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Protecting our Kids with Nate Lewis · The Trauma Therapist

0:00
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Trauma THEAPIS podcast. My name is Ga Macpherson.
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Speaker 1: I interview incredible people who dedicated their lives to helping
0:07
Speaker 1: those who have been impacted by trauma. Here we go
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Speaker 1: five four, three, two and one, our folks, welcome back
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Speaker 1: to the podcast. Very excited to have as my guest today,
0:19
Speaker 1: Nate Lewis.
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Speaker 2: Nate welcome, Oh, thank you, thanks for having me. Appreciate
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Speaker 2: it so.
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Speaker 1: Nate is the founder of the Innocent, a non profit
0:28
Speaker 1: organization dedicated to protecting and preserving the innocence of children
0:32
Speaker 1: inside the United States, with a focus on child sex trafficking, exploitation,
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Speaker 1: and sexual assault. Nate's twenty years of traveling and living
0:41
Speaker 1: abroad and more than forty countries have profoundly shaped his
0:44
Speaker 1: passionate and understanding of human trafficking. These experiences have given
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Speaker 1: him valuable insights into the global and domestic dimensions of
0:52
Speaker 1: trafficking and exploitation. To his leadership at the Innocent, nata's
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Speaker 1: instrumental in driving critical initiatives to create sever communities inside
1:02
Speaker 1: the United States. All right, Nate, just a little bit
1:05
Speaker 1: about you, but before we get going here, share with
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Speaker 1: the listeners where you're from. Originally and where you are currently.
1:11
Speaker 3: Yeah, Well, I grew up in Washington State in the
1:13
Speaker 3: middle of an apple orchard and a farming community right
1:17
Speaker 3: in the center of Washington State. I'm currently in northern Idaho,
1:22
Speaker 3: just south of the Canadian border. But I've spent, like
1:25
Speaker 3: you just mentioned, most of my adult life not in
1:29
Speaker 3: the United States and traveling out of a suitcase mostly
1:33
Speaker 3: or back.
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Speaker 1: Okay, now, is that due to what just wonderlust or military?
1:42
Speaker 3: Now on my background, Actually, I worked in the film industry,
1:45
Speaker 3: so I was on set on location on some of
1:47
Speaker 3: those movies and televin shows, and I worked very closely
1:50
Speaker 3: with Jim Caviezel. He's a good friend of mine, Okay.
1:54
Speaker 3: And that's really when the Sound of Freedom movie was
1:57
Speaker 3: being filmed, was my introduction to this, you know, arena.
2:03
Speaker 3: And then I ended up going and worked for an
2:05
Speaker 3: organization doing this internationally really as an executive and just
2:10
Speaker 3: kind of seeing what it was and experiencing was traveling
2:14
Speaker 3: the world in addition to travel the world for twenty years,
2:17
Speaker 3: started traveling in a different.
2:20
Speaker 2: Arena in this space and.
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Speaker 3: Just hit my heart, man, And honestly, the timing of
2:27
Speaker 3: this call just even the things that happened right.
2:30
Speaker 2: Before this call happened.
2:31
Speaker 3: Of the work that from four years ago continues to
2:33
Speaker 3: just be present in my life.
2:35
Speaker 2: It's just it's pretty amazing.
2:37
Speaker 3: But yeah, that's kind of how I got here, and
2:40
Speaker 3: that's where I spent most of my time, living in
2:42
Speaker 3: foreign countries, in locations, and so that's a little.
2:46
Speaker 2: Bit of my background, tiny bit.
2:48
Speaker 1: So let's talk about your your introduction into this field
2:54
Speaker 1: or space, because, as I said before we started recording this,
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Speaker 1: I mean, this is no I mean, this is so
3:03
Speaker 1: freaking serious. I mean, you know when I tell people,
3:07
Speaker 1: you know, what do you do? Well, have a podcast?
3:08
Speaker 1: Oh what's it about? It's about trauma? Oh my god,
3:10
Speaker 1: how could you do that? But this to me is
3:14
Speaker 1: so it's so crazy, you know, and when you hear
3:20
Speaker 1: stories about this, it's like it's hard to look at
3:24
Speaker 1: how the hell did you get into this?
3:28
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean that introduction from Jim Caviezel really was
3:32
Speaker 3: my introduction to the organization. Yeah, the gentleman that he
3:35
Speaker 3: was playing, you know, in that movie.
3:38
Speaker 2: And here's here's the reality. So crazy.
3:40
Speaker 3: Again, the timing of this, I was I was in
3:44
Speaker 3: Northern Africa, my first real kind of deep dive into
3:48
Speaker 3: the deep end of what's going on. We were dealing
3:50
Speaker 3: with witch doctors that were performing child sacrifice. And it
3:54
Speaker 3: was really that experience that day that profoundly changed my
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Speaker 3: life and put me in to a completely different realm
4:02
Speaker 3: than I've ever been, experiencing different emotions that shouldn't be
4:05
Speaker 3: having at the same time. Number one, but I think
4:08
Speaker 3: for me the first time, and I've been through some things.
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Speaker 3: I've been abused, I've been taking a gunpoint before, and
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Speaker 3: you know, I've been through some trauma myself.
4:14
Speaker 2: But this time in my life.
