Sex Workers Want Rights, Not Rescue

July 24, 2023

Horrible things are happening to vulnerable people, but we cannot help them by sending groups of vigilantes or law enforcement officers to hunt them.

by Kaytlin Bailey Reason.com

People love a rescue story, which is why Sound of Freedom is doing so well at the box office. But our obsession with stories about good guys with guns rescuing innocent victims has fueled policies that hurt the very people we claim to be trying to help. What makes for a compelling story often also makes for terrible public policy and even worse law enforcement practices.

Sound of Freedom is a fictionalized account of real-life Tim Ballard, who left his job as an undercover agent in the Department of Homeland Security to start his religiously funded nonprofit Operation Underground Railroad (OUR), where he orchestrated “operations” to entrap, film, and arrest people for trafficking children. As depicted in the film, Ballard did this by recruiting donors to set up situation rooms in their homes. He sent groups of volunteers with hidden cameras, microphones, and guns to pose as sex tourists visiting from the United States. OUR then staged elaborate raids where children are rescued.