California cities shocked by prostitution and human trafficking in broad daylight as cops lay blame on new law

Women in thongs in broad daylight on street corners, pimps following mothers as they take their children to school, and prostitutes twerking in traffic have become commonplace in California.

Local leaders say human trafficking and prostitution are rampant in the Golden State following a new criminal justice reform that its author says aims to protect transgender women from unfair prosecution by law enforcement.

“This is completely unmanageable and dangerous – not just for sex workers, but for society,” San Francisco-based supervisor Hillary Ronen told the San Francisco Chronicle this week.

A road in downtown San Francisco’s Mission District is filled with prostitutes and pimps, prompting city officials to set up barricades as residents scream not only feel less safe, especially at night, but also worry about working women. streets.

“Over there from the window I will see three [people] conspired with the girl,” one San Francisco resident told the Chronicle, pointing to a bay window overlooking the intersection. “They will beat her.”

CALIFORNIA PROSTITUTION LAW ALLOWS SEXUAL ABUSE TO BE HARRY ON LOS ANGELES STREETS, VICTIMS ADVOCACY WARN

A man with a guitar is looking for a music venue in the Mission District of San Francisco. (Reuters/Robert Galbraith/File)

“I call the police, no one comes. There is nothing I can do,” said an unknown woman.

The problem is not limited to San Francisco, other major cities such as Los Angeles and Oakland are reporting the same.

An LAPD officer (right) speaks to two recently arrested women at the 77th LAPD headquarters. (Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images/File)

Pimps in Oakland have reportedly placed prostitutes outside a Catholic elementary school, where parents say they walk their children to school past women who are barely dressed or even naked.

“It’s every day, any time of the day,” mother Rosa Vargas told ABC 7. Vargas claimed the pimp even followed Vargas down the street a couple of times. According to residents and local leaders, some of the prostitutes look very young and are likely underage.

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Police departments and Republican leaders in the state are blaming open prostitution on a new law that went into effect Jan. 1. Senate Bill 357 repealed a previous law that prohibited loitering with the intent to engage in prostitution.

“California Democrats’ crime-legalization policies are taking more and more casualties by the hour,” said GOP Assembly Leader James Gallagher.

“Under democratic rule, families and businesses leave and traffickers move in,” Gallagher added. “It was clear from the start that this law would encourage and facilitate human trafficking, but it appears to have been an acceptable outcome for the legislators who supported it.”

CALIFORNIA PROSTITUTION LAW ALLOWS SEXUAL ABUSE TO BE HARRY ON LOS ANGELES STREETS, VICTIMS ADVOCACY WARN

The original bill was introduced by Democratic Senator Scott Wiener, who argued that it would protect transgender women, who he said were being disproportionately targeted by police.

“[The previous law] allowed the police to arrest a person not on the basis of what they did, but solely on the basis of how the person looks,” Viner recently told KGO-TV. extra lipstick.

California State Senator Scott Wiener (Scott Viner)

Earlier this week, Viner stressed to Fox News Digital that prostitution and human trafficking issues have long plagued certain areas of California and called what people see in Oakland “unacceptable.” But he stood for reform.

“The hands of the police are not tied,” Viner told local media. “They can arrest people for extortion, they can refer to cars stopped in the middle of the street, they can arrest Joneses, they can arrest pimps.”

The Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Human Trafficking (CAST), which is one of the largest and oldest providers of direct services to victims of sex and labor trafficking in the United States, supported the bill and told Fox News Digital that it supports repealing the previous policy. “because we know that reducing the criminalization of survivors will help prevent human trafficking.”

“Traffickers rely on our systems to criminalize victims so that they cannot access security because of their data and are vulnerable to further exploitation,” Lee LaChapelle, CAST’s deputy director of survivor advocacy, told Fox News.

“The impact of these encounters with law enforcement amplifies the already heightened stigma when someone is arrested for this crime due to difficulty finding employment and safe housing with a sex trafficking arrest record,” LaChapelle added. “Violation of this discriminatory law also puts immigrants at risk of deportation, loss of residency, or denial of entry due to a conviction for a misdemeanor.”

