand that

however the black slave railroad faced the exact same problems.
only it was worse for them because it took months to get a person across the border, today it would only take a few hours, days at the most. This means there is less time to get stopped, a minor could litterally be half way to canada before anyone knew he was gone let alone reported it.

thoes who worked on the black slave railroad faced that same ricks but did it anyway because the evil they were fighting was so great that it's victims had to be protected at any cost and by any means nessesary.

The same thing applied to the problems of minors today
you dont just sit and do nothing just because people will get a minimum of 10 years in jail
you ignore that consequense
and you do what needs to be done if you have the means to do so.

the only thing that should matter is what we have the means and reasorces to do
consequences need to be ignored because the evil tat we are fighting is so great that it must be stopped.

I understand your frustration, I really truly do. I said above that this was a just notion; the problem is that we must be realistic instead of idealistic. We have to work with the system as it is than as it should be. Believe me, I know that this is a tough pill to swallow – but this option, as presented, is simply not viable. Sometimes the consequences do outweigh the moral height of the actions. As a movement, the consequences would be simply too severe for us to undertake this and, as I stated, we don't have the manpower for us to be even considering this, let alone expendable manpower. We need to seriously consider the big picture here.

Think of the logistics. You'd need at over 100 people (2 per state, some states may need more) willing to risk a huge prison sentence and spend countless hours arranging a good hiding spot (in this age of K-9 units, The Patriot Act, and advanced forensics, hiding is a lot harder to do than it was in 1860) not to mention the time ferrying escapees through states. And even if this were accomplished, tell me how you'd spread awareness of your presence without essentially holding up a sign to the FBI saying "Hey! Look over here!"

So again, this is an nonviable solution.

However, given your obvious dedication to this issue, I have something more viable that you may be interested in. I am working on a sharply-focused campaign that has only two purposes: 1) prevention of incarceration at a BMF through targeted education, and 2) very-direct actions and appeals as a means of active rescue to get youth out of these hellholes. It is, as it exists now, a much more aggressive and focused campaign/project than that has been implemented on this issue – and it's all sparkling clean and legal. Boot camps are often utilized as a “last resort” for supposedly “troubled-teens.” We need a central focal point for action and intervention at the last drawbridge before a youth is taken to a behavior modification facility, and that is what I intend to create. Just give me a month or so to get expert input on it and iron out the details.

EDIT: I have no idea why the font got fucked up in the last paragraph.

Ask a lawyer

Tengu;422536 wrote: I'd ask one of the lawyers around here.

Possibly; however, human trafficking may be a more likely charge brought.

We're getting into areas now where I'd again recommend consulting a lawyer. I'll cite some laws to hopefully provide some insight into this issue, but that's the best that I can offer, not having a legal degree behind my name as the case is.

Note that these are Texas laws, so this probably varies by state, although I know the FBI Civil Rights Division handles human trafficking at the Federal level.

But it looks like, to the naked eye, that without foreknowledge or intent of forced labor and a lack of a prostitution offense, human trafficking is a relative non-issue here.

Examining kidnapping law:

Keywords here being "lawful authority". Thus, without such authority, such action as proposed would probably still constitute kidnapping. This may be mitigated by having the other person's consent, but I strongly doubt this given that "minors" are unable to grant consent unless they're past the "age of consent."

Seeking sanctuary at a foreign embassy and filing for refugee status is another possibility, and if you're intent on not letting this idea die I'd investigate this possibility further [EDIT: Hell, I even think I'm gonna investigate this]. Under Article 1A of the United Nations Convention Relating of the Status of Refugees,

I feel obliged to mention explicitly that I am NOT a lawyer.

I'll cite some laws to hopefully provide some insight into this issue, but that's the best that I can offer, not having a legal degree behind my name as the case is.

I do have a law degree behind me
and as as someone who has a law degree behind him i can tell you that having a law degree does not qualify a person to answer ALL legal questions,

sometimes laws are very open to interpretation, this is a common problem with court judgements, but can also be a problem with statues as well. – in any case this can become a very complex problem.

