On 05 Mar 2022, Lefty Lundquist <lefty_lundquist@ggmail.com> posted some
news:svvtfe$oob$1@dont-email.me:

> San Francisco is a lost cause and Hillary Ronen, Kamala Harris and
> Gavin Newsom are three of the reasons why.

Prostitution in San Francisco becoming 'more brazen, and bigger than
we�ve ever seen it,' Supervisor Ronen says

A San Francisco County leader voiced support to legalize prostitution in
the city as brazen soliciting spirals across the state after a new law
took effect this year.

"What�s happening right now on Capp Street is it�s become more brazen,
and bigger than we�ve ever seen it before," county Supervisor Hillary
Ronen told The Los Angeles Times last week.

"Instead of repeating the same cycle that we�ve repeated for decades,
it�s time to try something new."

Ronen called the situation "out of control" in comments to the San
Francisco Chronicle, and pushed for San Francisco to install barriers on
Capp Street in the heart of San Francisco�s Mission District, after it
became lined with prostitutes and pimps.

This week, she is expected to announce a resolution that will urge state
lawmakers to legalize prostitution.

"I don�t think this is going to happen tomorrow. This would be a major
change in policy and direction," Ronen told The LA Times "I certainly
won�t be the first person to try to urge the legalization of
prostitution, and I won�t be the last."

The surge in prostitution and apparent human trafficking in California
comes after a change in law took effect last month that repealed a ban
on loitering with the intent to engage in prostitution. The bill's
sponsor, Democratic state Sen. Scott Wiener, argued the change would
protect transgender women whom he said are disproportionately targeted
by police.

"[The previous law] allowed police officers to arrest a person, not
based on what they did, but based solely on how a person looks," Wiener
recently told KGO-TV. "So, an officer could arrest someone because they
were wearing tight clothing, high heels and extra lipstick."

Police and Republicans in the state have since sounded off that the new
law sparked prostitution to explode in certain areas of the state, such
as Los Angeles, San Francisco and Oakland.

Los Angeles police sources who spoke to Fox News Digital last week said
the law is "definitely" handcuffing them from cracking down on
prostitution. The police said that because of the reform they can only
make arrests if a suspect admits to prostitution, which they said is a
rarity.

Police said with the emboldened prostitution rings come robberies,
shootings, aggravated assaults and other crimes. Many of the pimps are
gang-affiliated and take no issue with beating women or going after
rival pimps who try to poach one of the workers, they said. Some even
record the beatdowns because they "think it�s funny," police said.

The Coalition to Abolish Slavery & Trafficking, which is one of the
largest and oldest direct service providers for sex and labor
trafficking survivors in the U.S., threw its support behind the bill and
told Fox News Digital that it endorsed repealing the former 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 are
unable to access safety due to their records and are vulnerable to
continued exploitation," Leigh LaChapelle, CAST's associate director of
survivor advocacy, told Fox News.

A legislative aide to Ronen argued previous state and federal laws only
chased "the problem around," and that legalization would remedy the
prostitution issues.

"We have tried many laws. Federal laws. State laws," Santiago Lerma,
Ronen�s legislative aide, said according to KRON 4. "So, what we are
hoping and trying to do is advocate for our state lawmakers to really
address this issue and to legalize it."

San Francisco Police Officers Association President Tracy McCray
responded to the plan and said: "Yeah, sorry. Not down with this."
McCray pointed to the legalization of marijuana sales in her argument
against legalizing prostitution.

"Not only were people going to the store to get marijuana, they�re still
selling it out on the street. It didn�t stop anything," said McCray,
according to KRON 4.

"You still have people being shot over marijuana," McCray added. "You
still have businesses being robbed of their marijuana. It didn�t stop it
just because they said we�re going to make it legal, and everything is
going to be good. That did not happen."

Outreach director at the St. James Infirmary in San Francisco, Celestina
Pearl, is supportive of a potential red-light district, but said the
women working the streets should be included in such conversations about
legalizing prostitution.

"I think a town hall meeting with the interested parties, folks who
would be affected by this, would be a really great first start," Pearl
said.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/california-politician-suggests-fix-
states-brazen-prostitution-legalize-it