4:17
Speaker 3: To see these children who are being sacrificed that survived,
4:20
Speaker 3: brought on a whole another level of anger and hate
4:24
Speaker 3: inside of me, which was I didn't want I wanted
4:27
Speaker 3: it to leave my body, and it compelled me to
4:30
Speaker 3: move forward. And interesting enough that that day I met
4:34
Speaker 3: this gal named Hope who was taken at a very
4:37
Speaker 3: young age, and they did all kinds of things to
4:39
Speaker 3: her starting in eighteen months, and when they took some
4:42
Speaker 3: blood from her, the lack of oxygener brain called but
4:45
Speaker 3: we know sobal palsy. Her body was caving in on
4:48
Speaker 3: her lungs and so several years ago I was able
4:51
Speaker 3: to be a part of raising funds to get her
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Speaker 3: to the emergency care.
4:54
Speaker 2: That she needs.
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Speaker 3: And there's a lot of doctors and people and hosts
4:57
Speaker 3: that were involved with this, but at my you know,
5:00
Speaker 3: I was able to help with a campaign to raise
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Speaker 3: the money to get her to the United States. And
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Speaker 3: literally ten minutes ago, I got a text from the
5:08
Speaker 3: organization we work for in Africa and she's here.
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Speaker 2: She's doing really well.
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Speaker 3: And they're actually coming through my home, this town that
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Speaker 3: I live in right now, and I get to see
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Speaker 3: her after four years, and she really is I talk
5:20
Speaker 3: about her all the time. She's why how do I
5:22
Speaker 3: get into this? And they're seeing her on the floor
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Speaker 3: just smiling like I don't even know. Her name's Hope.
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Speaker 3: And and the fact that she can smile constantly and
5:32
Speaker 3: not do much else than just smile.
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Speaker 2: She really drives everything that I do. She's been a.
5:38
Speaker 3: Huge inspiration in my life. So that's really how I
5:41
Speaker 3: got into it. And there's some there's some there's some
5:43
Speaker 3: difficult things, but these type of stories and success stories
5:46
Speaker 3: and you see where they were and not focus, you know, constantly,
5:52
Speaker 3: and I've been through lots of therapy and all times
5:54
Speaker 3: types of things that are helpful in tools and not
5:57
Speaker 3: living in the.
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Speaker 2: In the darkness and in the sadness and really trying
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Speaker 2: to you.
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Speaker 3: Know, it's okay to be there for a little bit
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Speaker 3: of time, I don't live in it and and pull
6:06
Speaker 3: myself out of that and just continue to look the light.
6:08
Speaker 3: And sometimes it's really the people that bring the light.
6:11
Speaker 3: You know, we work in such a dark, evil space.
6:14
Speaker 3: But when I meet people like you and others probably
6:17
Speaker 3: watching who really have just incredible hearts and wanted and
6:21
Speaker 3: passion for wanting to do something and stand up for kids,
6:24
Speaker 3: that's the fuel and the light that I live off of.
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Speaker 1: You know. Let me let me interject here for a second.
6:30
Speaker 1: So you you said it to lay the groundwork here,
6:34
Speaker 1: you said you were northern Africa with the with these
6:38
Speaker 1: witch stuff. How the hell did you get there?
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Speaker 2: Oh? Yeah, that was with the organization that I was
6:44
Speaker 2: working with.
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Speaker 1: Okay, So you're on set, you're in the film industry.
6:48
Speaker 1: You're on set, you meet you meet with Jim Cavizel,
6:53
Speaker 1: who was a star. Was he producing that film? Also
6:56
Speaker 1: here was.
6:57
Speaker 3: The lead role in the Sound of Freedom and the
6:59
Speaker 3: guy okay, the true life guy. It was the guy
7:02
Speaker 3: he introduced me to that I was able to go
7:05
Speaker 3: and work for. And so that organization worked all over
7:08
Speaker 3: the unit, all over the world, and so it was
7:10
Speaker 3: through that organization that I was taken over to Africa
7:15
Speaker 3: and the work that they're doing there hunting witch doctors
7:18
Speaker 3: really in this visiting with other survivors in different multiple countries.
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Speaker 3: So while I was there, one of the days that
7:25
Speaker 3: we were there, was was visiting this home of child
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Speaker 3: sacrifice survivors.
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Speaker 1: Okay, but my question is, how how does it come
7:34
Speaker 1: about that you were introduced to this guy and I
7:38
Speaker 1: guess he proposes, oh you come work for How does
7:41
Speaker 1: how does it get to the point where you like, yes,
7:43
Speaker 1: I want to do that.
7:45
Speaker 2: Yeah, So here's what it came down to.
7:48
Speaker 3: One when I got introduced to the movie, it was
7:50
Speaker 3: it was actually a little bit later when I was
7:53
Speaker 3: actually when we when we met, and honestly, I went down,
7:55
Speaker 3: I met with a bunch of people and there.
7:57
Speaker 2: Was you know, this was years ago. There were so
7:59
Speaker 2: many great people.
8:00
Speaker 3: And when I was leaving, I had this weird like
8:04
Speaker 3: I can only described it as a magnetic pole in
8:07
Speaker 3: the city that I was in. And I went home
8:09
Speaker 3: and told my wife about it. She was like, what
8:10
Speaker 3: do you think it means?
8:10
Speaker 2: It's like, I don't know.
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Speaker 3: She's like, you're not going to work with them? And
8:13
Speaker 3: I was like, no, I know that we you know,
8:15
Speaker 3: we're definitely not. And then they actually did come back
8:18
Speaker 3: to me and you know, like, hey, what about a
8:20
Speaker 3: contracting thing and this and that? And I thought, you know,
8:23
Speaker 3: no way, but something came out of my mouth. I
8:25
Speaker 3: was like, well, what's a full time position looked like?
8:27
Speaker 3: And I was like, oh no, my wife's going to
8:29
Speaker 3: kill me. And I was like, I'll just say no.
