A Democratic lawmaker has made an impassioned call to push a bill to send pedophiles who buy sex with children to prison.
California State Senator Susan Eggman declared that “we have a moral responsibility to say enough, enough” as she called the House together for unanimous approval.
Antiquated state laws mean that people who solicit underage prostitutes can only be charged with misdemeanors and receive only two days in jail.
SB 1414 would make it a felony punishable by two to four years in prison, $25,000 and registration as a sex offender.
However, a group of rebel Democrats led by state Sen. Scott Wiener watered down the bill in the Senate Public Safety Committee.
California State Senator Susan Eggman said she made an impassioned call to push for a bill to send pedophiles who buy sex with children to prison.
Eggman lashed out at rebel lawmakers from his own party in his fiery May 23 speech after they opposed a bipartisan majority and Gov. Gavin Newsom, who want the bill to remain as strict as expected.
“I would like to say, as a proud and progressive member of this body for the last 12 years, that I am done,” he said.
‘I’m done protecting the people who would buy and abuse our children. I’ve finished.’
Wiener rebels worried that the law would send too many people to prison after warnings from legal groups about unintended consequences.
But Eggman disagreed, after many other attempts to update California laws were blocked over the past decade.
‘I don’t want to send any more black and brown men to prison. “I don’t want more people in prison,” he said.
But I don’t want people to buy girls. I don’t want people to buy girls anymore. And I’m tired of saying that it’s okay and that we have to protect the men who do it.
A protest against pedophilia in St Paul, Minnesota
Eggman said she met too many young victims of sexual abuse in her pre-political experience as a social worker who were “hurt to the core.”
He said victims were often abused by people close to them who they “love and seek to protect” them, and when parents failed, the law had to act.
“I’m not saying that we open the doors to flood our prisons with people, but I do have the moral responsibility to say enough, enough,” he said.
‘We have given up too much in this area and we have to return to the center or we will all look like fools and a laughing stock. And what do we represent?
Eggman referenced the documentary Escaping the Blade, which examined the underage sex trade in Sacramento.
State Senator Shannon Grove, author of SB 1414, appeared in the documentary and used it as a key component in pushing for its passage in the House.
“Men get a little slap on the hand or a couple of days and then they go back out and do the same thing,” Eggman said.
‘They get caught again and again. And in some ways that’s okay. Not well. It’s not good anymore. And I’m not looking anymore.
Eggman lashed out at rebel lawmakers from his own party in his fiery May 23 speech after they opposed a bipartisan majority and Gov. Gavin Newsom, who want the bill to remain as strict as expected.
Eggman will leave the state Senate in the upcoming election due to term limits and urged his colleagues to continue the work after his departure.
‘Leave. But the rest of you who are going to be here for a while, let’s get our shit together and start really focusing on some of the important things,” she said.
‘We talk about learning and we talk about being safe. This is the core of it. And many of these children may be disposable children.
“They’re poor kids, they’re kids of color, but they shouldn’t have to live a life determined by what happens to them at a very young age and for the California Democratic Party to say, okay.”
‘Not well. And I won’t do it anymore. And I hope none of you do too. We have to be able to draw a line. And for me, I’m drawing a line. I urge you to vote in favor.’
Shortly after Eggman and many others spoke in support of SB 1414, the bill passed the state Senate 36-0.
The bill will now move to the state Assembly, where Grove and most others in both parties hope it will return to its original form.
Grove crafted the bill to make hiring underage prostitutes a felony across the board, following up on an earlier bill that targeted pimps and sex traffickers.
In addition to increasing punishments, the bill also eliminated the need for suspects to know or reasonably have known that that sex worker was a minor.
Eggman said she met too many young victims of sexual abuse in her pre-political experience as a social worker who were “hurt to the core.”
But after the Committee of Public Safety, controlled by Wiener’s rebels, finished him off, he was so diluted that Grove wanted his name removed.
‘That’s rubbish, rubbish. I don’t know what to say. Can I remove my name from the invoice. It’s not my bill. They took my bill and turned it into something they found enjoyable,” she said.
Instead of a felony, the offense would be a “wobbler,” meaning the court can decide whether to charge the defendant with a felony or misdemeanor.
The need to know or reasonably know that the sex worker was a minor was reinstated and first-time offenders would not always have to register as sex offenders.
The most controversial change was making the bill essentially not apply when the victim was 16 or 17, leaving the crime a misdemeanor in those cases.
The changes were in response to criticism from the ACLU and the California Public Defenders Association, among others, about unintended consequences.
“The core problem is that this bill is not limited to solicitation by mature adults or even adults,” said Natasha Minsker, policy counsel for Smart Justice California.
“This bill applies to words spoken by a 16- or 17-year-old to a 17-year-old.”
State Sen. Shannon Grove, author of SB 1414, wanted her name removed after it was watered down in committee.
The CPDA said the bill punishes some defendants more harshly even when they did not intend to have sex with a minor.
“Unfortunately, this change will place some defendants in the category of sex offenders with lifelong consequences for them and their families, even though the intent is completely lacking,” he stated.
The bill will be debated by the state Assembly in the coming months and some or all of Grove’s provisions could be restored.
“The crime of purchasing a child, of any age, for sexual intercourse in the state of California should be a serious prison offense,” he said after the weaker version was passed.
“We must restore this bill in the Assembly to protect all children in the state of California from the horrible crime of sex trafficking.”
