Thug Life Army

When most of us in the hip-hop culture think of Oakland, San Jose, San Francisco we embellish west coast bay area rap music. That is why you are reading this on a hip-hop related site.

But there seems to be a deeper dilemma in ‘The Bay Area’ beyond who is hot in the hip-hop and rap genre or the occasional rap related violence; it is teen prostitution. And this can not only be limited to an Oakland thing, it is probably nation wide.

Recently CBS 5 out of Oakland ran a story about underage girls working the streets of the Bay Area.

These could be our daughters, our nieces, the ‘little girl’ down the block. Read this report and go to their site and see the video, and try to understand that these are children. There are some that are just trying to survive sure, but does the lure of money make a child do this? Notice the girl being interviewed. She has on Air Force Ones. Is this possibly an off shoot of the trouble with today’s hip-hop culture, where more emphases is put on the gear you wear or the rims on your ride?

This article focuses on young girls, so what are the lil g’s doing for their Air Force One’s? This is a problem that needs addressing, not only in Oakland and the Bay Area but all thru out the hip-hop community.

To much importance is being put on material things and to me this article would not be with out the importance of the ‘bling’.

We only have our children for a short while, and then they are adults. Hip-hop as a culture needs to think more of the impression that they are making on the younger people and less about the ‘chedda’. Read this article, visit their site and yes: shed a tear for these ‘children’ if ya feel it – I did.

Most people think 11 and 12-year-old girls split their time between homework, boy bands and trips to the mall. But almost every night, hundreds of underage girls are working the streets of the Bay Area as prostitutes.

Police say many of the men who solicit prostitutes will seek out and pay more for younger girls.

“I just started, because somebody honked and I decided to see what it was like,” said one 16-year-old prostitute. “I get the money, I use protection.”

Officers say it’s often the runaways or throwaways that are preyed on by johns.

“They''re attracted to youth and are willing to pay for them,” says Mark Turpin of the Oakland Police Department. “That's a huge problem, and that's what brings out all the young girls.”

Oakland police say last year, more than 100 underage girls were picked up in prostitution stings. On average, roughly that same number of teenagers is arrested across the bay in San Francisco. A special commission estimates that there could be several thousand underage prostitutes selling their bodies in San Francisco alone, trading their bodies for food and clothes.

“You see the girls on the corner and everybody goes, ''It's just a prostitute, she's doing a victimless crime,''” says Turpin. “What they don''t realize is that they''re not out there on their own accord. Pimps are pushing them, and they''re someone’s kids.”

For that reason, a new attitude has emerged among police in recent years. The young girls are now treated as victims instead of suspects.

“I think any cop that stops a young girl, they put faces of their own kids or family members on that child,” says Turpin. “It breaks your heart thinking of what she's doing out here, and how she's being used and abused.”

Police say only a small percentage of the girls who are taken into the criminal system ever get away from the sex trade.

Visit CBS 5 HERE to see the video of this report.