Watching a Horrifying Crisis in Los Angeles, the New York Times... Almost Kind Of Sees It Long and detailed story in the New York Times Magazine, today, about “the Blade,” the long stretch of a South Los Angeles boulevard that serves as the site of a shocking amount of child prostitution. In recent years, the story warns, “officers had seen the magnitude of child sex trafficking explode.” The Times reporter embeds with LAPD vice officers who try to rescue minors from their pimps, and she watches the horror of that daily grind. Sample observation: In the shadows, Figueroa had become more violent. The younger the girl, the more customers would pay, which meant preteens were often being robbed and assaulted by groups of older girls trying to make quota. The traffickers who governed the street were worse. Tonight Ana was waving at cars in front of a tire shop when a trafficker pulled up on the wrong side of the street, climbed out and beat one of the girls near Ana over the head with a pistol. The girl had probably looked at him wrong, Ana decided. She knew better than to intervene. Watching 12 year-olds get beaten by their pimps on the sidewalk, reporter Emily Baumgaertner Nunn suddenly finds some things that she can’t quite see, hazy things waaaay off in the distance. Here’s a description of a problem cops are having as they try to intervene: Their jobs grew even more challenging when California repealed the law allowing the police to arrest women who loitered with the intent to engage in prostitution. The repeal, known as SB 357, was intended to prevent profiling of Black, brown and trans women based on how they dressed. But when it was implemented in January 2023, the effect was that uniformed officers could no longer apprehend groups of girls in lingerie on Figueroa, hoping to recover minors among them. Who repealed the law? California did. Spontaneously, as a geographic area. The mountains and the deserts decriminalized loitering with intent. Back on earth, SB 357 was authored by Senator Scott Wiener, a consistent advocate for laws that make sex between adults and minors less risky for the adults. Wiener is extremely pleased that 12 year-olds in California can get their abortions, contraception, and STD medications without mommy and daddy finding out: chrisbray.substack.com/p/watching-a-h…