However when it comes of matters in which a defendant is in a different country the only question is this
will the other country send the defendant back to face trial?

if the country which the defendatn is currently in will not send him back, then the country which wants to put him on trial does not have him so it is not possible for them to put him on trial – end!

there are some cases in which a country will put a person on trial for an offence commited in a different country, for exmaple is a english person commits murder abroad he can be tried for murder in england

but the bottom line is this
in most cases an offence which is commited in a different country is not an offence at all
and in any case
if a defendant is in a different country the country that wants to try him cannot do so if he is not in the home country

Tengu;422433 wrote: If you want to risk a kidnapping charge, yeah, go for it.

I checked out this possibility in depth a LONG time ago – it's a dead end. First you have the legal problems: escort services can do what they do as they get parental consent to abduct a young person – an "underground railroad" would inherently not have this permission, thus making it illegal, and thus putting anyone involved in it's operation in serious legal jeopardy. So there's issue number one: what is legal is not always just, and what is just is not always legal.

Kidnapping is a serious crime – rarely do offenders face less than 10 years in prison. Thus, problem number two is if you get caught, that's it. There's no real chance here for anyone involved here to be able to cry "civil disobedience" and face maybe a month in prison or a fine. They'd be out of action for a good, long while.

No, it is only kidnapping if the 'victim' was abducted by force, against their will, for nefarious purposes. Anyone participating in such a scheme would not be guilty of kidnapping because their activity wouldn't include all of the legal elements of kidnapping since the minors in question would be going voluntary (and would likely be transporting themselves to safe houses rather than even being picked up).

Instead, anyone caught participating in such an 'underground railroad' could only be charged under the separate crime of 'harboring a runaway' – which is a misdemeaner most places usually liable only for a not-that-huge fine. A lot of former BM school victims might be willing to accept a relatively low risk of a misdemeaner conviction.

Third, you'd have to have literally hundreds of dedicated activists involved for such a railroad operation to work. Should any of these individuals be caught and face prosecution, we'd be losing much-needed assets for periods of incredible time. We don't have the manpower in the first place to set this up, and even if we did we'd be risking a major part of our activist base.

You wouldn't need hundreds – you'd just need someone (online – using a tor client) to vet minors who wanted to escape – and someone else with a room who would be willing to let them stay. The escaped minor would simply leave using public transportation to arrive at a prearranged neutral public location where the host would meet them and pick them up after both the minor and host confirmed that the other was not a cop or a crazy person. This set up would work with just 2 activists (though the supply would not meet demand) – it could be scaled up to meet demand. You wouldn't need hundreds.

Lastly, is the problem of public appearance. Such action, although it may be morally justified, will not be seen as such by an ageist system and an ageist society. The project would become a big target for our foes to easily aim at for "encouraging teens to run away/quit school," etc etc. The entire movement would pay dearly for the actions of a few because of how our society and its media is rigged-up to paint such actions. We have to be more subtle.

Gandhi supposedly said "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win."

The youth rights movement is quiet clearly still on the "ignored" stage. The struggle for youth rights needs to be seen as a decades, or half century long struggle from its real beginning as a civil rights movement in the public awareness, a beginning that has not yet happened. Bad press is the least of our concern. No press is the bigger concern at this stage.

Needless to say, NYRA and any other above-ground organization should never engage in that sort of activity directly – but thats beside the point. We should create controversy and get people talking. Our aim is to provide youth with equal rights and that means freeing minors from parents, we can't avoid talking about it if we are to pursue that aim, and we cannot but expect to be criticized for that aim – and being criticized is the first necessary step in engaging the political consciousness. You will never succeed in a civil rights movement if you want everyone to be your friend and think highly of you. Do you think everyone thought highly of Nelson Mandella or Martin Luther King? No, they were despised by the white power structure and vilified by their governments and only politically restored after they had succeeded.

Do not expect to make real change in society if you wont face ridicule and a terrible reputation among those who resist change (which for a long while will be the overwhelming majority).