Quotes

While Senator Barack Obama rejects prostitution and trafficking as an abuse of human rights,  San Francisco voters are being urged to make our city a sanctuary for pimps and traffickers.
What we have to do is to create better, more effective tools for prosecuting those who are engaging in human trafficking and we have to do that within our country. Sadly, there are thousands who are trapped in various forms of enslavement, here in our country - oftentimes young women who are caught up in prostitution. So we've got to give prosecutors the tools to crack down on these human trafficking networks. Internationally, we've got to speak out and we've got to forge alliances with other countries to share intelligence, to roll up the financing networks that are involved in them. It is a debasement of our common humanity, whenever we see something like that taking place.
~ Senator Barack Obama

I exploited my body and gave myself to any man who wanted a piece. It was a vicious lifestyle. What these men don't know -- or maybe what they DO know -- is that prostitutes or streetwalkers or "happy hookers" are women with a deep sense of pain. Most have been abused in unimaginable ways.
~ Brenda Myers-Powell

Proposition K conceals the inhumane nature of prostitution and cripples the efforts of law enforcement, human rights groups and social service agencies to assist those who seek escape from sex-traffickers.
~ Kamala Harris, SF District Attorney

..there is nothing broad-minded about looking the other way when 14-year-old girls and boys sell themselves on the street and massage parlors are staffed by women who are being held against their will. These are not consenting adults.
~ Debra Saunders
Prop K
Let’s Get Our Priorities Straight Print E-mail
 
Why You Should Vote No on SF’s Proposition K

Prop K was put on your November 2008 SF ballot by groups
that claim to be in favor of protecting “sex workers”

Masquerading as a progressive initiative Prop K this legislation will harm women, children, and the San Francisco community as a whole. The measure directs San Francisco Police Department and the District Attorney’s office to refuse to enforce the State of California’s prostitution laws.  These sections include the laws used to investigate and prosecute traffickers and those involved in exploiting children. Non-enforcement of these laws would put all of us at risk, and send an invitation out to pimps, traffickers, and johns.
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Full Text of Proposition K PDF Print E-mail
Ballot Pamphlet Summary - San Francisco 2008

"Enforcement of Laws Related to Prostitution and Sex Workers"

THE WAY IT IS NOW:
State and local laws prohibit prostitution. State and federal laws prohibit human trafficking for prostitution or forced labor. Criminal laws also prohibit crimes such as battery, extortion and
rape, regardless of the victim's status as a prostitute or sex worker.

In 1994, the Board of Supervisors established a Task Force on Prostitution (Task Force) to examine prostitution in the City and to recommend social and legal reforms. In 1996 the Task Force released a report recommending that:
• City departments stop enforcing and prosecuting prostitution crimes;
• City departments instead focus on neighborhood complaints about quality of life infractions;
• The City redirect funds from prosecution and incarceration to providing services and alternatives for those involved in prostitution.

To date, the City has implemented some of the Task Force's recommendations. In 2003, the City adopted an ordinance transferring the licensing and regulation of massage parlors from the Police Department to the Department of Public Health (DPH). In 2006, DPH adopted another recommendation by establishing an anonymous telephone message line for sex workers to voice concerns about their working conditions.

The District Attorney's office, in cooperation with the Police Department and a local non-profit organization, manages the First Offender Prostitution Program. This is a diversion program with separate programs for prostitutes and clients who have been arrested. It is partially funded by fees from clients who have been arrested.
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