Family · New York City, NY Metro · September 30, 2026
Long Island Forum: Human Trafficking Persists Despite Rising Arrests
What Alinsky tactic is being used
2 of the thirteen rules are in play here — campaigns rarely run just one.
Rule 12
“The price of a successful attack is a constructive alternative.”
Huntington's answer so far is subtraction: fines on spas raised three years running, 40-plus arrests since 2024, 231 raids across Nassau and Suffolk in five years — and the panel still reports the trade spreading. Closing a storefront removes a venue without building the thing a person walks into instead, which is why the same locations get raided repeatedly. Councilwoman Mari's stated purpose — to 'connect residents with resources' — is the constructive half, and it is the half that has to be supplied locally.
Counter-Rule 12 · Universal Construction
The book agrees with this one rather than inverting it: if you would tear something down, you are obliged to build the thing that replaces it.
If your church supports the enforcement side, take on one piece of the replacement: ask your county social services office which agency it refers confirmed victims to and what that agency is short of (beds, transport to appointments, interpreters, clothing, a phone). Fund or staff one of those gaps this quarter and write down what you committed to and for how long, rather than sending a one-time donation. A church that names the trade a sin and then hosts nothing for the women leaving it has torn down without building.
Rule 1
“Power is not only what you have, but what the enemy thinks you have.”
The arresting numbers in this story measure police activity, not prevalence: a 1,200% rise in prostitution-related arrests islandwide and 231 spa raids are counts of enforcement, and the panelists' point is precisely that the trade persists anyway. On the other side, the businesses trade on the appearance of legitimacy — licensed 'spas' on ordinary commercial strips — and on a public sense that the problem is too large and diffuse to touch. Both the size of the threat and the size of the response are easier to assert than to verify.
Counter-Rule 1 · Reality Over Perception
Count the actual numbers. The phantom army depends on nobody checking whether it exists.
Before repeating the $500 million or 1,200% figures in a meeting, get the denominators: ask your police department for arrest counts by year and how many of those arrests led to a trafficking charge rather than a prostitution charge, and ask the town clerk how many establishments were fined and how many reopened. Write the numbers down with their source and date. If a figure turns out to be an enforcement statistic rather than a prevalence estimate, say so out loud — that is what keeps the rest of what you say usable.
Chapter 3 sets out the rules; Chapter 15 answers each of them in turn. This is that pairing applied to this story.
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