You know have a drinking problem....

[Lard]

...when you sell your kid.

Man accused of selling daughter for cash, beer
January 12, 2009 - 4:20pm


GREENFIELD, Calif. (AP) - Police have arrested a Greenfield man for allegedly arranging to sell his 14-year-old daughter into marriage in exchange for $16,000, 100 cases of beer and several cases of meat.

Police said they only learned of the deal after the 36-year-old man went to them to get his daughter back because payment wasn't made as promised. The man was arrested Sunday on suspicion of human trafficking.

Officers also arrested an 18-year-old man on suspicion of statutory rape. Investigators believe the girl went willingly with the man, but she's under California's legal age of consent and can't legally marry.

Police say arranged marriages involving underage girls have become a problem in this small Central Coast farming community.

http://www.wtop.com/?nid=456&sid=1571313

[Roger S. Huxley]

"Police say arranged marriages involving underage girls have become a problem in this small Central Coast farming community."

Is this the USA we're talking about?

But hey, at least he got some meat to go along with the beer.

[Ashtrot]

What kind of beer was it?

[MeshGearFox]

Sweet, this didn't happen in Ohio!

Although admittedly this is something I would expect from Ohio. A girl from the neighborhood I grew up in sold her baby to a couple out in California, for instance.

[Dincrest]

Roger, you'd be surprised at what goes on right under our noses in the US.  In that Van Halen video for "Right Now" over a decade ago, there was a snippet that said "Right now the US is doing things that we think only other countries do."  That says it all.

I'm sure a lot of us thought the Shanghai-ing in Portland Oregon was long gone.  But I mentioned in another thread that there are human traffickers in the US who pose as modeling agencies who "hire" teenage girls and sell them to foreign, mostly Middle Eastern, princes.  Analeigh Tipton, a contestant on Top Model, was scammed by one of those bogus agencies and almost sold to a Saudi prince, but she somehow got out of it.  So human trafficking and such do happen in the US.   

I would've thought that arranged marriages were limited to places like India or Pakistan where they're still practiced, but it doesn't surprise me that very old-fashioned rural communities even in the US would do those old-fashioned betrothals. 

[Wild Armor]

What's new now of these days?

What kind of beer was it?

My thoughts exactly.

[kyuusei]

Roger, you'd be surprised at what goes on right under our noses in the US.  In that Van Halen video for "Right Now" over a decade ago, there was a snippet that said "Right now the US is doing things that we think only other countries do."  That says it all.

I'm sure a lot of us thought the Shanghai-ing in Portland Oregon was long gone.  But I mentioned in another thread that there are people in the US who pose as modeling agencies who "hire" teenage girls and sell them to foreign, mostly Middle Eastern, princes.  Analeigh Tipton, a contestant on Top Model, was scammed by one of those bogus agencies and almost sold to a Saudi prince, but she somehow got out of it.  So human trafficking and such do happen in the US.   

I would've thought that arranged marriages were limited to places like India or Pakistan where they're still practiced, but it doesn't surprise me that very old-fashioned rural communities even in the US would do those old-fashioned betrothals. 

I love that video you mentioned, and it's too true. :P Shit happens everywhere, just because we hear about fucked-up things happening all the time in some faraway country doesn't mean they can't be happening next door. Hell, here in BC we had members of some extreme sect of Mormons (LDS?) with like 20 wives. :P

[Ragnarok-Sabin]

<--Is Canadian:

We watched a video on them in Anthropology class, and I believe a few of them are being charged right now and were recently in the news. That would be the community of Bountiful, correct?

Also, I must admit, I was always aware on a subconcious level that this shit happens everywhere, but I fell into the trap of "It never happens in a CIVILIZED country!" which is, of course as this proves, utter garbage.

[Akanbe-]

What kind of beer was it?

Miller Lite I bet.

[kyuusei]

<--Is Canadian:

We watched a video on them in Anthropology class, and I believe a few of them are being charged right now and were recently in the news. That would be the community of Bountiful, correct?

Also, I must admit, I was always aware on a subconcious level that this shit happens everywhere, but I fell into the trap of "It never happens in a CIVILIZED country!" which is, of course as this proves, utter garbage.

Yep, Bountiful BC. One leader had 2 wives, another 20, not sure of any others. But it's believed that a LOT of the girls were forced to marry or w/e when they were only like 15. The story's been going on for at least a couple years but I think it's the first time Canada's actually had to prosecute for polygamy (but I could be wrong...).

[Ashtrot]

...just because we hear about fucked-up things happening all the time in some faraway country doesn't mean they can't be happening next door.

Yep. "Civilized" society is oftentime not as civilized as we like to think it is.