Gavin Newsom, the Governor of California, officially signed a bill this past Friday that reversed a loitering law that was used by police to try and fight HUman trafficking and prostitution all across the state of California.
SB 357, which was authored by San Francisco’s Democrat Sen. Scott Wiener, axes a law that criminalized “loitering with the intent to engage in prostitution.” He stated that the law allowed the officers a subjective perception of whether someone is “acting like” or “looks like” they engage in prostitution — especially black, brown, and transgender women. Despite this, Weiner stated that the removal of this law from the books does not as a result decriminalize engaging in or soliciting prostitution.
Many of those who stand against the removal of this bill, both in and out of the Senate, all think that removing this authority from police officers to look into these loitering cases would only end up making it far easier for pimps, traffickers, and just prostitution as a whole.
Stephany Powell, a former Los Angeles Police Department vice sergeant that has moved on to take a role as the director of law enforcement training and survivor services at the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, claimed that this bill will hinder the ability of law enforcement officials to help the victims of human trafficking, which includes minors.
“Many officers rely on the loitering laws to initiate trafficking investigations that have led to serious convictions for traffickers and pimps,” stated Powell via a release. “SB 357 assumes that loitering laws are used to merely harass marginalized people, and by repealing them, these people will experience less discrimination from police. In reality, repealing loitering laws will only cause further harm to communities with existing poverty and high crime.”
A report from CBS stated that The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and the 75,000-member Peace Officers Research Association of California also issued their objection to the new bill as it would make the confronting of those who engage in prostitution-related crimes much harder and Powell stated via social media that the “California bear has a tear in his eye” just a single day after Newsom put his name to the bill.
“The Black community will be a free place for sex buyers (solicitation) and traffickers (procurement) to loiter and roam,’ she explained.
Advocates to end modern-day slavery and the victims of human trafficking who also stood opposed to the new bill spoke out against it during its press conference slightly before it managed to force its way through the Senate and Assembly last year.
The founder of San Francisco-based anti-sex trafficking group Love Never Fails, Vanessa Russel, stated that instead of giving help to those who survive, the bill actually hurts them and forces demand to just increase.
One such survivor, Hannah Diaz, who stood with Russel last year for an event standing against the new bill, stated that “fatalities will increase” without the intervention the original law allowed officers.
“With trauma-informed training and identification tactics,” stated Diaz. “Officers are an invaluable asset to the war against human trafficking.”