LaChapelle noted that the law has only been in effect for just over a month and said state leaders “should address the larger, longstanding systemic issues that contribute to any potential increase in human trafficking in California, such as homelessness.” “

But LAPD sources who spoke to Fox News Digital said the law “definitely” handcuffs them from fighting prostitution. The police said that because of the reform, they can only make arrests if the suspect confesses to prostitution, which they say is rare.

Figueroa Street in Los Angeles, also known as “The Blade”, is flooded with prostitutes and pimps, according to police. Law enforcement officials provided Fox News with social media accounts that showed young women in thongs and fishnet stockings, often bare-chested, standing up and even twerking in broad daylight on the streets.

LAPD sources who spoke to Fox News Digital say the new reform law makes it impossible for them to crack down on prostitution. (Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images/File)

Police said brazen gangs of prostitutes are involved in robberies, shootings, aggravated assaults and other crimes. Many of the pimps are gang-related, they say, and don’t mind beating up women or harassing rival pimps who are trying to poach one of the workers. Some even record the beatings because they “think it’s funny,” police said.

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The Oakland Police Department told Fox News Digital that the new law “now prevents law enforcement officers across the state.”

Before the law went into effect, “the department’s highway team and patrol officers conducted high-visibility patrols,” noting that officials “hope that the increased presence of these officers in different areas deters activity and does not re-victimize.” human trafficking.”

An LAPD officer oversees the loading of 13 women arrested earlier in the day into a van in Los Angeles. (Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images/File)

LaChapelle argued that the police still have “many intervention points available” to “investigate human trafficking without arresting those who did not commit the crime”, and they said that “prison is not an outreach work and certainly not is a service.”

“Using arrest as a gateway to services is harmful and mistrustful in our communities,” LaChapelle said. “One thing that CAST has heard from our clients countless times is that the arrest was not only traumatic and re-victimized, but created insurmountable barriers to finding work, safe housing and immigration assistance.”

Auckland City Council President Nikki Fortunato Bas has been addressing human trafficking issues in her district since she took office in 2019. She told Fox News Digital that she is working on the root causes of human trafficking and not just taking prostitution to another community.

“This is a big problem. This is a problem that has been affecting many communities in California and beyond and has been going on for decades,” Fortunato Bas said. “And so my approach has been to consider a comprehensive approach that includes exploiter-focused law enforcement.”

Auckland City Council President Nikki Fortunato Bas (city of Auckland)

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She said she focused on the exploiters and stressed that the police department is working with the district attorney’s office to gather enough evidence for prosecution. She added that the city has increased the budget of its Department of Violence Prevention to deploy more violence interrupters on the streets.

Her office also worked to install speed bumps and improve lighting on some streets and launched other Crime Prevention Through Green Design initiatives such as traffic cops.

Oakland City Hall in California (Google Maps)

“Preventing violence and working with victims to offer services including housing, vocational training, even food, as well as working with the District Attorney to provide greater protection for victims who are willing to speak up” is paramount in her fight against human trafficking and women being exploited. she said.

LaChapelle added in a comment to Fox News Digital that the issue of funding needs to be taken into account amid discussions about prostitution and human trafficking.

“In June 2021, the California legislature accepted a $30 million CAST request to fund service providers for victims of human trafficking over three years,” LaChapelle said. “This additional $30 million comes at a time when urgent human trafficking cases are at an all-time high.

The group is in favor of increased funding, she said.

“Arresting survivors is not an option when we are struggling to fund enough beds and services at the shelter,” LaChapelle said.

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Fortunato Bas said it was “premature” to make statements on alleged reform issues as the new law is only in effect for about a month.

But police sources equated the new law with California Proposition 47, which reduced felony to misdemeanors for stealing goods worth $950 or less. Critics have claimed that it sparked an explosion of theft and rioting across the state, with several flash mobs breaking into high-end stores with crowbars and bats, breaking shop windows and running off with luxury goods.

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For now, police have said they are preparing for problems that will only get worse, and have urged state and city leaders to take a trip to see the illegal activity for themselves.