California: Human Traffickers Targeted with Ballot Initiative

Thu, Jan 12 2012 — Source: San Mateo Daily Journal

Lawmakers and child advocates are seeking greater penalties against sex traffickers and pimps to combat the growing industry of human trafficking. Yesterday, U.S. Rep. Jackie Speier, D-San Mateo, threw her support behind a ballot initiative effort to increase fines and prison time for human traffickers called the Californians Against Sexual Exploitation Act.

“We’ve collectively been ignorant about how prevalent the crime is here,” Speier told the Daily Journal yesterday. Speier kicked off a signature-gathering effort in San Francisco yesterday alongside Chris Kelly, Facebook’s former privacy officer, Marc Klass and others to support the CASE Act, which needs 750,000 signatures to qualify for the November state ballot.