"Prostitutes will walk into properties and say, 'What are you looking at?', 'Stop staring.' And they go into little detail about calling their pimps to hurt them or harm them or do something to 'take care' of them," said one of the people who spoke to Fox News Digital on condition of anonymity. San Diego business owner talks about how prostitutes in San Diego near National City limits speak to business owners and employees.
"They're controlling the neighborhood," the business owner said of the brokers.
The business owner is among a group of Californians — including mayors, city council members and police chiefs — calling on the governor to repeal the law called the Safe Streets for All Act. Critics say the law has openly encouraged prostitution and sex trafficking on the streets of cities like Oakland, San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego.
Nearly naked prostitutes roam the streets in broad daylight, but California law has tied the hands of police: Mayor
Newsom signed Senate Bill 357 in July 2022, which repealed a previous law that banned loitering with intent to engage in prostitution. The bill was supported as it would help protect transgender women from being allegedly targeted by the police. This law came into effect on January 1, 2023.
San Diego County District Attorney Summer Stephan, a Republican, also wrote an op-ed late last month calling on the governor to rescind the law, saying it has increased human trafficking and Young women and girls are being harmed.
“Girls as young as 13 are being openly trafficked for sex on the streets of San Diego County. In fact, women of all ages are being openly trafficked for sex, meaning they are being trafficked on the streets. They are forced to work while their traffickers keep a close eye on everything they do. A big reason is that California recently repealed the crime of soliciting for prostitution with Senate Bill 357,'' Stephan wrote in an article published by The San Diego Union-Tribune.
Stephan's office told Fox News Digital on Tuesday that he is "adamant that the law should be repealed."
When Newsom signed the legislation, he said that his administration "should be vigilant about its implementation" and would monitor any negative consequences.
Church services troubled as rampant prostitution reaches peak in San Diego
"To be clear, this bill does not legalize prostitution. It simply repeals provisions of the law that have led to the disproportionate oppression of women and transgender adults. However, I agree with the intent of the author, and I support this legislation. ", we must remain vigilant regarding its implementation. My administration will monitor crime and prosecution trends for any potential unintended consequences and will work to mitigate any such effects," he said at the time. Was.
Stephan argued in his opinion that now is the time to repeal the law, calling it an "experiment" that "has failed."
“Now is the time to repeal SB 357 and increase penalties for sex buyers who are lining the pockets of traffickers. Only by strengthening human trafficking laws can we protect the most vulnerable and save lives SB 357's experiment has failed," she wrote.
Suspected prostitution ring moves out of Catholic school in CA neighborhood: 'Pimp is blocking my way'
The San Diego business owner said in a comment to Fox News Digital earlier this week that the law is a "complete failure" and called on the governor to listen to district attorneys and residents who are raising the alarm over the issues. .
Business owners and local reports suggest that women shamelessly walk the streets in broad daylight wearing only G-strings and fishnets in some areas of California, trying to attract johns. The business owner said school-going children are forced to walk on the used "byproducts" of prostitutes and board school buses to see them parked on the streets.
As California police fight rampant prostitution, johns line up like they're at a 'fast-food drive-thru.'
Stephen argued that buying sex in San Diego is so easy, it's like the drive-thru line at a fast-food restaurant.
"What I saw was an open sex market with young women barely dressed and a line of sex buyers waiting in cars as casually as if they were driving up to order a hamburger. Traffickers, sex sellers And the buyers were completely unafraid and were operating “their business with impunity,” he wrote in last month's op-ed.
The business owner said that as the day progresses, the streets can be crowded with johns willing to hire prostitutes.
"At five o'clock at night and beyond, you try to get out of the parking lot, and you may have 15 to 20 vehicles driving down the road where you can't get back to go home. They have it almost where They're I'll just point to an open parking spot, you take your prostitute, you go and get whatever services you want and leave,” the business owner said.
Police in San Diego and other prostitution centers in the state have conducted extensive sting operations against some sex rings, including this year a San Diego massage parlor that long operated a sex-for-money enterprise. Last month, more than 500 suspected pimps, johns and sex traffickers were arrested during a statewide anti-human trafficking operation, while dozens of adults and 11 children were rescued from human trafficking.