California Senate passes watered down version of SB 1414.
A new proposal introduced in California has drawn the ire of woke activists due to its harsher punishments for pedophiles.
The bill in question is Senate Bill (SB) 1414, authored by Republican State Sen. Shannon Grove and co-authored by Democratic State Sens. Anna Caballero and Susan Rubio. Under SB 1414, solicitation of sex acts from minors will be considered a felony.
But woke leftist activists have expressed opposition to SB 1414. During a hearing of the California State Assembly’s Public Safety Committee, two activists voiced out their displeasure.
“We are particularly concerned that the harsher penalties proposed in this bill will disproportionately impact marginalized communities, especially members of the LGBT community who already suffer from systemic biases within the criminal justice system – particularly when it comes to sexually-based offenses,” said Kellie Walters, staff attorney for the Oakland, California-based organization Legal Services for Prisoners with Children.
“LGBT people, particularly gay and transgendered individuals, are more likely to be charged with sex offenses. For instance, LGBT people are nine times more likely to be charged with sodomy.”
Activist Isabella Borgeson also expressed disagreement with SB 1414 – albeit her complaints focused on its potential impact on minorities. According to Borgeson, “harsher penalties” for pedophiles would “disproportionately impact marginalized communities,” in particular “Black and Brown individuals.”
The mask-wearing Borgeson, an outside fellow for the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, argued: “Punitive measures [would] perpetuate cycles of incarceration.” She instead recommended investments in “community-based solutions.”
California Senate passes watered down version of SB 1414
In May, the California State Senate passed SB 1414 in a 36-0 vote. But the bill’s version that passed appears to be watered down, thanks to the State Senate’s Public Safety Committee that forced amendments into the bill. According to Grove’s office, these weakened protections for children ages 16 and 17.
(Related: California legislators BLOCK bill to make child trafficking a “serious felony.”)
“The [California State] Senate Appropriations Committee had the opportunity to strengthen the bill language, but failed to do so,” the state senator’s office continued. “Grove’s proposed amendments would have made it a prison felony for solicitation or purchasing sex from a child of any age and remove the 10-year age gap requirement for sex offender registry.”
According to Mojave Desert News, the California State Assembly’s Public Safety Committee added several amendments to the bill on July 2, which district attorneys have said will make it even harder to prosecute child predators. These amendments require 16- and 17-year-olds to be proven victims of human trafficking for buyers to be held accountable and charged with a stronger penalty.
Grove remarked: “Don’t be fooled by the announcement that they restored a felony for purposing children in SB 1414. Today, the [California State] Assembly Public Safety Committee amended SB 1414, making it even harder to protect 16 and 17-year-old children.
“In order for 16 and 17-year-olds to have additional protections, they must first prove to be victims of human trafficking. Now, two crimes must be proven – the buying and the selling of a child –before a buyer can receive a stronger penalty.
“All children deserve to be protected equally. When will the Public Safety Committees prioritize the protection of all children over perpetrators?”
From the looks of it, the amendments on Grove’s bill that defanged it were introduced in a bid to appease woke activists such as Walters and Borgeson. This led Grove to ultimately comment: “It should not be so complicated to protect all children from being purchased for sex, yet some Democrat legislators think 16- and 17-year-olds should not have the same protections given to 15-year-olds.”
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