Dozens of protesters outside KC City Hall bring awareness to child sex trafficking
Dozens of protesters gathered outside City Hall in downtown Kansas City on Saturday evening to bring awareness to child sex trafficking despite some who pushed conspiracy theories.
Organizers said they want to see harsher punishments for sex crimes against children and to bring more awareness.
“There is a massive amount of human trafficking that happens right here under our noses all the time,” said organizer Yvette Marchetti said. “And I think the only way to really make a difference is raising awareness, which is what we’re doing today ... and I think cleaning up our community is the other end of that as well.”
The event, a combination of organizers with different groups, was one of several “Save Our Children” protests that have taken place across the country.
Marchetti said that while she doesn’t have all the answers, she hoped to create “community through unity” to find answers and set action in place.
Another organizer, Alexis Petrin, said she has always been passionate about spreading awareness for human trafficking.
“We just want people to know that this issue isn’t something they see on TV or far away,” Petrin said. “It’s here. It’s happening. And we want people to just get aware of that and spread awareness to help people who still are in the dark about it.”
Protesters marched from City Hall to the Power & Light District, chanting “save our children” and “our children are not for sale.”
But among the signs of “save our children” and “all children must be protected,” other signs referenced conspiracy theories.
One demonstrator, in a Trump Pence 2020 shirt, carried an InfoWars sign, a website run by right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. Another man carried a sign with a large “Q,” that said “expose pedophilia” and “save the children.”
A few other signs referenced Pizzagate, a conspiracy theory that Democrats were running a child sex slavery ring out of a pizza shop in Washington, D.C.
Similar signs have also been seen at other protests in Tennessee and Indiana.
Organizers of Saturday’s event said it had nothing to do with QAnon.
“There’s only so much that we can do,” Marchetti said. She said she was vocal during organizing that the event was not about politics, but about spreading awareness of child trafficking.
Marchetti said she would remain a voice that would stick to the facts.
“Like with any rally, there’s going to be people joining who are going to use this for their agenda,” Marchetti said.
But, she said, the people spreading conspiracy theories on Saturday evening were at a minimum.
Experts who track extremist groups say many similar events across the country have been co-opted by QAnon, a global conspiracy-driven movement.
The movement pushes the baseless belief that a secret cabal of Democrats, Hollywood elites, the “deep state,” Satanic pedophiles and cannibals are controlling governments throughout the world.
Last year, the FBI warned that fringe conspiracy theories, including QAnon, are a domestic terrorism threat.
A July report from the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point Military Academy found QAnon “is arguably no longer simply a fringe conspiracy theory but an ideology that has demonstrated its capacity to radicalize to violence individuals at an alarming speed.”
Tiffany Walters, 27, attended the protest with her boyfriend, Anthony May, 26.
Walters said people need unity now, not concerns about what is or isn’t a conspiracy. Walters said people need to stick to the facts they have to make a difference.
“This is about our children. All children,” Walters, a mother of two, said. “What about the kids in cages and so forth? All of that is relevant. Every single part of it is important to speak up for ones that can’t talk anymore, that are silenced.”
The National Human Trafficking Hotline number is 1-888-3737-7888.
This story was originally published August 29, 2020 at 10:52 PM.
