Readers will know that I’ve taken aim at the California Assembly Public Safety committee and they may wonder why I am getting on my high horse again, but I cannot stress enough how Democrats in Sacramento are an absolute menace to public safety.
The recent drama over a very simple, clear bill to stop child sex trafficking goes to the heart of the problems of a supermajority in Sacramento.
With the Democrats having a supermajority it means there is no thought process, there is a lack of scrutiny and there is a partisan attitude of “Republican means bad.” This leads to perfectly sensible bills from Republicans being blocked and the arrogant Democrats ignoring the legitimate concerns of their voters.
Most Democrat politicians in California are more interested in sucking up to their mad communist fringe and union paymasters than listening to their voters.
Look at the absolute state of the cities of San Francisco and Los Angeles. The homeless problem is out of control. The drug problem is a real issue and the answer is always more taxes, more committees and more “holistic solutions” and “big tables.”
Any sensible solution is immediately rejected and instead a bunch of hot air, inaction and waffle comes out. The Do Nothing Democrats fix nothing. It is, to quote a British phrase, “All Mouth and No Trouser” (pants).
The political blowback from this absolute hot mess caught the Do Nothing Democrats by surprise, so much so that we saw one of the quickest political reverse ferrets in history.
Days after facing political blowback for blocking a bill that would have classified child sex trafficking as a serious felony in California, the state’s Assembly Public Safety Committee was forced to rehear the bill.
Even then, two Democrats didn’t vote!
“Selling our children in the state of California should not be an option, and I’m excited the Public Safety Committee reconsidered the bill,” said state Sen. Shannon Grove, R-Bakersfield, the author of the bill.
It was only when Gov. Gavin Newsom realized just how boneheaded blocking this bill was that the Democrats swung into action
At every step of the way, Republicans had listened to Democrats and changed the bill several times to appease their concerns held by Democrats in the state Senate, which ultimately approved the bill. But still, the Democrats in the Assembly didn’t bother to engage until all political hell broke loose.
As our Minority Leader Assemblyman James Gallagher says, “It should not be this hard to pass good, common-sense policy that protects our children.”
This isn’t the first time the Democrats running this committee failed the people of California, either. Assembly leadership earlier this year forced the committee to have a hearing on a set of fentanyl-related bills after the leader of the committee refused to hear them. Even then, the bills with proper penalties against drug dealers were dropped.
Away from the politics we need to accept that child trafficking is a growing problem in our state. Don’t take my word for it. Listen to Dominique Brown, a former trafficking victim.
Dominique was at the state capitol when the Assembly Public Safety Committee reversed its decision. She said 10 years ago, her trafficker was let out of prison after serving five years — and attempted to contact her.
Brown, who now works with child trafficking victims in Fresno, said she, too, has seen a growing number of those affected by the crime. She said she is currently working with 40 children who are victims of trafficking. The youngest is 11 years old.
Brown applauded the bill’s passage.
“The trafficker knows kids are off limits,” she said. “This bill, knowing you can spend the rest of your life in jail if you come for our children, is a game changer.”
If you believe someone is a victim of trafficking, please call the National Human Trafficking Hotline toll-free at 1-888-373-7888. Anti-trafficking hotline advocates are available 24/7 to take reports of potential human trafficking.
You can text the hotline at 233733.
I ask that all of us pause and reflect and think about how we can end this evil scourge.
Neil Fitzgerald is an international nonprofit leader having served in the U.S., U.K. and globally for various nonprofit and charity boards. He served as a conservative council member in the U.K. and as a campaign manager. “Right Here, Right Now” appears Saturdays and rotates among local Republicans.
