By Jesse Douglas Allen-Taylor

If you’re a registered voter anywhere in the country, your mailbox has been swamped the past few weeks with stacks of campaign mailers. It’s hard for any one of them to get your attention, but last week one got mine, for all the wrong reasons.

This is Part 3 of an eight-part, four-day Oakland Local investigative series on youth sex trafficking. Continued from Part 1 and Part 2.

By Barbara Grady

Recession slices with a double-edged sword into efforts to rescue young victims of sex trafficking from the streets. On the one hand, joblessness and foreclosures at levels higher than have been seen in a generation are pounding families, bringing out stresses and conflicts that cause youth to run away.

On the other hand, the recession has taken away resources to help troubled and homeless youth – as well as reduced resources for arresting traffickers.

This fall, Police Chief Jordan’s Crime Reduction Plan will certainly include the Ceasefire Group Violence Reduction Strategy developed by David Kennedy.

I can’t abide meetings where everyone just wants to get together and complain: although it is certainly good for people to be able to vent, what I wanted to do when helping to organize the April 26 community meeting at my church, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, is to find out what is being done, what can be done, and how we can help stop the violence in Oakland.