It’s not often that California Republicans, who control no statewide elected offices and are in a super-minority position in the Legislature, score a major legislative and political victory. Earlier this month, they not only succeeded in advancing a bill to toughen penalties for child sex trafficking — but they managed to embarrass the majority party in the process.
Sen. Shannon Grove, R-Bakersfield, and her GOP colleagues — bolstered by social-media indignation — handled the matter adroitly. But mainly the Assembly Public Safety Committee, notorious for its progressive tilt, sabotaged itself by taking an overly ideological approach to a serious issue that understandably stirs passions. Members misread the public mood and what they could get away with.
Grove’s Senate Bill 14 would add “human trafficking of a minor for purposes of a commercial sex act to the list of ‘serious’ felonies subject to enhanced penalties, including under California’s Three Strikes Law.” As news reports note, lawmakers have unsuccessfully tried to do this for years.
The bill passed the Senate unanimously in May. Rather than vote against it, Assembly committee members blocked it on July 11 by abstaining. Instead of quietly going away, however, “a backlash swiftly took shape on social media,” as CalMatters reported. It noted that Gov. Gavin Newsom called for its passage, as did Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas, D-Salinas. The Public Safety Committee revisited the issue and it finally passed on July 13.
Committee members complained to the publication that they received threats after their first vote, which of course is unacceptable in any situation. But that shouldn’t diminish our criticism of committee Chairman Reggie Jones-Sawyer, D-Los Angeles, for his mishandling of the matter. Jones-Sawyer appears ideologically opposed to supporting any measure that leads to more people — especially minorities — serving time in prison. But when it comes to the justice system, nuance and coherence are essential.
Yet the Assembly Public Safety committee and the Democratic Legislature have demonstrated a remarkable incoherence. Just a few years ago, they passed a new law that created tougher penalties for organized retail theft. That was justified given the high-profile attacks on businesses in some of California’s major cities.
So why wouldn’t the committee consider enhanced penalties for those who “cause, induce, or persuade, a person who is a minor at the time of commission of the offense to engage in a commercial sex act, with the intent to commit specified crimes including pimping, pandering, or child pornography”? No one in their right mind would campaign to take such a heinous crime off of the list if it were already on there, so it shouldn’t have been such a heavy lift to place the crime on the list.
Opponents of the bill argued, per the Assembly committee analysis, that, “The Three Strikes model of sentencing enhancements is fundamentally flawed and should be repealed, not built upon.” There are serious arguments against the way California’s three-strikes system is designed, but that speaks to the need for a careful examination of it — not a willy-nilly approach that diminishes its application to the commercialization of minors.
Unfortunately, Jones-Sawyer and his Democratic colleagues haven’t put in the actual political or analytical work to ensure a balanced and coherent approach to criminal justice. Hence the incoherent and unprincipled manner in which the committee swung from blocking a bill to designate child sex trafficking to approving it.
Quite frankly, the Assembly Public Safety Committee deserved this comeuppance.
—The Editorial Board, Southern California News Group
