California Against Slavery Anti-Trafficking Initiative Deadline Approaches

by Angela Longerbeam · 2010-03-22 13:45:00 UTC
Topics:

California Against Slavery (CAS) has been pounding the pavement for weeks, gathering signatures to put its initiative for tougher human trafficking laws on the state ballot. The group needs 600,000 names by Mar. 31, 2010. If you’re a California resident, have you signed yet? Have you told everyone you know? Get to it!

CAS has also added a key player to its campaign: Vicki Zito. In March 2008, Vicki’s then 17-year-old daughter was kidnapped from Sacramento and taken to the Bay Area where she was listed on –- wait for it -– Craigslist. Yes, Craigslist! I know you’re shocked. Vicki’s daughter was missing for eight long days, in which she was unceasingly raped by the abductor’s clients.

Luckily, FBI and police then rescued her. But in California, current laws against human trafficking fail to deliver justice. Victims aren’t well-protected, and criminals receive sentences and fines better suited to, say, stealing a TV from a Craiglist seller, as opposed to paying a seller to rape a child. Is it too much to ask one’s state government to properly address violent, emotionally damaging crimes such as sex trafficking for the protection of daughters and sons? No wonder Vicki Zito is lending her name and voice to the CAS effort.

The proposed CAS initiative would, among other points, facilitate prosecution of human trafficking violators, impose increased jail time and higher fines on offenders and provide victims with greater protection and support.

I’m not a California resident, but I certainly hope this campaign is successful, and so should we all. If enacted, this legislation would not only curb human trafficking in the state of California, but could prove to be a trail-blazer for change in other states as well. New York, Ohio, Oregon, North Carolina and Texas, I’m talking to you. But I’m also talking to all the others. We lack the research to know just how widespread the problem of human trafficking is in our country, but we do know that weak laws only encourage it. Wouldn’t a proactive approach to human trafficking legislation nationwide be awesome? I’m just saying.

Remember that you can find the CAS petition here and tell all your friends on Facebook, as well. Go forth now, and sign.

Photo credit: tosaytheleast
Angela Longerbeam is a freelance writer and pop culture addict fighting to end modern-day slavery with an MFA degree and irrepressible snark.
PREVIOUS STORY:
Iceland Considers Banning Strip Clubs as Exploitation
NEXT STORY:
Today is National Human Trafficking Awareness Day, how are you going to take action?

COMMENTS (4)

    Comment Policy

    · All fields are required to comment.

    [X]

    Comments on Change.org are meant for further exploration and evaluation of the campaign on Change.org. To that end, we welcome constructive comments. However, we reserve the right to delete comments which, as determined solely in our discretion: (1) are offensive, abusive, or off-topic; (2) include content solely intended to personally attack the campaign creator, (3) are designed to subvert or hijack comment threads rather than contribute to them; and/or (4) violate our terms of service and/or privacy policy. Repeat offenders may be permanently removed from the site at our discretion. Please also be advised that: (A) we do not actively curate and/or monitor in any manner whatsoever the comments made on the Change.org platform, and (B) the creator of each campaign on Change.org may remove any comment at her/his/its discretion.