8:31
Speaker 3: And then they presented this to me. But you know,
8:33
Speaker 3: this was on my heart since two thousand and four.
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Speaker 3: Work with children actually my first experience in Morocco on
8:39
Speaker 3: a movie called Sahara and just seeing children there and
8:42
Speaker 3: spending a one hundred and sixteen days in the desert there,
8:45
Speaker 3: and I knew at some point I was going to
8:47
Speaker 3: be working with children. I tried my own nonprofits.
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Speaker 1: Why why, I believe.
8:54
Speaker 3: That I was just something inside of me. I have
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Speaker 3: this childlike thing, but I'm drawn to children. I don't
9:00
Speaker 3: know what it is. It's a natural thing to me
9:02
Speaker 3: to I connect with children. I don't I don't know
9:05
Speaker 3: how else to explain it. Whether it's my niece's nephews,
9:08
Speaker 3: it could be a kid I just run into if
9:09
Speaker 3: mom is talking to me, and I like, I'm instantly
9:12
Speaker 3: getting down at their level and like talking to them
9:15
Speaker 3: and interacting. I don't even know what it is. It's
9:18
Speaker 3: just this thing I was born with. I have no
9:20
Speaker 3: idea I could be honest.
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Speaker 1: With but it's but it's from from the outside looking
9:24
Speaker 1: in here. It's obviously to help them, to get them,
9:28
Speaker 1: I mean, to them, protect them with all this crazy shit.
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Speaker 1: I mean what you talked about being in with witch
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Speaker 1: doctors and doing sacrificial stuff. I mean, that's like that
9:43
Speaker 1: shit's going on. Yeah, I mean for those of us
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Speaker 1: who are not in that, that is like, Holy Christ,
9:53
Speaker 1: what do you do when you're there? Was that your
9:56
Speaker 1: first experience with craziness?
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Speaker 2: It was my first experience and there was no going back.
10:02
Speaker 2: There was no going back.
10:04
Speaker 1: And what was your role there? What was the your
10:07
Speaker 1: role there at that moment?
10:08
Speaker 2: So I was an executive.
10:10
Speaker 3: Most of what my position was was to raise the funding,
10:14
Speaker 3: but with our highest level of you know, I worked
10:16
Speaker 3: with celebrities my entire adult career, obviously, you know, working
10:19
Speaker 3: with Jim Caviezel was one of my clients or whatever
10:22
Speaker 3: that I worked for in supported. So I was hanging
10:24
Speaker 3: around movie stars for decades, big the biggest movie stars
10:28
Speaker 3: in the world.
10:29
Speaker 2: I never got starstruck. I never didk So it just
10:32
Speaker 2: was easy for me.
10:33
Speaker 3: And so I think they were like, Hey, we have
10:35
Speaker 3: all these high profile individuals. You can you know, get
10:39
Speaker 3: along with pretty easy. They'll like you and this and that,
10:41
Speaker 3: and so why I was sent over there, it was
10:43
Speaker 3: really to just get an understanding of what the organization
10:45
Speaker 3: was doing and just really first hands experience of interacting
10:49
Speaker 3: with like survivors. What does that care look like, what
10:52
Speaker 3: do these facilities look like? And actually I was able
10:54
Speaker 3: to raise a significant amount of money in that country
10:57
Speaker 3: to buy a significant chunk of land to build land
11:00
Speaker 3: which is still in the works, which is really a
11:03
Speaker 3: vision that I got from this day when I was
11:05
Speaker 3: walking into see Hope and all these other children. You know,
11:09
Speaker 3: they've they've gone through horrific things in their life. Why
11:12
Speaker 3: don't we just build them a paradise so to speak,
11:15
Speaker 3: in their country without running water in areas.
11:17
Speaker 2: But how do we bring in a.
11:18
Speaker 3: Well and how do we start building these paradise is
11:20
Speaker 3: somewhat so to speak and provide hope, which happens to
11:23
Speaker 3: be her name, But how do we create hope land?
11:26
Speaker 3: And really so it was through these experiences, and through
11:29
Speaker 3: even going on in different countries with with the OPS
11:33
Speaker 3: team and understanding how the operations work, and then being
11:36
Speaker 3: involved in all those logistics because I could find the words,
11:41
Speaker 3: you know, going into the film business as a writer
11:43
Speaker 3: and being able to actually articulate what that was like.
11:46
Speaker 3: I'm a storyteller since and so really truly it was
11:49
Speaker 3: through the stories, these true stories, which is why I
11:51
Speaker 3: got into the movie business in the first place.
11:53
Speaker 2: I loved the true stories.
11:56
Speaker 3: And I could share these true stories with people that
11:58
Speaker 3: potentially would donate money to make impact. So through storytelling,
12:03
Speaker 3: we can make change and make impact. And that was
12:05
Speaker 3: really what it was. And then it was like more
12:07
Speaker 3: and more and more and so certain things I was
12:10
Speaker 3: drawing from, not from other people's stories, but from my
12:12
Speaker 3: own real experiences where I experienced emotions that I had,
12:16
Speaker 3: certain things. But then I understand all the aspects of
12:19
Speaker 3: what does it look like for aftercare, what do they
12:21
Speaker 3: have to go through, what are they facing, what does
12:23
Speaker 3: the ops guys look like?
12:25
Speaker 1: Hang on here, so the ops, the ops got what
12:30
Speaker 1: are the ops, what are these ops missions? What are
12:34
Speaker 1: they doing?
