In a speech on May 23, California State Senator Susan Eggman made an emotional appeal to her colleagues in the chamber, urging them to support a bill that would send pedophiles who buy sex with children to prison.
The bill, SB 1414, aims to address the state’s outdated laws that currently allow individuals who solicit underage prostitutes to be charged with misdemeanors, resulting in a mere two days in jail.
Senator Eggman, a progressive Democrat who has served in the state legislature for 12 years, expressed her frustration with the current system. “I’m done with us protecting people who would buy and abuse our children. I’m done,” she declared.
The proposed legislation, authored by State Senator Shannon Grove, would make soliciting underage prostitutes a felony punishable by two to four years in prison, a $25,000 fine, and mandatory registration as a sex offender. However, the bill faced opposition from a group of rebel Democrats led by State Senator Scott Wiener, who watered down the bill in the Senate Public Safety Committee.
Hellbound and Down 