On Monday, the governor signed , reclassifying child sex trafficking into a serious felony that increases prison sentences, 鈥淐alifornia is going further to protect kids.鈥� Sen. , a Republican from Bakersfield and author of the bill, said in a statement that the measure is a 鈥渉uge victory for California鈥檚 children and the survivors of sex trafficking.鈥�
- Grove: 鈥淚 want to thank the thousands of Californians who called or visited legislative offices, signed petitions, and spoke out on social media. We are here today because of the overwhelming public outrage that propelled this bill through the legislature and ultimately helped protect our children from predators.鈥�
During an after the signing, Grove said 鈥渋t should have never been this hard鈥� to get the bill through, referring to the political fireworks as the measure journeyed to Newsom鈥檚 desk. In July, the Assembly public safety committee, led by Democratic Assemblymember of Los Angeles, initially stalled the bill in part due to . They argued that harsher sentences do not deter crime; that there are already laws that sufficiently punish traffickers; and that those at the lowest rungs, who may be trafficked themselves, will bear the brunt of legal punishments.
The blocking of the bill led to an uproar from Assembly Republicans; new Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas and Newsom also got involved. During a debate to send the bill back to the committee (which reversed course and passed the measure), Assemblymember , a Republican from Ripon, urged his fellow lawmakers to 鈥渃hoose your team 鈥� pick pedophiles or children.鈥� Jones-Sawyer reported that women on the committee received death threats as well.
Also Monday, Newsom signed that ban books and other education materials based solely on the materials鈥� inclusion of history related to Black, Latino, Asian, Native American, LGBTQ people and other groups. The bill is one response by Democratic legislators and leaders to on books and transgender students.
Standing alongside Assemblymember , a Moreno Valley Democrat and author of the bill, Newsom
- Newsom, in a video: 鈥淚t鈥檚 remarkable that we鈥檙e living in a country right now in this banning binge, this cultural purge that we鈥檙e experiencing all throughout America and now increasingly here in the state of California where we have school districts, large and small, that are banning books, banning free speech, criminalizing librarians and teachers. And we want to do more than just push back rhetorically against that, and that鈥檚 what this legislation provides.鈥�
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