12:35
Speaker 3: Yeah, so mostly it's professionally trained undercover operators through either
12:41
Speaker 3: an intelligence source or law enforcement that goes into these communities,
12:45
Speaker 3: have an MU and they would meet with the local
12:48
Speaker 3: law enforcement who have zero training, zero equipment to do
12:51
Speaker 3: these type of investigations to go undercover, and we would
12:53
Speaker 3: bring that in and help kind of train them and
12:56
Speaker 3: teach them along these investigations and go in and infiltrate
12:59
Speaker 3: whether whatever organized crime it is, whether it's a sex
13:03
Speaker 3: hotel or a brothel or a child sacrifice, you know, ring.
13:08
Speaker 2: Or whatever it may be.
13:10
Speaker 3: We would go in there and try to empower and
13:13
Speaker 3: equip the law enforcement to be able to effectively kind
13:17
Speaker 3: of do this after we're gone, but bring the research.
13:19
Speaker 3: Sometimes it's just hey, they need fuel to go out
13:21
Speaker 3: and make the arrest and their cruisers so they could
13:24
Speaker 3: support that.
13:25
Speaker 1: So to get these kids out of the way, out
13:27
Speaker 1: of the out of the situation.
13:29
Speaker 2: Yeah, not rescue the kids, but also bring justice, you know.
13:34
Speaker 3: Really, and so that that was the whole model, and
13:37
Speaker 3: now it was it was only a matter of time
13:40
Speaker 3: before the people started saying, well, what are we doing
13:42
Speaker 3: here in America and then me doing some investigations with
13:45
Speaker 3: my law enforcement friends saying like, do what's going on,
13:48
Speaker 3: and then listening to them and says like, well, why
13:50
Speaker 3: don't we just cut the red tape and fill those
13:52
Speaker 3: gaps because the people are demanding to do something, they
13:55
Speaker 3: want to do something, and they want their dollars to
13:57
Speaker 3: stay in our border.
13:58
Speaker 2: Right, So I was like, well, let's just that.
14:00
Speaker 3: Let's just start an organization where the people can bring
14:04
Speaker 3: in the resources. And my team's all active duty law enforcement.
14:06
Speaker 3: We have a retired law enforcement officer as well. They
14:08
Speaker 3: have experience and these things. When we come in, we
14:10
Speaker 3: bring the equipment, we train, and we build task forces
14:13
Speaker 3: here in America. So we go into a community, recruit
14:15
Speaker 3: two to three detectives at the highest level from each department,
14:19
Speaker 3: and then they all get roles and responsibilities. We do
14:21
Speaker 3: a live undercover sting operation and actually make arrests during
14:25
Speaker 3: our training. But we come to them and we teach
14:27
Speaker 3: them how to fish, give them the equipment, and then
14:29
Speaker 3: when we leave they can continue to make those rests.
14:33
Speaker 3: I think three weeks ago we were in Texas and
14:35
Speaker 3: I just got to report today that one of the
14:37
Speaker 3: people that we've trained have made four rests since we've
14:39
Speaker 3: left from the training, So they're going to now continue
14:42
Speaker 3: to go through this task force.
14:44
Speaker 2: It's not like a department has.
14:46
Speaker 3: To give up all this whole resources and manpower from
14:49
Speaker 3: one department. It's a few from all of them. And
14:52
Speaker 3: then you're also building community between law enforcement, which is
14:55
Speaker 3: amazing is to take these five or six departments and
14:58
Speaker 3: how do you bring them together to prioritize children. And
15:02
Speaker 3: here's what I think would be interesting, I think to
15:05
Speaker 3: you and maybe your audience is really looking at there's
15:11
Speaker 3: so much that's happening locally, but law enforcement, first responders, paramedics, firefighters, nurses,
15:19
Speaker 3: whenever there's an incident that they have to be a.
15:24
Speaker 2: Part of, whether it's a car wreck, fire in the house,
15:27
Speaker 2: some sort of trauma.
15:28
Speaker 3: When it involves a child, it's different, right, And so
15:32
Speaker 3: the men and women that are one hundred percent of
15:36
Speaker 3: their dealings involve child crimes. We have a lot of
15:41
Speaker 3: work to do for mental wellness, and eventually that's what
15:45
Speaker 3: we're gonna get to.
15:46
Speaker 2: We're started with law enforcement.
15:47
Speaker 3: How do we build them and give them the tools
15:49
Speaker 3: and the training they need to be effective in what
15:51
Speaker 3: they do Now we're going into the communities. We're gonna
15:53
Speaker 3: have education that we're gonna be promoting, giving them the
15:56
Speaker 3: tools and the training that they need to now be
15:58
Speaker 3: effective in their communities.
15:59
Speaker 2: And then hold.
16:00
Speaker 3: Certain officials accountable for you know, like hey, we want
16:04
Speaker 3: bigger senses whatever. And then now, how do we go
16:07
Speaker 3: into these departments when we're coming in and get from
16:09
Speaker 3: the higher ups to accept the idea that like, hey, look,
16:13
Speaker 3: you're gonna have turnover like crazy every two years someone
16:17
Speaker 3: and now you got to train more guys and more women.
16:20
Speaker 3: We needed you to have a support system not just
16:23
Speaker 3: within the department, but outside the department too, so that
16:27
Speaker 3: we can prevent these you know, whatever it be, suicide, alcoholism, divorce,
16:31
Speaker 3: whatever it may be.
16:32
Speaker 2: How do we keep.
16:34
Speaker 3: Those numbers down so that these men and women who
16:36
Speaker 3: want to do this stuff, who are on the front
16:39
Speaker 3: lines I called there on the gates of hell, because
16:41
Speaker 3: this is the darkest of evils.
16:42
Speaker 2: When you're doing these things.
