This is Part 2 of an eight-part, four-day Oakland Local investigative series on youth sex trafficking. Continued from Part 1.

By Barbara Grady

Who is this "commodity" being traded on the street? Statistically she is a 13-year-old girl who has run away from an abusive parent, guardian or foster home. Too young to fend for herself as a runaway, she ends up under the control of a pimp who promises to take care of her. Then the trafficker turns on her and, either by emotional manipulation or physical threat, gets the girl to work the streets to bring in money. 

"These are children who have never known love, so they look for love in all the wrong places," said Alameda County Deputy District Attorney Sharmin Eshraghi Bock, who has directed 148 cases against people alleged to have sold teenagers and children for sex. "All the pimp has to say is, 'Baby I love you and some day I want to have a family with you but today I'm short of cash. Can you help me make the rent?'" Bock continued. 

Today marks the one-year anniversary of the evening my dear friend and I were viciously physically attacked by a man with a gun while sitting on a park bench around Lake Merritt on a Sunday evening.  We should not have been there.

Mayor Jean Quan announced her support for the consulting contract that would could bring former Los Angeles Police Chief Bill Bratton to Oakland in a letter to the city council on Friday.

Update, 6:30 p.m.: For Noel Gallo, one of the Oakland City Council's newest members, it was a raucous first meeting as chair of the public safety committee.