talking about kids being raped, tortured

The Conversation: An initiative on the November ballot would toughen penalties for human trafficking - California Forum - The Sacramento Bee:

'via Blog this'"We're talking about kids being raped, tortured. It appalls me," Phung said. "We have to make this a serious crime so that prosecutors will take it seriously."

Although the concept of human trafficking draws skeptics who see it as a faddish name for an old crime, the United Nations estimates there could be 2.4 million victims today, and the U.S. Justice Department under George W. Bush and Barack Obama have declared war on it.

In California, Attorney General Kamala Harris, involved in the issue for years, is sponsoring bills in the Legislature that would allow prosecutors to more readily seize pimps' property.

The November ballot measure, which qualified last week, will bring attention to the issue as only a California proposition can. Voters almost always approve tough-on-crime measures. This one will be an especially easy sell. The crime strikes at basic fears of every parent.

Lawmakers are trying to reduce theprison population because of the federal court order requiring it and to cut costs.

She tried to qualify an initiative in 2010 with volunteers, but gathered nowhere near the 800,000-plus signatures needed to get a measure on the ballot. After speaking about the issue at a lunch inPalo Alto, she met a politically ambitious financial angel, Chris Kelly. Kelly gave $1.66 million to get signatures needed to get the measure on the 2012 ballot.

Kelly earned his money by working as Facebook's chief privacy officer. He quit in 2010 to run for attorney general, placing third in the Democratic primary despite spending $12.3 million of his own money.

He will run for office again, though he's not sure when. He knows, however, that promoting an initiative is not a bad idea for someone seeking to build name identification.

Kelly added provisions that would require people convicted of human trafficking to register as sex offenders and provide their electronic identifiers. Internet sites would be able to obtain that information and, presumably, ban them from their sites.

The use of initiatives to make criminal law is never ideal. Promoters don't have to find money to pay for their concepts. They all have unintended consequences.




Once the initiative becomes law, the person who is bought and sold would be viewed as the victim. 










The use of initiatives to make criminal law is never ideal. Promoters don't have to find money to pay for their concepts. They all have unintended consequences.

On its face, however, the initiative would make important changes. It would strip some anonymity from the Internet, perhaps making it a little more difficult to buy and sell people on virtual bordellos.