There is a periodic panic about “Human Trafficking” arrests, which then turn out to be just your typical vice raids on prostitutes and customers. It is getting so tiresome. The Yellow Press trumpets the boogeyman of human trafficking and poor illegal aliens forced into prostitution at every opportunity, and it is almost never true. Not surprisingly, Fox News is leading the charge, as the Right has adopted the terminology of the radical Left, which created the myth of sex trafficking and human trafficking.

Here is the sometimes watchable Jesse Waters, trying to fill Tucker Carlson’s shoes, panicking over hookers and johns. Waters generally does so much better on real issues like the Russia Collusion Hoax and Hunter Biden. Here, though, Waters is in the sheer fantasy zone.

Chris Hansen joins Primetime fresh off an investigation that nabbed 228 people for human trafficking online. 10% were illegal immigrants. pic.twitter.com/aO98sWZABr

— Jesse Watters (@JesseBWatters) March 5, 2024

Bonus points for a new euphemism for illegal aliens: Illegal immigrant citizens of foreign countries. Who came up with that one? Just say illegal aliens. It is much simpler and shorter.

It is sad to see that the otherwise hip Sheriff Grady Judd of Polk County Florida is in on the fiction of human trafficking. Sheriff Judd is usually very good on crime, and well known for his press conferences where he prominently displays the photos of black criminals, including juvenile black criminals.

Here is a classic Sheriff Judd exposing black juvenile criminals:

However, the otherwise discerning Judd is all in on the panic about human trafficking.

Fortunately, there are still some responsible journalists in the local press. We eventually get the truth, this is not 228 human traffickers arrested, it really just pimps and their customers getting busted as if this were an episode of Cops.

The Polk County Sheriff’s Office Vice Unit arrested 228 suspects ranging in age from 16 to 73 from across Florida and 11 other states in a recent prostitution operation.

“This is a new record number of arrests during an investigation of this kind,” Sheriff Grady Judd said in a statement. “More importantly, we identified 13 human trafficking victims; during two previous similar operations in February and October 2023, we identified 24 and 21 victims, respectively. That’s 58 victims we were able to identify in one year…”

The vast majority, 150 people, were arrested for soliciting a prostitute and traveling to an undercover location to negotiate having sex for money. An additional 12 individuals were arrested, eight of which were for deriving proceeds for prostitution or transporting prostitutes to an undercover location.

Judd said there were 66 prostitutes arrested, of which 13 were screened and may be possible human-trafficking victims.

Polk County Prostitution Sting Nets 228 Arrests, 13 Possible Human Trafficking Victims, by Sara-Megan Walsh, Lakeland Ledger/YahooNews!, March 5, 2024

So, despite the Fox News hyperbole, of 228 arrests, we only get 13 possible human trafficking victims. Emphasis on the “possible,“ which means the real number of “victims” is closer to zero. Prostitution is illegal, and a lot more prostitutes will say they've been forced into prostitution than actually are.

Can we just close the door on the myth of human trafficking? It just never turns out.