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THURSDAY MAY 14, 2015
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Bay Area rallies against human trafficking
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Event attendees applaud during the Freedom Summit, Saturday at Levi’s Stadium.
By Shannon Stroud METRO EDITOR More than 1,500 people from all over the Bay Area filled Santa Clara’s Levi’s Stadium in the Brocade Club last Saturday for an anti-human trafficking event. The Freedom Summit – dubbed “Not in our Town” – organized by Bay Area Anti-Trafficking Coalition had more than 50 local non-profit organizations at the event, each with the same goal: to raise awareness about human trafficking in the Bay Area. “We will not tolerate human trafficking in our town,” said Congresswoman Jackie Speier. “By being here today, you are fighting against one of the greatest evils of our time.”
The event also aimed to bring awareness to the amount of human trafficking that can occur during large sporting events like the Super Bowl. Betty Ann Boeving, Founder and Executive Director of BAATC, explained that local authorities have started to train over 7,000 volunteers in the Bay Area for the Super Bowl to keep a look out for any suspicious activity in regards to trafficking. Brad Myles, Chief executive officer for the Polaris Project — an organization that runs the call centers for the National Human trafficking hotline — explained that this is the first time that an event of this size for a Super Bowl has happened nine months before the game. Twenty speakers from different organizations spoke about their ties to human trafficking including organization
leaders, survivors and law enforcement. Speaker Brooke Axtell, a survivor of sex trafficking and Director of Communications and Engagement for Allies Against Slavery, left event attendees in tears as she shared statistics about child sex trafficking in the United States. Axtell explained that 55% of child pornography is from the United States and that one of five pornographic videos online consists of child pornography. “People always ask me, ‘How can this happen here?’ and I always respond, ‘How can this not?’ said Axtell. “This is our culture. We live in a culture where profits are more important than people. The first step in human trafficking is dehumanizing the person, turning the child into an object.” Half of all sex trafficking victims are
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Piedmont band paddles back to Gilman St. By Sam Benavidez ARTS & LIFE EDITOR If Cole and Max Becker walked down Piedmont Avenue in Oakland, heads would likely turn at their respective green and blue hair. The Becker brothers, 19 and 21, are known for more than just their hair. For one, their band Swimmers recently returned from playing Soundwave Festival in Australia. The pop-punk, turned beach-pop, turned indie rock and roll band will celebrate the sixth anniversary of their first show at 924 Gilman, an all-ages, DIY music space in Berkeley on Friday, May 15. Prior to that first Gilman show in 2009, they played three shows in total; their sister’s birthday party, a battle of the bands and at a biker bar. “It’s funny, its not something that hits you until you realize you’ve been there for so long,” adds Max. “You realize you played most of your shows there. There are people who have showed up to every single one of our shows at Gilman.” Their growing fan base ranges from young teenagers to their college-aged peers. As it has been for many other successful bands, 924 Gilman Street for them is where it all started. “Having that place as a refuge when you’re 13 years old has really influenced me, knowing that there are other people out there that are into the same things I’m into, and who are accepting of who you are,” says Cole. Swimmers, formerly known as Emily’s Army, have undergone more changes than just their band name in October. With the replacement of Travis Neu-
COURTESY PHOTO BY SWIMMERS
mann, who left the band in 2014, Seb Mueller has taken over on bass, and Max moved to guitar. Perhaps most noticeably, their sound has grown and shifted somewhat radically as the members have. “We started writing 10 years ago. When you’re nine, 10, 11 years old, most of the time your influences are pop-punk stuff, and people who you’ve grown up worshiping,” says Max. “You get older and you start refining your taste.” Their sound is hard to confine to one genre. But singer/guitarist Cole is fine with that. “We never really want to settle,” he
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Spring 2015 Issue 7
Professionals unite for restorative justice By Louis LaVenture SPORTS AND CAMPUS EDITOR The CSUEB Criminal Justice Department and the University Role Models hosted their third annual restorative justice related event on Friday titled, “Working Together for Restorative Justice in the Bay Area: A Day with RJ Practitioners.” Restorative justice is a term that might not be familiar to many people. However California State University, East Bay has made it a priority to teach. According to Silvina Ituarte, a professor in the Department of Criminal Justice Administration, “Restorative justice represents a justice framework that emphasizes community harmony, building relationships and repairing harm,” Ituarte said. “It represents a philosophy of justice and set of approaches used worldwide to promote harmony and peace across an array of issues ranging from small disagreements to acts of genocide in Rwanda.” The event welcomed social workers, justice professionals, educators, counselors and more with a keynote panel that featured crime survivors and formerly incarcerated individuals who spoke about their experiences. Over 167 people pre-registered to attend the event and Ituarte hopes the school will continue, “to have a restorative justice conference on campus that will not only promote a campus environment of equity, justice, safety and compassion for everyone, but will also provide leadership in the Bay Area in demonstrating CSUEB’s commitment to these values.” Several attendees and speakers expressed a lack of commitment to the values that restorative justice encompass and many felt they have a direct correlation to many of the current issues in society today. “There is a serious amount of mistrust between minorities and law enforcement in America, nobody can deny that,” student Joseph Munoz said. “Look at Baltimore, Ferguson, Freddie Gray, people are fed up. How can there be a restoration of justice in America if we don’t even trust the people in charge and responsible for the parameters because of years of mistreatment?” The speakers came from all different backgrounds that included Dionne Wilson, whose husband was a police officer murdered in the line of duty in 2005. Her husband’s killer was eventually caught, convicted and placed on death row. Delia Ginorio is the Survivor Restoration Program Director at the San Francisco Sheriff’s Department and has become an unofficial expert on restorative justice. She has also been instrumental in bringing the issue into the world of law enforcement, according to CSUEB. This is the third event that CSUEB has hosted related to restorative justice. The first event in 2013 was a series of events titled “Empathy Week” that also hosted the Red Rover
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PHOTO BY SAM BENAVIDEZ/THE PIONEER
Left: Swimmers guitarist Max Becker performs last fall. Right: Cole Becker skates through UC Berkeley on Friday.
PHOTO BY TAM DUONG JR./THE PIONEER