Thursday, June 30, 2011

End Child Sex Trafficking at Wyndam Hotels



From 2006 to 2011, Crips gang members in San Diego ran a child sex trafficking ring out of area hotels that destroyed the lives at least 16 girls.

An 18-month FBI investigation discovered that the gang was able to use two Wyndham-owned hotels (Travelodge and Howard Johnson) regularly for child prostitution with the knowledge and even assistance of staff.

After hearing about these cases, San Diego native Tim Rosner started a petition urging the Wyndham Hotel Group to sign an international child protection agreement for travel and tourism companies, which could have saved those 16 girls from sexual exploitation.

In California, the staff at a Howard Johnson in Escondido, CA, refused to stop sex trafficking -- and at the San Diego Travelodge, staff actively facilitated and profited from the sexual exploitation of children.

Travelodge staff knowingly rented rooms to Crips gang members for use in child prostitution -- and demanded higher rates for these rooms in exchange for cooperation. They even set aside specific areas in the hotel for sex trafficking.

Members of the staff also allowed the gang members to use the hotel computer to post online ads advertising sex with minors and agreed to warn the Crips if police were nearby.

Although Wyndham has a child protection policy, it has failed at least 16 children -- with more cases emerging.

Just last week in Alexandria, Virginia, a grand jury indicted a MS-13 gang member for selling sex with girls as young as 15 on another Wyndham property, a Super 8.

Two major American hotel chains -- Hilton Worldwide and Carlson Companies, an entity that includes Radisson Hotels and other chains -- have already signed the international child protection policy, as have 945 other companies across 37 countries.

Click here to make sure Wyndham is next to sign the Code of Conduct for the Protection of Children and call on the company to implement this stricter child protection policy in order to prevent future instances of child sex trafficking:

http://www.change.org/petitions/stop-wyndham-hotel-staff-from-supporting-child-sex-trafficking-in-wyndham-hotels



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