"Rage-Farming in the Name of California's Kids"
https://rant.li/thenonameleague/rage-farming-in-the-name-of-californias-kids
This week Right-wing rage-farmers were making big hay out of the California State Assembly Committee on Public Safety rejecting SB 14, a Senate bill to raise human trafficking to a "serious felony" that would add it to the Three Strikes Law.
Despite originally passing unanimously in the Senate with a bipartisan vote, the narrative is that "the Left" voted it down because, of course, "they are protecting child traffickers & pedophiles".
It seems that Assembly-members may actually have considered the advice of organizations and experts in the field who pointed out that the bill wouldn't likely help but would instead hinder efforts to reduce child trafficking.
Analysis of SB 14 for the Public Safety Assembly:
https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billAnalysisClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240SB14#
More funds would be sent to prison system instead of poverty reduction, education, and programs that would actually help kids & their families become less of a target and reduce the economic draw of human trafficking.
Experts and those actually working to fight trafficking point out that, like similar laws in other states', it can often hurt many of the victims of trafficking themselves.
Today the bill was passed in an emergency vote and goes on to the Assembly Appropriations Committee after the summer break.
While this may not actually aid in the fight against human trafficking of any kind and may rather hurt communities more than help,
at least now moral-panickers are closer to getting their law and disingenuously target their perceived political enemies.
In these polarized times, that is apparently what matters more than stopping these abhorrent crimes or helping its victims.
#california #prison #trafficking #farRight #moralPanic #threeStrikes
article also on Medium: https://medium.com/@c.s.balthazar/rage-farming-in-the-name-of-californias-kids-7c70aaa26302?source=friends_link&sk=cec625189d508f178221e2287101f46b