The Democrat supermajority controlling the state Assembly in California is being called after refusing to advance legislation protecting children from trafficking.
Earlier in the week, the California Assembly’s Public Safety Committee blocked a measure that would have made child trafficking a serious felony, the Daily Wire reported.
The bill, HB 14, noted that “California consistently ranks number one in the nation in the number of human trafficking cases reported to the National Human Trafficking Hotline,” and “Human trafficking is among the world’s fastest growing criminal enterprises and is estimated to be a $150,000,000,000 a year global industry.”
The proposed legislation aimed to include human trafficking of a minor under California’s Three Strikes Law, meaning that individuals convicted of this crime twice would face a potential life sentence in prison.
Despite receiving unanimous approval in the State Senate, none of the six Democrats on the committee were willing to vote on the bill. The only votes in favor came from two Republicans, Assemblymen Juan Alanis and Tom Lackey.
Assemblyman Reggie Jones-Sawyer, a Democrat from Los Angeles and the Chairman of the Assembly Public Safety Committee, expressed opposition to the bill. GOP state Senator Shannon Grove, one of the bill’s co-authors, stated that she had held discussions with Democrats on the committee prior to the hearing.
“They all thought it was a good bill and said they would consider it, but there is this issue of rolling the chair, so I don’t think anyone was going to stand up against the chair,” she said.
“You’re horrible!” and “You should be ashamed of yourselves!” members of the audience screamed at the meeting as some victims of human trafficking broke down in tears.
“I am profoundly disappointed that committee Democrats couldn’t bring themselves to support the bill, with their stubborn and misguided objection to any penalty increase regardless of how heinous the crime,” Grove said. “You can pass a note to a bank and rob a bank, you can commit arson, and that’s considered a serious felony. But to traffic a minor child in the state of California is not. That’s wrong.”
Grove told KCRA 3 that she tried to call Jones-Sawyer on his cellphone three times, and her staff tried another six or seven times, but he refused to answer and wouldn’t meet with her.
“The committee has also rejected other measures that would increase penalties for domestic violence offenders, rapists of developmentally disabled children and other sexually violent crimes,” KCRA noted.
