Sex Trafficking Law Appears to Get Enough Signatures For California's November Ballot
Backers of a sex trafficking law say they have turned in enough signatures to put the initiative before voters in November.
CASE Sex trafficking victims.
Organizers of the Californians Against Sexual Exploitation Act said today they turned in 865,000 signatures to the Secretary of State.
The law would ...
... increase jail time for traffickers, require pimps and the like the register as sex offenders, require sex offenders to reveal their email and social networking accounts, and require such convicts to pay for victims' counseling.
You might say that the sex trafficking story in America is overblown, and that there are already plenty of laws to fight it (kidnapping, pimping and pandering, coerced rape, etc.). But CASE says in a statement:
Three cities in California - San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego - are recognized by the FBI as high intensity child sex trafficking areas. In addition, a recent national study by a victims' rights group gave California an "F" grade for its weak laws dealing with child sex trafficking.
The initiative is supported by the California Peace Officers Association and Marc Klaas and the KlaasKids Foundation.
Dellena Hoyer, trafficking survivor, says:
I was trafficked at the age of twelve on the streets of Sacramento, just blocks from the State Capitol. I used to wonder - why didn't anyone come up to me, and ask what a little girl was doing out on the streets at one o'clock in the morning?
[@dennisjromero / djromero@laweekly.com / @LAWeeklyNews]
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