16:44
Speaker 3: The children, how do we keep them going and keep
16:47
Speaker 3: them healthy and keep them balanced in their life and
16:50
Speaker 3: understand the understand that part of it too. And so
16:54
Speaker 3: maybe next year we'll get into that mental wellness piece
16:57
Speaker 3: of really taking care of the men and women on
16:59
Speaker 3: the front lines of this. You know, look, I'm telling
17:02
Speaker 3: you right now, we pretend to be eleven year olds online.
17:05
Speaker 2: Let's just say the things that we see.
17:08
Speaker 3: I can't imagine an eleven year old see if it damages,
17:11
Speaker 3: you know, or not damages that's not the right word.
17:14
Speaker 3: Affects us to that degree. I can't imagine what it
17:19
Speaker 3: does to a child, you know. But when you're seeing
17:21
Speaker 3: it day in and day out, you know, you're you're
17:23
Speaker 3: dating predators.
17:24
Speaker 2: Man, that's what it's like. You're basically having to date predators.
17:28
Speaker 3: And man, it can it can be brutal, you know, photos, conversations,
17:34
Speaker 3: the things they want to do to children. You gotta
17:38
Speaker 3: we gotta, we gotta, we gotta prioritize that, prioritize the children,
17:41
Speaker 3: but also prioritize the men and women who they're dealing
17:44
Speaker 3: with these crimes on a daily basis. Our interesting videos,
17:48
Speaker 3: writing reports.
17:50
Speaker 1: So yeah, I mean, it's just interesting to hear you
17:53
Speaker 1: talk and to imagine and to feel the how far
18:01
Speaker 1: this spreads out Right, it's not just finding these people
18:04
Speaker 1: and talking to them online, but setting up care and
18:08
Speaker 1: education for the first responders. As you said, who are
18:11
Speaker 1: on the front lines or the gates of hell, how
18:14
Speaker 1: they can learn to take care of themselves, because it's
18:16
Speaker 1: one thing to want to take care of someone else,
18:19
Speaker 1: but obviously they're going to be impacted. So let me
18:22
Speaker 1: just remind everyone was speaking with Nate Lewis of the
18:25
Speaker 1: Innocent non profit organization which helps kids. So to what degree,
18:33
Speaker 1: how prevalent is this stuff it's going on in the
18:36
Speaker 1: United States?
18:38
Speaker 3: So when you say this stuff, I guess we have
18:41
Speaker 3: to be kind of specific.
18:42
Speaker 2: Okay, talking about human trafficking people.
18:46
Speaker 1: Yes, sure, that's human trafficking, and I think.
18:49
Speaker 3: That human trafficking is the tip of the umbrella. Really,
18:52
Speaker 3: what falls underneath human trafficking all the statutes people crimes
18:56
Speaker 3: that they can commit, whether people are now you're hearing
18:58
Speaker 3: the word exploitation a lot, it's extortion, You're hearing a
19:02
Speaker 3: lot of these things. And so when you talk about
19:05
Speaker 3: how prevalent, I guess, really, what specifically is how prevalent?
19:08
Speaker 3: How I can give you a statistic that you know,
19:11
Speaker 3: only two percent of children that are being trafficked are
19:13
Speaker 3: snagged and grabbed, meaning kidnapped and taken. So it's kind
19:18
Speaker 3: of a small percentage even though that's the fear of parents.
19:21
Speaker 3: The reality is there's thirty seven million teenagers on social
19:26
Speaker 3: media and through our experience, what we're seeing in our
19:30
Speaker 3: mission first foremost is to protect and preserve the innocence
19:33
Speaker 3: of children in the United States, where we were starting
19:36
Speaker 3: to see that the deterioration of innocence is really through
19:40
Speaker 3: social media and these different platforms, because if they have
19:43
Speaker 3: an open account, they're not helping these social media platforms,
19:47
Speaker 3: they're actually enabling. They're making an introduction friends suggestions, and
19:52
Speaker 3: once that child accepts that friend suggestion to if you
19:55
Speaker 3: look at the psychology, become more popular because of the
19:58
Speaker 3: number of followers, friends that they have with.
20:01
Speaker 2: Their identity and sort of things.
20:02
Speaker 3: So when they accept that, now, depending upon who that
20:05
Speaker 3: person is and what their profile is, they may start
20:08
Speaker 3: grooming them slowly or it might be immedia photo rate
20:13
Speaker 3: my blank right, And so what happens after that, Well,
20:18
Speaker 3: since that eleven year old and the fifty one year
20:20
Speaker 3: old's accepted, the algram says, well, here's five more identical
20:25
Speaker 3: profiles that are following twenty five hundred individuals, same kind
20:29
Speaker 3: of demographic, but are being followed by anyone.
20:31
Speaker 2: We should probably introduce them to right, So then they
20:35
Speaker 2: get introduced, you accept those and we.
20:36
Speaker 3: Only know this and we have recorded because we do this,
20:39
Speaker 3: and then it's hundreds within a week people and they're they're, they're,
20:44
Speaker 3: they're doing these things and that's how this is happening.
20:46
Speaker 3: Here's the thing and why, And I'll try to get
20:49
Speaker 3: to specifics on that question. But in my childhood, it
20:54
Speaker 3: was more worried about like, hey, who's showing up the playground,
20:57
Speaker 3: Just be careful, you know that kind of thing. But
21:00
Speaker 3: cameras on every corner and every stoplight, and no one's
21:03
Speaker 3: going to expose their identity in public. They're going to
21:06
Speaker 3: stay hidden and try to spoof their id online so
21:10
Speaker 3: that they can't be identified. So now why would they
21:13
Speaker 3: go in public? I mean, if they're stupid, and that's
21:17
Speaker 3: great and please do come in public. But it's not
21:19
Speaker 3: like it used to be in the old days where
21:21
Speaker 3: we're going under covering an alley with a backpack and
21:23
Speaker 3: trying to buy drugs. So much communication in society, including
21:29
Speaker 3: with families, is done through a phone or messaging and
21:32
Speaker 3: through technology it's the same way. It's no different. So
21:36
Speaker 3: how prevalent is it? Let me give you some statistics.
