Rachel Pointer was 7 when she awoke to a hard thump on her window and saw her neighbor standing there, a gun to his head.
“He had his sister’s boyfriend standing behind him saying that I had to come out or he was going to shoot him,†she said.
She crawled onto the porch of her Omaha home, and, just like that, she became a victim of sex trafficking.
Her trafficker, or pimp, told her that if she told anyone what was happening he’d kill her family.
“From that point on, he started selling me off to his friends for sex and sexual favors,†Pointer recalled. “And then there was another guy that came along that took me over.â€
Her second pimp introduced drugs and alcohol to keep Pointer and other young girls coming back. Her life as a sex trafficking victim continued until she was 16.
People are also reading…
Today, Pointer is on the front lines of the fight, a liaison for the Free The People Movement in Nebraska.
“One night they asked me to come out again,†she recalled of the night she escaped from her old life. “I went with them and they took me downtown to a location that was pretty quiet and blocked off.
“At that point, I would’ve been OK with them just shooting me because I was in a really dark place,†she said. “But the other girl wanted drugs. Heroin was her drug of choice.â€
That other girl would die from an overdose, and Pointer said her traffickers told her if she kept silent about it she could leave.
“They told me, ‘That’s your warning, just leave.’â€
* * *
The Polaris Project’s definition of sex trafficking is the use of violence, threats, lies, debt, bondage and other forms of coercion to compel adults and children to engage in commercial sex acts against their will.
In Lincoln, the nonprofit I've Got a Name works to increase awareness of the problem and will host its year-end public celebration Dec. 1 at Berean Church, featuring music and a speech by the mother of a Lincoln girl who was trafficked.
“My goal is to say that this really is (also) a men's issue and we’ve got to change people’s mindset so that this is not acceptable,†said I’ve Got A Name founder Robert Burton. “Johns need to be prosecuted and girls need to be treated like victims.â€
Burton said the celebration is free but will include a call for fundraising so the group can hire another outreach director.
“I try to reach as many people as I can, but I feel like I’m not everywhere and if there were more people out there doing the same thing then maybe there would be less victims,†said Nikki Siegel, whose salary as street outreach director at The Bay is paid by I’ve Got A Name.
She works with homeless, at-risk and sexually exploited youth up to age 24 and helps girls get out of exploitative relationships, many of which fit the sex trafficking definition.
Both Burton and Siegel said the number of homeless youth in Lincoln is part of the local problem.
“When we have 400 high school homeless youth, there’s a very good chance they could be exploited by somebody,†said Burton.
Added Siegel: “They’re bouncing around trying to find a place to stay and growing up too fast. When you have that sort of situation, there’s a lot of people who can prey on the girls I work with.â€
Sex traffickers groom their victims, she said, establishing an emotional connection.
“The traffickers might make them feel safe, feed them, cloth them and give them a place to stay and then later take advantage of that trust that they built,†Siegel said.
* * *
Rachel Pointer works as case manager in a group home, and she has a message for young girls: “You’re worth more.
“If it makes you feel like something is wrong, something is wrong,†she said. “Trust your instinct, trust your gut (and) speak up.â€