On Child Sex Trafficking and the Work of Tim Ballard
Telling the Truth About the Most Monstrous Topic
Warning: Extremely Disturbing Content
When we think of a “billion-dollar industry,” we probably imagine food, insurance, or technology. Most of us – we do hope – don’t have images of small children being sold like merchandize behind a glass window. Yet, the trafficking of children, to be used as sex slaves, is such a business.
It is lucrative. It thrives.
Even describing it in this way would make one wince, as it almost seems to take away from the horrific reality. After all, “an industry” sounds like something we all participate in, just another part of the economy. But under that normative economy, there exists another, one in which an uncounted number of children, globally, are being sold as sex slaves (I will give some numbers shortly).
A concerned and curious population might explain why the film Sound of Freedom has become the unexpected summer hit. The film is based on the work of Tim Ballard, a former U.S. government official who left his position in 2013 so as to start the organization Operation Underground Railroad, which rescues those trapped inside this trade.
One afternoon in July, I went to a showing. As the box office headlines would foretell, the theater was busy. The audience was, I noticed, very elderly. Not merely middle-aged, nor even just-retired folks. Many of these moviegoers were in their 80’s. This theater has assigned seating, and so down I sat, in between two kindly geriatric couples. The combined age of all five of us would be near 500. Why would old folks be so interested in this subject?
As the movie begins, we see video footage of children getting kidnapped off the street. The disturbing black-and-white footage is then followed by some facts:
“Human trafficking is a $150 billion a year industry.
The US is one of the top destinations for human trafficking and is one of the top consumers for child sex.
There are more humans trapped today in slavery than at any point in human history, including when slavery was legal.”
The film captures an intensity so quiet and so subtle that it could break glass, and all throughout, I vacillated between raging and weeping. Assuming the majority here were neither psychopathic nor pedophiliac, they would have felt a similar impact.
Again, I hate to be so careless with my language. I shudder to admit that I “enjoyed” the film. But it was exceptionally well-made. Whoever thinks of it as a Hollywoodized version of events, with lots of mindless action, has obviously has never seen it. Not at all. The film takes itself as seriously as its subject matter. And it received a fair number of good reviews, even from mainstream publications.
Though we soon learn that Mr. Ballard is the scorn of other media outlets. (Vice has been particularly critical) What would these muckrakers have against the man’s work? Or even the movie, which seeks to spread awareness of a very real international crime?
After the film, I watched some of Ballard’s interviews, then read through a stack of articles a half-inch thick. Three criticisms of Ballard stand out. 1.) Ballard is, at best, embellishing parts of his story; and, at worst, is outright lying about a lot of it. 2.) Ballard’s work misrepresents what human trafficking actually looks like. 3.) He’s a Qanon-style conspiracy theorist who believes that elites are involved in this stuff – selling children, raping them, and then sucking adrenochrome right out of their foreheads!
Strong accusations, one and all.
In 2019, Ballard testified in front of Congress. During his testimony, Ballard claimed to have “rescued” 1,765 victims, and to have “assisted” in the arrest of nearly 900 “traffickers.” The words are in quotes because they need closer examination.
OUR’s own website defines human trafficking as “the use of force, fraud, or coercion to obtain some type of labor or commercial sex act.” Although Ballard might help people escape situations in which they are forced to work long hours for a pittance, his main concern is clearly child sex slavery. And from all that I’ve read, nobody disputes that the man really has rescued many children from the trade.
But what if Ballard is selling tall tales? Or portraying himself as a real-life action hero? A few of his critics have accused him of trying to create such an image. If so, you wouldn’t know it by watching the movie. Jim Caviezel, who plays Ballard, doesn’t say much more than any of the other characters. Aside from a couple memorable (promotional) lines – “never trust a pedophile” and “God’s children are not for sale” – there are no tough-guy repartees, nor winks at the camera.
Then what about the charge that Ballard is a fabulist? That is, that’s he’s fabricating entire parts of the story? What would be the implications of that?
The most famous story Ballard tells, the one he’s told numerous times, and one showcased in the movie, is the rescue of the little boy at the U.S border. This is the “origin story.” In the film, Ballard is standing at the border with two other officers, watching cars and waving them through. He notices one driver, makes an inspection of his vehicle, sees the boy in the back, and then says “that’s him.” The driver is Earl Buchanan, a real-life monster, who is arrested. The child is saved. Later, over cheeseburgers, the boy gives Ballard his dog-tag, gifted to him by his sister, who was still missing. The boy makes Ballard promise to rescue her.
For Ballard, this is the episode that changed his life forever. He went home to his wife and kids, one of whom examined the dog-tag and found an inscription. It was a passage from the book of Timothy. With this as Ballard’s first name, he saw it as a sign from God (I won’t mock him for it.) His wife told him that he needed to do this “for the sake of their salvation.” Ballard then quit his job with Homeland Security, and soon afterwards started the organization.
But this is also where Ballard gets himself into trouble with those who value truth and honesty. The real story, per the official documents, is much different than the one being dramatized or stated.
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