The Daily Wire
By Hank Berrien, July 12, 2023
Note from Pastor Kevin: The parents who have lost their children to traffickers wept at the wickedness of those who voted against this law. God is weeping too, and will judge when His mercy reaches His limit as it did in the days of Judah before Babylon destroyed Jerusalem: Ezekiel 22:3-5 Then say, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “The city sheds blood in her own midst, that her time may come; and she makes idols within herself to defile herself. You have become guilty by the blood which you have shed, and have defiled yourself with the idols which you have made. You have caused your days to draw near, and have come to the end of your years; therefore I have made you a reproach to the nations, and a mockery to all countries. Those near and those far from you will mock you as infamous and full of tumult. (NKJV)
This week, the California Assembly’s Public Safety Committee blocked a bill that would have made human trafficking of a minor a serious felony.
The bill, HB 14, noted that “California consistently ranks number one in the nation in the number of human trafficking cases reported to the National Human Trafficking Hotline,” and “Human trafficking is among the world’s fastest growing criminal enterprises and is estimated to be a $150,000,000,000 a year global industry.” The bill would have made human trafficking of a minor subject to California’s Three Strikes Law, and thus someone convicted twice could be sentenced to life in prison.
The bill had already passed unanimously in the State Senate, but not even one of the six Democrats on the committee would vote on the bill; the only yes votes were cast by two Republicans, Assemblymen Juan Alanis and Tom Lackey.
The Assembly Public Safety Committee Chairman, Los Angeles Democrat Assemblyman Reggie Jones-Sawyer, opposed the bill. GOP state Sen. Shannon Grove, who co-authored the bill, said she had spoken with Democrats on the committee prior to the hearing. “They all thought it was a good bill and said they would consider it, but there is this issue of rolling the chair, so I don’t think anyone was going to stand up against the chair,” she said. “You’re horrible!” and “You should be ashamed of yourselves!” yelled members of the audience at the meeting while victims of human trafficking broke down in tears.
“I am profoundly disappointed that committee Democrats couldn’t bring themselves to support the bill, with their stubborn and misguided objection to any penalty increase regardless of how heinous the crime,” Grove said. “You can pass a note to a bank and rob a bank, you can commit arson, and that’s considered a serious felony. But to traffic a minor child in the state of California is not. That’s …