by James Murphy
A California mayor is calling out Governor Gavin Newsom for signing a bill in 2022 that allowed sex workers in the state to, essentially, solicit customers publicly. Mayor Ron Morrison of the San Diego suburb National City chastised Newsom for signing 2022’s Safer Streets for All Act (SB357), which has made it easier for prostitutes in the state to “advertise” their services in California.
As soon as the law took effect, Morrison noted a sharp increase in lewd public behavior.
“This one has just opened the doors to prostitution, sex trafficking, child sex trading, I mean, you name it. This has obviously done that. And I don’t think anyone that is not just purely politically motivated could disagree with that,” Morrison said.
Upon signing the legislation in July of last year, Newsom claimed that the old law, which prohibited such activity, had racist overtones since the majority of those receiving loitering charges in the Golden State were members of minority groups.
“The author brought forth this legislation because the crime of loitering has disproportionately impacted Black and Brown women and members of the LGBTQ community,” Newsom said in a statement to California’s State Senate. “Black adults accounted for 56.1% of the loitering charges in Los Angeles between 2017-2019, despite making up less than 10% of the city’s population.”
The bill was authored by San Francisco Democrat State Senator Scott Wiener.
“[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 was quoted as saying. “So, an officer could arrest someone because they were wearing tight clothing, high heels and extra lipstick.”
The Safer Streets for All Act was heavily influenced by the state’s ACLU, which argued that the old law unfairly targeted certain groups.
“California’s law that criminalizes loitering with intent to commit prostitution gives law enforcement a tool to harass and discriminate against Black and trans communities, particularly women of color,” the California ACLU said, adding that the law “allowed law enforcement to criminalize and harass someone based on the color of their skin, their gender, or how they choose to make a living.”
Does that mean California is endorsing prostitution? No, according to Newsom.
“To be clear, this bill does not legalize prostitution. It simply revokes provisions of the law that have led to disproportionate harassment of women and transgender adults,” the governor said. “While I agree with the author’s intent and I am signing this legislation, we must be cautious about its implementation. My Administration will monitor crime and prosecution trends for any possible unintended consequences and will act to mitigate any such impacts.”
According to the National City mayor, Newsom has not kept his promise to monitor for “possible unintended consequences.”
“They’re waving to people on the freeway or, just to be honest with you, they are bending over for the freeway. I don’t know how else to put it; they’re showing their wares,” Morrison said, adding that at least some of those nearly naked people appear to be underage.
“The moment it was signed by the governor, boom, everyone knew the rules were out the window,” Morrison said.
It may not have been the bill’s intent to legalize prostitution in California, but, indirectly, it appears to have had that effect.
“Those that are out there on the street, most of them are wearing less than what you would consider a scanty negligee,” Morrison explained. “It is just flaunting in everybody’s face. And so a lot of people are screaming, ‘Hey, you know, can’t you get them on indecent exposure?’ And the problem is the way our laws read in this state. The definition of indecent exposure is as long … as the genitals are covered. Anything else is fair game out in public.”
Morrison shared a recent encounter with a woman who was likely a sex worker in his city.
“I was driving on one of the streets the other day, and there’s this young lady standing there in the middle of the street wearing basically a G-string, and that was it, and a couple of pasties. But she’s right in front of my car, I couldn’t move. So, I did ask her very politely, ‘Would you please move out of the street?’ And she looked at me and says, ‘If you don’t want to talk to me, you can go around,’” the mayor said.
Once again, in its zeal to promote DEI principles, a government entity has introduced lewd and lascivious behavior into its communities. It happens pretty much daily with so-called Drag Queen Story Hours in public libraries. Newsom can argue all day that that was not the intent of the new law, but citizens who must look at the scantily clad sex workers in their city must wonder if he’s telling the truth about that and whether the “unintended consequences” he spoke of were actually intended.