How A Former Pimp, Activist Is Working To Combat Sex Trafficking In San Diego

Speaker 1: 00:00 One local activist is working to stop urban sex trafficking. Armand King, who once was involved in the illicit industry here in San Diego, has turned his life around and is now using his experience to keep kids from going down the wrong path and help women find a way out. He's written a book called raised in pimp city and his organization paving great futures is hosting an upcoming conference. Armand welcome. Thank you. Thank you. So what made you want to write a book about this side of the sex trafficking industry? Speaker 2: 00:31 Well, it was missing. Um, you know, I got introduced into, I didn't even know what sex trafficking, human sex trafficking was. That was a new term to me, although I had been around the lifestyle for over 20 years. I'm seeing it. Family members, friends, best friends. I've lived it. Um, so when I heard this term, I had no idea what it was and, um, I kinda got thrown into the, into the fight, um, because I was seeing, um, young men around San Diego around the year 2014 being incarcerated in the masses behind this new term called human sex trafficking. And many of them I knew for a fact were not involved in anything close to human sex trafficking. So that started my journey down the rabbit hole right there. Speaker 1: 01:20 And you write in your book that, you know, by the age of 13, I had already come to realize that I had to take care of my family any way that I could. Uh, what are some of the forces at play that led you down this path? Speaker 2: 01:32 Well, the um, same forces that lead a lot of young men in my situation, um, in the communities I got to come from down that path is poverty. You know, you realize in a mini, like many of my friends, we didn't have a father in the home. So, um, you at some point you start feeling like you need to become a man and unfortunately sooner than you should, you know, should have still been a kid. But depending on the, you know, circumstances at your family situation, as in, you know, you, you, you jumped to, um, be in the man of the household. Speaker 1: 02:01 And I know that there is a specific part in the book that you wrote that speaks to how you got into this industry. Would you read a short excerpt of your book for us and set it up for me? Speaker 2: 02:12 Absolutely. Um, so in this book I dissect the mentality of um, what I call the urban, domestic human sex trafficker or the pimp. I thought it was very, very crucial for me in this book to identify exactly what I'm talking about. You here. Um, this about the epidemic of human sex trafficking is all this awareness that's going on. But to me it's just been a blanket over many different independent, um, types of trafficking. And it doesn't give people a clear view of what they're dealing with. Um, with this blanket and even the people involved don't necessarily identify because they hear and see this other imagery that doesn't reflect the lifestyle that they live and that's one of the things I'd come across being in the anti human sex trafficking field and it's like none of the things I was hearing really talked or spoke to the people that I grew up with that were involved. Speaker 2: 03:09 This actual section is called making the urban American pimp and it says what is an urban American pimp? He one, one of many different types of pimps as I have mentioned previously in this book I am referring to the pimp that is usually from the black urban inner cities of America. What makes this kind of pimp or better yet what would make this person want to make money off of the sexual exploitation of another person? To better explain this, I'm going to have to take a take you back in time because as you know, everything has a beginning. The largest tree in the Redwood forest has a root and before it was a rooted was a seed. So it is with every condition and situation of people as a society that claims it wants to put it into crime, hate racism, human trafficking and other human behaviors. We frowned upon. We often fail to look at the root of the problem. We are quick to lock a person up without taking a step back and thinking about what led that person to commit that bad act in the first place to get rid of the weed in the garden. You must dig it up at it's roots. Yes. I am saying upfront that Pimpin is bad when speaking of the bad act [inaudible] Speaker 1: 04:22 so that in mind, I'd like to talk about your roots. So what made you do this for as long as you did? Speaker 2: 04:29 Um, it was the cool thing to do. I wasn't alone. It was like at least 65% of my peer group that I knew at this point in time in San Diego, San Diego history, um, many urban cities, mini communities, black and Brown communities. That became the new end, the new cool. It was the answer to kids that did not want to be gang involved anymore. But yet there was still no proper resources that came into communities. No mentoring groups that were really ident that identified that this was a crucial time in history to really saved these kids, save myself, saved my friends. So I got involved because that was the, the end thing and now it didn't like it didn't, it wasn't something that we thought was, um, the best for our life. But out of our current options at life and success, that seemed like the best option. Speaker 1: 05:20 What role do you think media played in perpetuating pimp culture in sex trafficking Speaker 2: 05:25 media? Well, media has a big role to play. Matter of fact, I didn't even know what a real pimp was until HBO produced the documentary pimps up hoes down. And when I seen that, it was like to my young 16 year old eyes, it felt like I finally saw an answer to my question that I'd never knew was a question of what am I going to do with myself when I grow up? Speaker 1: 05:47 And how do you move on from some of the harm and pain you inflicted? Speaker 2: 05:51 I'm gonna spend the rest of my life striving to help others. I'm, and that is how I move, how I move past. And I, I may, I don't know where that karma meter sits. I don't know where that gauge is and I'll never know until, until that day, hopefully God tells me. But in the meantime, my life is dedicated to helping others lives be saved. Speaker 1: 06:12 And tell us more about the upcoming conference you've been organizing. Speaker 2: 06:15 Okay. So paving great futures organization. I'm a, I'm a part of cofounder of, we are hosting a series of conversations called um, we need to know and the purpose of that is to start breaking down and discussing human sex trafficking and his direct impact on communities of color. And like I said, I've traveled throughout this country, even outside of this country with going to seminars, teaching, training, been to conferences. And 95% of the people in the audience are Caucasian. Not a problem with, but what I find out, find, find out most of these, these conferences as it seems like sometimes they're talking about our community, but I've never witnessed a conference or directed towards communities of color yet. We're 60 black people are 64% of the people that are being incarcerated for human sex trafficking. But there's no warning, no education coming to these communities that is bringing up this population of people still. Speaker 2: 07:12 So I have to, no one else is going to me or just sit by and WIC recognize this problem in this gap and not do anything about it. I'm not that person. I have to step in. So this for, it's a breakdown in four parts. This first part is going to be on the hist basically the history. How did we get here? How are we even at this issue? And because this, this conversation has been so taboo and has not taken place. Like literally we cannot force all this into one night. There's too much to talk about. So the first part is just really how do we get here? Um, next month is, is the, um, it's, where are we at now currently discussing this with a panel of people, not just myself. And then we go into the law, the legal side, and how the laws have changed and how that's impacting us now. And then the last part of this all is solutions, or we're going to pow about solutions. Speaker 1: 08:05 And that conference again, starts today. I've been speaking with Armand King, COO of paving. Great futures and author of raised in pimp city Armand. Thank you very much. Thank you. Speaker 3: 08:24 [inaudible].