Okay lemme tell you a thing.

Back in 2018 Alicia Youngblood told Anchorage PD that Brian Smith had showed her videos of himself killing a black prostitute. Anchorage PD asked her about her criminal history. Alicia worked so hard and put herself in so much danger to try to get enough evidence for Anchorage PD to believe her and stop him. She even brought officers to where he had dumped one woman's body.

The detective was not even ashamed to put in his police report that he told her Brian was just playing some kind of bedroom role play game with her.

Alicia and her kids fled the state.

Brian went on killing women he perceived to be sex workers.

A year later a sex worker stole his phone with videos of him torturing and killing a woman. That sex worker who stole his phone - our hero, Valerie - was living alone in a tent in the woods in winter. People told her not to go to police, not to risk Brian coming after her. But our sex worker hero would not be dissuaded from seeking justice. She was smart, too. She didn't just bring the videos to APD so a detective could brush it off as a bedroom role play again. She brought the videos to a doctor who verified that it was real, and a patrol officer came and watched it. That made it harder for APD to sweep under the rug again.

The month before, Kathleen's body had been found. I remember waking up to calls from journalists. I hadn't even heard the news yet but the journalists assumed she was a sex worker and thought I could identify her. Then a police officer called. She asked me who is missing that's either Native or Asian. Then she said don't tell anyone about this. Don't tell the other cops she spoke to me. A sex worker. A criminal.

The police and journalists didn't know if Kathleen was a sex worker or not. They just assumed that women who are brutally murdered and dumped by men are probably sex workers. Criminals.

I didn't expect them to find the killer. APD had not solved the murder of any sex worker (unless the murderer was found on scene with the body) in at least a couple decades. If you're ever murdered, try not to look like a dead sex worker because cops will see you the same way cards against humanity does. No Human involved. Just a sex worker. A criminal.

But then Valerie came with the videos and they couldn't ignore it anymore. Our hero. A sex worker. A criminal.

In this documentary the detective who interviewed Valerie talks about doubting her report. He had to consider what kind of woman she was. You know. A sex worker. A criminal.

Police didn't offer our hero any protection. They didn't connect her to any assistance. They sent her back to her nightmares and her tent in the woods that night. That's how they treat sex workers. Criminals. Heros.

We didn't even know about Valerie until the trial. The journalists didn't talk about her bravery and heroism. They called her prostitute. Sex worker. Criminal.

Brian was convicted on her birthday. We threw her a party and gave her a shirt that said hero. It wasn't enough. The state of Alaska should give her an award and a million dollars.

Amber Travels went to the trial. You remember Amber. Another sex worker. Another criminal.

The state of Alaska branded Amber a sex trafficker and took five years of her life because she worked together with other sex workers. For safety. So we don't get murdered and have APD call it just a bedroom game.

One thing about Amber is she will protest. She will make some signs and she will show the fuck up. So that's what she did after the trial.

And people showed up. They were protesting the non-arrest of Ian Calhoun. Back then all we knew about from court was that it seemed he'd met up with Brian to see Kathleen's dead body, and that he had sent Brian an article warning him when her body was found.

There were so many questions after the trial. At first the questions were about Ian but it turned out there was so much more.

Amber went to visit Brian. Amber won his trust. He started mailing her documents. Police reports. Things that couldn't be obtained with records requests. Amber kept going. Kept sitting across from this man who killed women like us. She was trying so hard to find the other women's bodies. For their families. Amber did that. A sex worker. A criminal.

Amber found Ian's last text to Brian, asking if he could say now that he had been trained. APD had swept that under the rug too. He's from a good family you know. Not a criminal, by their definitions.

Amber went to the courthouse during the little window of time that the sentencing report wasn't sealed and she found the pictures of another victim. Cassandra. The police had kept that victim secret from the public. They'd kept it secret from Cassandra's family. Amber found her pictures and found her family and kept sitting across from that serial killer who kills women like us trying to find out where he put Cassandra's body.

Investigation Discovery came up here and Amber bent over backwards to give them all the information, all the documents, introduce them to all the people. She wanted the story out there. She wanted people to know.

And they made this Lost Girls documentary where they really seem to have done their best to eliminate everything they could about sex workers. They didn't say Ian's name. They didn't say so much.

They did make space to feature a popular journalist mourning a victim because there had been hope for her to turn her life around. I've spent so many hours of my life talking to that journalist over the last 11 years and I'm honestly thinking there might not be much hope for her to turn her life around.

They also managed to feature a "reformed" cop talking about women with "lifestyle challenges." He likes that phrase better than the old one, NHI - No Human Involved.

I want you to know the truth.

This whole story was about sex workers. About what APD does when they get a report about the murder of a black prostitute. About how serial killers are allowed to go on killing us and police don't even bother to acknowledge it. About our hero Valerie who had the guts and the smarts to stop a serial killer. About Amber showing up and uncovering everything they tried to hide.

About sex workers and how they make criminals and victims of us.

If you want to know the whole story with all of the details that this documentary left out, Amber has put it all together for you on The Harm Done.

If you want to express your appreciation to our hero Valerie who was so brave and so smart and stopped a serial killer while living in a tent in the winter and being treated like shit by the cops, her cashapp is $53noFeFe