21:39
Speaker 3: One in five children before the age of eighteen will
21:43
Speaker 3: be solicited for sex online.
21:45
Speaker 2: So that's that's crazy, it is. That's a lot.
21:49
Speaker 1: I mean crazy a lot. I'm surprised at that crazy
21:52
Speaker 1: a lot.
21:52
Speaker 3: Here's another statistic. We just did a video I think
21:55
Speaker 3: yesterday we put out a video on this. There are
21:58
Speaker 3: forty six million survis of child sexual abuse living in
22:03
Speaker 3: the United States.
22:04
Speaker 2: Okay, and that also.
22:06
Speaker 3: Is sourced on the video throughout our I believe it's
22:08
Speaker 3: the National Center for Adult Survivors of Child Abuse. So
22:14
Speaker 3: that's a statistic. Now here's the reality is what does
22:17
Speaker 3: that look like? Forty six million people of the population,
22:20
Speaker 3: that's eight that's all thirty two NFL Super Bowl stadiums
22:24
Speaker 3: filled up eighteen times. That's a lot of people that
22:26
Speaker 3: were abused as a child sexually. So that's been going
22:29
Speaker 3: on for decades and generations. That was before technology right
22:34
Speaker 3: now with the abuse where it used to always be
22:36
Speaker 3: physical and there still is a ton of physical abuse.
22:40
Speaker 3: Now it's three electronics sending photos, bribing people, what are
22:44
Speaker 3: sending photos back and building these trusts and these relationships
22:47
Speaker 3: people pretending to be young boys online or they have
22:51
Speaker 3: these communications and then he says, Oh, hey, I can't drive,
22:55
Speaker 3: so my aunt's going to come and pick you up.
22:57
Speaker 2: What was the aunt talking the whole time trying to
22:59
Speaker 2: recruit these girls.
23:00
Speaker 3: There's so many different things that are occurring that used
23:04
Speaker 3: to not occur.
23:06
Speaker 2: It's hard to get real statistics.
23:09
Speaker 3: But there's a couple more statistics, and all these are
23:12
Speaker 3: sourced on our website and through videos.
23:14
Speaker 2: On our Instagram and stuff like that.
23:15
Speaker 3: But one in three girls and one in five boys
23:19
Speaker 3: will be sexually abused before they turn eighteen. Why is
23:23
Speaker 3: that important that I say that? Because we don't just
23:25
Speaker 3: focus on trafficking and exploitation. We're trying to understand the
23:28
Speaker 3: patterns and the behaviors online of people.
23:31
Speaker 2: So when they are online viewing.
23:35
Speaker 3: Maybe it's pornography, but we call it on against under
23:38
Speaker 3: the AGA eighteen, it's child sexual abuse material.
23:40
Speaker 2: It's called exam in the law enforcement world.
23:43
Speaker 3: And they start viewing younger and younger and younger, right,
23:46
Speaker 3: And so at some point that digital addiction becomes a
23:50
Speaker 3: physical addiction, and they understand they can pay for it.
23:53
Speaker 3: And then at some point it becomes really expensive and
23:55
Speaker 3: they decide not to pay for it. They decide to
23:57
Speaker 3: just somebody's in the wrong place the wrong time, or they
24:00
Speaker 3: can groom and manipulate into somebody to build trust with
24:04
Speaker 3: them and then they can get what they want that way.
24:06
Speaker 3: It's it's, it's it's it's interesting psychology of this whole thing.
24:11
Speaker 3: But that's that's that's what's going on these days, and
24:15
Speaker 3: so you're seeing it. It's pretty prevalent.
24:18
Speaker 2: You know.
24:18
Speaker 3: I think at some they will probably have better statistics,
24:22
Speaker 3: but things are happening and technology is moving so fast.
24:25
Speaker 2: Here's this true story.
24:27
Speaker 3: I don't know how this helped, but we did a
24:29
Speaker 3: presentation to a group of individuals and you know, an
24:32
Speaker 3: upper class community to you know, raise it's kind of
24:36
Speaker 3: a fundraiser and sharing a lot of this stuff and
24:38
Speaker 3: some of the conversations, you know, things are blurred out,
24:40
Speaker 3: but we're trying to protect adults in a sense, so
24:42
Speaker 3: we don't want to throw them into the deep end
24:43
Speaker 3: and make them go through therapy.
24:46
Speaker 2: You know. Grandy's in the front row going, oh my gosh.
24:49
Speaker 3: All these things, you know, and people are shocked and
24:52
Speaker 3: we're trying to keep it g rated, but they're still
24:53
Speaker 3: shocked because they they're oblivious. And then you know, about
24:56
Speaker 3: an hour in this girl raised her hand.
24:58
Speaker 2: And I was like, yeah, I CA.
25:00
Speaker 3: She's like, I wasn't suposed to be here tonight. My
25:02
Speaker 3: dad was a beer he couldn't come, So I came
25:03
Speaker 3: last night. I'm twenty four years old, and the most
25:05
Speaker 3: shocking thing to me tonight isn't everything you're talking about.
25:09
Speaker 3: It's the gasps in the room, because I have lived
25:12
Speaker 3: this life.
