Democrats Push to Legalize Child Prostitution in California!

The biggest problem with liberal solutions to problems is that they’re almost always overthought. In most cases, it isn’t that they don’t care about the issues they try to solve. They simply abandon logic and accountability in their quests to be more helpful. This reality is presented in the most dangerous way with SB 1322 which decriminalizes child prostitution in an attempt to save more children from sex traffickers.

Beginning on Jan. 1, prostitution by minors will be legal in California.

SB 1322 prohibits law enforcement officers from arresting prostitutes who are under the age of 18 for soliciting or engaging in prostitution. This isn’t complicated: teenage girls, or boys, in California, in two days, will be free to have sex in exchange for money without fear of arrest or prosecution.

Read the law for yourself in the following link, or, just read the following direct quote from the law:

“Existing law makes it a crime to solicit or engage in any act of prostitution. Existing law makes it a crime to loiter in any public place with the intent to commit prostitution. This bill would make the above provisions inapplicable to a child under 18 years of age who is alleged to have engaged in conduct that would, if committed by an adult, violate the above provisions.”

It’s okay if you want to reread that last sentence to make sure you read it right the first time. I’ll wait.

This story caught my attention when it was signed into law and I’m glad that it resurfaced yesterday. As a California resident with two daughters, this may be the last straw that pushes me back towards redder pastures after a decade among liberals.

“The law is supposed to protect vulnerable children from adult abuse, yet we brand kids enmeshed in sex-for-play with a scarlet ‘P’ and leave them subject to shame and prosecution.” said Democratic Senator Holly J. Mitchell. “This is our opportunity to do what we say is right in cases of sex trafficking: stop the exploiters and help the exploited.” Sounds good…if that’s all that there was to the law. Unfortunately, there’s more.

Analysis of the law continues: “Teenage girls (and boys) in California will soon be free to have sex in exchange for money without fear of arrest or prosecution.”

Travis Allen, a Republican lawmaker representing the 72nd Assembly District in the California Legislature, warned of the fallout from what he called:

“Terribly destructive legislation [that] was written and passed by the progressive Democrats who control California’s state government.”

“Unfortunately, the reality is that the legalization of underage prostitution suffers from the fatal defect endemic to progressive-left policymaking: it ignores experience, common sense and most of all human nature — especially its darker side,” Allen explained.

“The unintended but predictable consequence of how the real villains — pimps and other traffickers in human misery — will respond to this new law isn’t difficult to foresee. Pimping and pandering will still be against the law whether it involves running adult women or young girls. But legalizing child prostitution will only incentivize the increased exploitation of underage girls. Immunity from arrest means law enforcement can’t interfere with minors engaging in prostitution — which translates into bigger and better cash flow for the pimps. Simply put, more time on the street and less time in jail means more money for pimps, and more victims for them to exploit.”

As with so many concepts pushed by leftists, this one is steeped in identity, labels, feelings, and compassion. The idea is that underage prostitutes are generally exploited and therefore should be treated as the victims they are rather than as criminals. On the surface, this makes sense… as long as you abandon the aforementioned logic and accountability. Rather than worrying about how an arrest will make them feel, we should be worrying about getting child prostitutes off the street and bringing their exploiters to justice.

SB 1322 will do the exact opposite by hindering both of its righteous goals, as Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O’Malley noted.

“It just opens up the door for traffickers to use these kids to commit crimes and exploit them even worse,” she said.

It will not take child prostitutes off the streets. On the contrary, it will increase the number of children who willingly or unwillingly enter into prostitution. There is no argument even from the left that the number of minors willingly hitting the streets to sell themselves will rise. Fear of arrest and prosecution is what keeps many young people from entering into prostitution, so taking away the consequences will remove one of the last barriers of entry into the dangerous lifestyle.

What liberals don’t seem to understand is that it will increase the abuse by pimps and traffickers by giving them a barrier of separation between them and the law. If their victims cannot be arrested, they cannot be questioned. If they can’t be questioned, they won’t be able to turn in their oppressors. In California, manipulating children through threats is now much safer than it ever was before. As an anonymous California prosecutor observed, if sex traffickers or pimps were tasked with writing legislation to protect themselves, it would read like SB 1322.

California has launched a bright beacon into their skies to alert sex traffickers and pimps about their new safe haven on the west coast. Once again, liberals have attempted to preserve the feelings of people rather than to help them get out of their situation. Now, they’ll rejoice that child prostitutes can wear their label of “victim” instead of “criminal” even if doing so means that more children will be exploited as a direct and unavoidable result.