The 'stroll' goes on

Federal indictment renews attention to Kzoo hustlers

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Theresa Moore has lived near one of the Lansing’s busiest sex–for-sale corridors, a stretch of Kalamazoo Street, for 17 years. While she is wary of the women who work the stroll — they are “obviously strung out on something” — she is much more concerned about the men circling the block looking to engage the services of the women.

“It makes it kind of unfair that I can’t walk to the Allen Street Farmers Market, or from the mechanic’s down the street without being ap proached [by men seeking sex with prostitutes],” the mother of two boys, 11 and 17, said. “I’ve had men circle the block and try to pick me up. I’ve let them know with some sorts of gestures that was unacceptable. They left the area pretty quickly.”

Moore, a social worker, was pleased to hear that Tyrone Smith, 45, of Lansing, has been indicted for trafficking four women, including a minor, by a federal grand jury in Grand Rapids. The indictment was unsealed last week. Smith, who served 17 years in state prison for a second-degree murder conviction, faces three counts of sex trafficking by force, two counts of transportation for the purpose of prostitution, one for sex trafficking of a minor and one count of transportation of a minor for purpose of prostitution. The indictment identified the minor as 17 years old. If convicted, he could face life in federal prison and hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines and fees.

Smith’s operation allegedly transported the women to Illinois and other cities to perform sexual services for men. The women he was trafficking were also forced to work the Kalamazoo Street stroll to make extra money. He allegedly used violence, including rape, and heroin to control the women, sources familiar with the case told City Pulse.

Smith´s case is the second federal case in two years against a man accused of trafficking women in Lansing. In 2014, Christopher Bryant was charged with similar crimes in the same federal court. Authorities said he took the women — including some minors — between Michigan and Arizona from August 2012 to July 2014. He was convicted in December 2014 of all five charges and sentenced to 40 years in federal prison. Convicted with him was a 17-year-old girl.

For Moore, the indictment highlights an underside of the city that has become so commonplace it has become less of an enforcement issue.

There is little available data on how many prostitution-related arrests are happening along the corridor of either sex workers or their clients. Even a casual observer can witness the women walking the stroll and getting into cars most times of the day and evening.

Moore said she is aware of some recent nighttime sting operations, but she would like to see daytime enforcement.

“[Officials] are hearing what the neighbors are bringing up, but they can’t fully understand because they don’t live here, like we do,” she said. “I don’t think it is being looked into as well as I would like it to be.”

That is a frustration shared by City Councilwoman Jody Washington, whose First Ward includes the Kalamazoo stroll, which stretches roughly from Pennsylvania Avenue east to US 127.

“I was repeatedly assured that something was being done,” Washington said of her conversations with Lansing Police leaders. The indictment “reassures me that the neighborhood’s concerns are being taken seriously.”

Since 2013, about the time Smith allegedly set up his operations, just months after being released from prison, Washington joined with other community leaders to begin to address the problems on the Kalamazoo corridor. Among those attending meetings were state Rep. Andy Schor, D-Lansing; Moore, the neighborhood activist; Joan Nelson, the director of the Allen Neighborhood Center; and Ingham County Commissioner Brian McGrain.

“We’ve been asking the Police Department to put the pressure on,” Washington said. She said the group has been asking through phone calls and face-toface meetings with police leadership to address the issues.

Washington said she hopes the tie to heroin will spur more action. Heroin locally, as well as nationally, is a growing issue. Lansing Police Chief Michael Yankowski told City Pulse earlier this month that since mid-July Lansing had seen 47 heroin-related overdoses, seven of which were fatal. That’s more than double the total overdoses and related fatalities of 2014.

“We need to fund the initiatives to address this and get all the right tools in place to get at the heroin issue,” Washington said.

Schor is also working to address the combined heroin and sex trafficking crisis in the local area as well as statewide. He touted passage of a multi-bill package of reforms passed last year by the Legislature designed to crack down on sex trafficking. Those new laws protect women who are being trafficked from being prosecuted for prostitution and increase penalties for those convicted of trafficking. The laws also create broader definitions for trafficking, mirroring federal law, making it easier for law enforcement to crack down on traffickers.

“We needed the tools so that women who are involved in this by force are not ending up in jail,” Schor said.

For Moore, she said she is concerned for the women themselves. She doesn’t hate them. That, she said reflects her social work background.

“When I first moved here I would get pissed about them,” she said. She has lived in the area for 17 years, with her husband. “But then I started taking social work courses and it started making sense. These women are caught in a cycle of sexual and physical abuse. They need resources to get out of this. They need to be able to stop using. They need job skills so they can get a so-called ‘normal job.’ They need resources that aren’t there right now.”

According to Moore, a program that used to provide such services — Project Fresh Start — has left the community and nothing has replaced it. Today, women trapped in sex work and addiction have to search for a treatment program that will accept them — an often daunting task for low-income residents who rarely have insurance, or if they do, have only Medicaid.

She hopes the federal indictment will bring more attention to the issue — and with that attention, more police enforcement, particularly of the “johns.” She is unaware of any daytime sting operations that have occurred in the area and would like to see the police put resources into a daytime operation.

“I don’t know why they aren’t doing that,” she said. “I don’t know if they don’t want to know who is picking them up during the day. I believe it would be more prominent members of the city.”

 

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