25:12
Speaker 2: For the last ten years of my life. Oh my god,
25:15
Speaker 2: from fourteen to twenty four.
25:16
Speaker 3: This everything we were talking about was things she experienced online,
25:20
Speaker 3: and it was normal to her. And she was more
25:22
Speaker 3: shocked that people were shocked by it than being shocked
25:25
Speaker 3: by that. That's just what children deal with if you're
25:28
Speaker 3: a young teenager, especially girls.
25:32
Speaker 2: They're just praying on these young children.
25:36
Speaker 3: Now in the wild, predators prey on the week, right,
25:38
Speaker 3: so completely unformed brain would be a weak victim.
25:43
Speaker 2: Right. And and there's other statistics. I didn't even need
25:47
Speaker 2: to go into this.
25:48
Speaker 3: I know I'm kind of going off, but those who
25:50
Speaker 3: have either mentally challenged or have difficulties are also preyed
25:54
Speaker 3: on way more and then once they have been prayed on,
25:58
Speaker 3: there ten times.
25:59
Speaker 2: More likely to be continued to be pret on.
26:01
Speaker 3: Right, So they're they're manipulating, they're taking advantage of them. Uh,
26:06
Speaker 3: it's it's a it's it's it's it's pretty prominent.
26:09
Speaker 2: It's it's sick. We see we see it, we see it.
26:12
Speaker 2: We we can post.
26:13
Speaker 3: Ads on these crazy sites that exist, just pay for
26:16
Speaker 3: sex sites, and it's it's immediate responses. And and this
26:22
Speaker 3: isn't small towns too. This isn't even like metropolitan areas.
26:25
Speaker 3: This is small town USA.
26:28
Speaker 1: So let me ask you your your work with the
26:33
Speaker 1: innocent is to what go into and help law enforcement
26:40
Speaker 1: get educated on this and help them equip themselves to
26:45
Speaker 1: deal with this specifically somewhat.
26:48
Speaker 3: So my team is active duty law enforcement and we
26:50
Speaker 3: have a we're bringing on retired law enforcement officers too.
26:53
Speaker 3: But we go in to a community and like I said,
26:56
Speaker 3: we build a task force. So we're taking individuals from
26:59
Speaker 3: all the surrounding agencies and we bring them together and
27:03
Speaker 3: we'll start to finish three to four days scaled operations course.
27:07
Speaker 3: So how do you start the investigation? What are somebody
27:11
Speaker 3: the laws and those things? How do you write the warrants?
27:13
Speaker 3: And then how who has the roles and responsibility on
27:15
Speaker 3: the takedown day? Where we're setting up undercover steeing operations
27:19
Speaker 3: and really that's in a nutshell, that's kind of really
27:22
Speaker 3: what it is. We're going in and building task forces
27:24
Speaker 3: inside of communities, all by my team, which are incredibly
27:29
Speaker 3: experienced and amazing team members that are teaching and leading
27:34
Speaker 3: this out through experience.
27:36
Speaker 2: Now we're just advisors.
27:37
Speaker 3: So when they run that operation during our training, they
27:40
Speaker 3: run a real live operation.
27:43
Speaker 2: We're there to.
27:44
Speaker 3: Advise them if they have questions and certain things, so
27:46
Speaker 3: we're not involved in those operations. We want them to
27:49
Speaker 3: own it the whole thing. Now, hopefully they've learned enough
27:53
Speaker 3: from the first day and a half, but we're still
27:55
Speaker 3: there to kind of walk them through and kind of
27:57
Speaker 3: do the scenario thing and hopefully they can can and you.
28:00
Speaker 2: To just be successful, and we were seeing it they are.
28:03
Speaker 3: They continue to do these things and the higher up ranking,
28:08
Speaker 3: you know, lieutenant sergeants, chiefs, they love this stuff because
28:13
Speaker 3: they see that it's super effective, it's needed, and they
28:16
Speaker 3: probably have been exposed to something they weren't really sure was.
28:19
Speaker 2: Going on because they didn't know the tactics right, They
28:22
Speaker 2: didn't know where to look, where to go.
28:24
Speaker 3: If you're not spending one hundred percent of your time
28:26
Speaker 3: doing these investigations. You probably don't know where to go.
28:29
Speaker 3: We learned from these predators. Hey, let's go over to
28:32
Speaker 3: blank and communicate. We're like, oh, that's cool. Hey did
28:35
Speaker 3: you have you ever been on this? And you're like, no,
28:38
Speaker 3: but I will now, you know. So if you're not
28:40
Speaker 3: in these conversations, you don't know where to be and
28:43
Speaker 3: where to live.
28:43
Speaker 2: And so they just don't know.
28:45
Speaker 3: And that's when the people see this and they go
28:47
Speaker 3: the usually the officials or even some city council that
28:50
Speaker 3: come in and see this, they're.
28:51
Speaker 2: Like, I had no idea. I had no idea. We
28:54
Speaker 2: probably need a full time person for this, right, And
28:57
Speaker 2: so that's really what we do. There's a few other things.
28:59
Speaker 3: So we cut red tape on equipment and technology.
29:03
Speaker 2: So there's a lot of technologies.
29:05
Speaker 3: So some of them are super expensive, some of them
29:07
Speaker 3: are expensive, some of them aren't that expensive. But the
29:10
Speaker 3: process is long and it's tedious, and sometimes they still
29:13
Speaker 3: get denied.
29:14
Speaker 2: And so you know, we'll do a little bit.
