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
Statement of Kamala Harris, SF District Attorney | Print |  E-mail

Unfortunately, my office sees the faces of women and children being exploited every day. Many are brought to San Francisco against their will by human trafficking rings that force them into sexual slavery. Many speak little English and don't know their rights. Many are victims of pimps who control their lives.

All of them are scared.

If Proposition K passes, San Francisco's justice system will turn its back on them. Services will be cut across the board for those trying to escape prostitution. City funding will end for re-education programs like the First Offender Prostitution Program and the Early Intervention Prostitution Program. This would leave victims without programs to help them escape prostitution and sex trafficking.

Proposition K forces police officers to disregard California's prostitution laws, strips ALL funding to investigate human trafficking rings and prevents my office from prosecuting prostitution-related crimes.

In short, Proposition K prevents San Francisco from pursuing and punishing those who sexually exploit women, children and immigrants.

This measure will particularly harm children forced into prostitution, for whom enforcement efforts are often their only hope. Only by pursuing and prosecuting abusers are we able to find these young victims and give them the help they need.

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.

As a law enforcement officer, a woman and a citizen of San Francisco, I ask you to join me in voting NO on Proposition K.

Kamala Harris, San Francisco District Attorney