California creeps who solicit sex from certain minors can't be charged with felony, thanks to Democrats

Predators in California who solicit sex from certain minors will not face felony charges now that state Democrats have eliminated that portion of a new bill.

Under current California law, anyone who solicits sex from someone at least 16 years old can be charged with a misdemeanor. Those who solicit sex from a child under 16 or a trafficking victim under 18 can be charged with a misdemeanor or a felony at the discretion of local prosecutors.

The law, amended last year to include the felony option, was considered a compromise after Republican state Sen. Shannon Grove proposed making any solicitation of a minor under 18 a felony.

Back in February, Democratic Assemblywoman Maggy Krell introduced AB 379, the Survivor Support and Demand Reduction Act, which, among other things, would have given prosecutors the option of slapping felony charges on any creep who solicits sex from a child under 18.

Krell spent decades prosecuting trafficking cases with the California Department of Justice and claimed she wants solicitors to be held accountable as well as prostitutes.

'Solicitation statutes ... have been used disproportionately against people of color, LGBTQ+ individuals, and those experiencing poverty.'

She didn't get her way.

Democrats on the Assembly Public Safety Committee refused to send the bill along for full consideration unless the felony option was eliminated from it. "I was told that [AB 379] was pulled and the only way I could get it back on the agenda is if parts of the bill would be blocked," Krell claimed.

Krell called the decision "a disgrace."

Grove went a step further. "It's completely evil," she declared.

Assemblyman Nick Shultz, the Democratic committee chairman, responded to questions about the decision mostly with vague political platitudes.

"My perspective as chair, there was a carefully crafted deal last year," Schultz said. "We're not saying no, but what we're saying is if we're going to be thoughtful policymakers, we really need to dive deep into this issue."

Schultz also suggested that the felony option would be little more than "knee-jerk policy." "It's my job to make sure ... we're having good, substantive conversation and landing on a good spot," he added to KCRA-TV.

Other opponents, including the ACLU of Southern California, claimed that the bill would land too many racial and sexual minorities behind bars.

"Anti-loitering and solicitation statutes, like the one at issue in AB 379, have been used disproportionately against people of color, LGBTQ+ individuals, and those experiencing poverty, under the pretext of public safety," the ACLU SoCal wrote in a letter late last month.

Notorious far-left state Sen. Scott Wiener of San Francisco made a similar argument in 2021 when he proposed the Safer Streets for All Act, which decriminalized loitering for prostitution and which some lawmakers hope to countermand with AB 379.

"Sex workers are workers, and they deserve respect and safety," Weiner said at the time. "We must work toward a future where people — especially the most marginalized — aren’t criminalized because of who they are and what they look like."

In his interview with KCRA-TV, Schultz likewise hinted that he opposed AB 379's felony option on DEI-related grounds as well, claiming that any "solution" lawmakers find "needs to be equitable."

Krell and other supporters of AB 379 were not nearly so careful about using politically correct terms regarding sexuality and gender when speaking about the issues the bill addresses.

"AB 379 creates a law that allows law enforcement to intervene when men are out on the prowl to buy victims for sex," Krell asserted.

Sacramento County Sheriff Jim Cooper, a Democrat former assemblyman and member of the California Black Caucus, slammed Wiener's law as emboldening criminals and vice behaviors.

"With that, we’ve seen a statewide, dramatic explosion of juvenile prostitution. The buyers don’t care. So, to me, change the narrative. Make people afraid to go out and buy these young girls," Cooper said.

Though the felony option has been nixed for now, Krell says she isn't giving up. "I’ve been doing this for 20 years, and I’m not going to quit now." She pledged to bring this part of this bill back every year until it passes.

"That’s what I’m going to do."

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