29:17
Speaker 3: Of of a vetting and everything's grant based, and so
29:21
Speaker 3: we'll provide a subscription to some really really effective and
29:25
Speaker 3: efficient software for these investigations for a year and then
29:29
Speaker 3: they report back to us, what are you doing, how
29:32
Speaker 3: are you using it? Are you being effective? Is it
29:34
Speaker 3: collecting dust? And then if they can and the following
29:38
Speaker 3: year prove to us that, look, they're out there doing
29:40
Speaker 3: really good work and they're utilizing this stuff and they're
29:42
Speaker 3: taking advantage of we're going to support you, and we're
29:44
Speaker 3: going to continue to support that for you.
29:47
Speaker 2: And they also now know how effective this tool is.
29:49
Speaker 2: They don't want to lose it, right, and so they're
29:51
Speaker 2: gonna use it and so finding that out.
29:53
Speaker 3: One one example is just some of the high these
29:58
Speaker 3: high tech.
29:59
Speaker 2: Computers that are analy.
30:01
Speaker 3: Evidence in certain things when you unlocked phones and get
30:05
Speaker 3: into these things and analyzing all the breakdown. You know,
30:07
Speaker 3: those are expensive, somewhat expensive computers, high performing gaming style
30:12
Speaker 3: type of computers.
30:14
Speaker 2: And man to get a.
30:15
Speaker 3: Couple of those for your detectives, you know, it is
30:17
Speaker 3: a significant budget hit for a small community.
30:20
Speaker 2: Sure, they're probably not going to.
30:22
Speaker 3: Get them, you know, So for us to be able
30:24
Speaker 3: to provide those the people actually be able to able
30:26
Speaker 3: to provide that for department is huge, huge, And some
30:29
Speaker 3: of these other devices aren't even that expensive. It's just
30:33
Speaker 3: it takes us about two minutes to order them for
30:35
Speaker 3: them or send them to them, versus the six month
30:38
Speaker 3: process of going through you know, and in that time,
30:41
Speaker 3: how many people could you have arrested. So that's what
30:44
Speaker 3: we're doing. We're cutting the red tape. We're speeding up,
30:46
Speaker 3: making them more effective, more efficient, and giving them the
30:48
Speaker 3: actual training that they need to be experts in this,
30:52
Speaker 3: you know, specific crime.
30:54
Speaker 2: So it's like you're funding the police to give them gas,
30:58
Speaker 2: you know whatever. This is specifically for child sex crimes.
31:02
Speaker 2: And so the communities.
31:03
Speaker 3: Are really loving this that they feel like they can
31:06
Speaker 3: keep their money in their communities. They can see it,
31:08
Speaker 3: they read about it on their posts or their local Facebook,
31:12
Speaker 3: people that follow the arrests and.
31:15
Speaker 2: They it's they love it.
31:17
Speaker 3: They love that they feel like they can actually play
31:19
Speaker 3: a part in making community safe.
31:22
Speaker 1: Nate, dude, amazing, I mean and so inspiring. My god,
31:27
Speaker 1: I'd love to have you back. I mean, it just
31:28
Speaker 1: seems like there's so much, so much. Seriously, there's so
31:30
Speaker 1: much to talk about. But as we as we wind
31:33
Speaker 1: down here, how do people learn more about you and
31:38
Speaker 1: the innocent what's the best way.
31:41
Speaker 3: The Innocent dot Org is our website and there's lots
31:43
Speaker 3: of links on there. If you're in law enforcement, have
31:45
Speaker 3: a law enforcement tab. Fiell that out with your law
31:47
Speaker 3: enforcement email address. We're gonna want to get in touch
31:50
Speaker 3: with you and see how we can come into your communities.
31:52
Speaker 2: There's a community tab.
31:53
Speaker 3: There's gonna be education coming soon on the main homepage.
31:57
Speaker 3: If you sign up for the newsletter, that's our most
31:59
Speaker 3: effective way to communicate with you. Social media doesn't allow
32:01
Speaker 3: us really to get out there to people for whatever reasons,
32:05
Speaker 3: but that's our most effective form of communication. So sign
32:08
Speaker 3: up for the e email and then really just just
32:12
Speaker 3: if you can. We're funded by the people, and if
32:14
Speaker 3: you want to start a campaign for your community, click
32:16
Speaker 3: on the community link. Also, we call it a protector,
32:19
Speaker 3: somebody who donates as little as ten dollars a month.
32:21
Speaker 3: If you think it doesn't make a difference, then it
32:23
Speaker 3: probably you won't go do it, and you won't make
32:25
Speaker 3: a difference. But if one hundred people today just went
32:28
Speaker 3: and did that, we could make significant change.
32:31
Speaker 2: We can provide.
32:32
Speaker 3: Those pieces of equipment to a department every single month,
32:36
Speaker 3: you know, so think about that. If you can just
32:38
Speaker 3: become a ten at least ten dollars a month. If
32:40
Speaker 3: you can do more, that's fantastic. But we're funded one
32:42
Speaker 3: hundred percent by the people to protect the children and
32:46
Speaker 3: the innocence of children here in America. One hundred percent
32:49
Speaker 3: of your dollars donated. We'll stay right here inside of
32:52
Speaker 3: America as well.
32:53
Speaker 1: All right, and we will link that up here at
32:55
Speaker 1: the show notes page at the Trauma Therapist podcast dot
32:58
Speaker 1: com for those of you who want to sign up
33:00
Speaker 1: for that. Nate, I'm so glad I got to meet
33:04
Speaker 1: you and again love to have you back. I appreciate you.
33:08
Speaker 2: Let's do this.
33:08
Speaker 1: Thanks, all right, brother, all right, man, take care, all
33:11
Speaker 1: right
33:12
Speaker 2: Talk too soon.