SEE SOMETHING SUSPICIOUS > Twice-Told Tales A Thorny Twist on Red Roses

A Cautionary Alert from TechDirt: Anything that looks a little strange -- but is otherwise explainable without having to conjure up waking nightmares involving swarthy men and helpless (presumably white) minors -- tends to turn into a OMG SEX TRAFFICKING when handed over to excitable social media users.

Law Enforcement, Social Media Users Turn An Act Of Kindness Into A Human Trafficking Investigation

Failures

from the some-people-are-just-the-worst dept

Tue, Feb 23rd 2021 3:58am — Tim Cushing

With enough self-delusion, any act of humanity can be considered a criminal act. It works for cops. It also works for the general public. When you're a suspicious busybody with an overactive imagination and too much time on your hands, you can waste everyone's tax dollars by panicking.

A Walmart employ, who is apparently convinced human trafficking is as common as the common cold, decided to get law enforcement involved, resulting in this message from the Coshocton (OH) County Sheriff's Office:

On 2/15/2021 the Sheriff’s Office received a call from the Walmart Security Department in regards to suspicious activity in their parking lot involving a vehicle and two, what appear to be, males looking into vehicles and placing a single red rose under the windshield wipers of those vehicles. While reviewing the Walmart Surveillance Cameras, the two unknown males are seen exiting from, what appears to be, a newer style dark gray Ford Explorer, or similar looking vehicle, with chrome rims and side mirrors and placing a single red rose on it. This same sequence occurs multiple times on several vehicles that are parked on the outskirts of the parking lot. The males then get back into the vehicle and leave the area. Although there have been several Facebook posts of similar instances that have happened in Ohio regarding Human Trafficking related techniques, it is unclear at this time if this incident is related to such type of crime.

Pay attention to the last sentence and mourn with me over the state of online discourse. "Several Facebook posts of similar instances… regarding Human Trafficking related techniques." Oh wow. Maybe Facebook shouldn't be considered a trustworthy source of information about "Human Trafficking related techniques." Perhaps Google might provide a more, better informed perspective on the red rose=human trafficking assumption.

Here's a 2019 Snopes post detailing (and debunking) another stupid panic originating from Kentucky. A photo of a long-stemmed red rose slid into a car's door handle was accompanied by something even writers for Law & Order: SVU would find too far-fetched:  

“There have been recent incidents in Northern Kentucky about sex traffickers leaving roses on victim’s [sic] cars. The roses have a chemical on them to make you pass out, so they can grab you. One incident happened in the Walmart parking lot in Florence, KY! Please be careful, ladies!”

The photo used by this Facebook user dates back to 2014. And the original post containing it said nothing about human trafficking. Instead, it was captioned with nothing more than a bunch of words some people might have mistakenly believed were insightful or original.

"Growth is Not Pretty"

This was local law enforcement's response to Snopes' queries:

“This is completely unfounded and has been floating around for quite a long time. There have been zero incidents anywhere in Florence, or anywhere else that I have heard, of anything remotely related to this.”

But maybe the Kentucky cops were wrong. Let's scroll through a few more search results…