California
No, letting police arrest California victims of human trafficking is not a good idea
At a press convention final month, San Diego Police Chief David Nisleit took purpose at SB357, the Safer Streets for All Act. The legislation, which went into impact two months in the past, repealed earlier California legislation that criminalized loitering with the intent to interact in intercourse work. Nisleit claimed SB357 prevented legislation enforcement from performing to disrupt human trafficking.
It was an odd declare, contemplating the police chief made it throughout a press convention by which he introduced his division had efficiently disrupted a human trafficking operation, figuring out 16 victims of trafficking within the course of and arresting 48 individuals after SB357 took impact. However Nisleit isn’t alone. In current weeks, a small group of politicians and right-wing media personalities have unfold comparable claims. Fox Information pundit Tucker Carlson, for instance, spent a whole section accusing SB357 of turning California into “a haven for human trafficking.”
These claims should not solely false, however additionally they threaten much-needed reforms — equivalent to these made by SB357 — to fight trafficking.
Though nowhere close to a “haven” for human trafficking, California does have its share. Based on the Public Coverage Institute of California, 13% of all trafficking circumstances within the U.S. in 2021 occurred in California. No quantity is appropriate, and Legal professional Normal Rob Bonta has made ending human trafficking within the state a precedence.
Up to now, police departments would use the criminalization of loitering with the intention of intercourse work to arrest intercourse staff. They claimed that these arrests allowed them to get data that helped to determine victims of human trafficking. However for years, many police departments — together with these in Oakland, San Francisco and San Diego — have been shifting away from counting on loitering costs to fight human trafficking. That onerous information is tough to sq. with the present hysterical claims that this repealed statute was an important software for legislation enforcement to handle trafficking.
So why did police departments transfer away from arresting trafficking victims to forestall human trafficking? As a result of it doesn’t work.
Based on a research by UCLA Faculty of Legislation researchers, almost 1 in 3 “loitering with intent” costs from 2017 to 2019 in Los Angeles have been rejected attributable to a scarcity of ample proof. Furthermore, the observe made the issue even worse. Numerous survivors of trafficking have mentioned that being arrested was not solely traumatizing and revictimizing, however created insurmountable boundaries to in search of employment, protected housing, public advantages and immigration reduction. Amongst survivor teams, it’s typically mentioned that the quickest strategy to lure somebody in a lifetime of exploitation is to arrest them for it.
Arresting the victims of trafficking can be thought of a dangerous and ineffective intervention technique by many federal officers. Pointers issued by the U.S. Division of Justice’s Enhanced Collaborative Mannequin Job Pressure prohibit funding from getting used to arrest these engaged within the intercourse commerce or intercourse patrons as a method of identification, outreach and help, citing that these techniques compromise survivor security and restoration.
The observe was additionally beneath hearth for being discriminatory. “Loitering with intent to commit prostitution” is so imprecise and subjective — permitting an arrest based mostly on how somebody is dressed or what make-up they’re carrying — that officers may make arrests for utterly arbitrary, discriminatory and baseless causes. Information from throughout the state additionally confirmed vital racial and gender disparities in who was arrested for loitering. Folks arrested beneath the previous legislation have been overwhelmingly transgender and cisgender (i.e., not transgender) ladies of coloration — not intercourse patrons or human traffickers. Black adults, for instance, made up a majority of the individuals arrested for this crime in Los Angeles from 2017 to 2019, regardless that they’re solely 8.9% of town’s inhabitants.
Traffickers depend on these arrests to criminalize victims in order that they’re trapped and unable to entry security attributable to their prison data. The arrests make people being trafficked much more susceptible to continued exploitation.
SB357 reduces the criminalization and vulnerability of survivors and allows those that have been convicted of the repealed loitering crime to clear their names.
A core tenet of human trafficking is that traffickers make the most of drive, fraud and coercion to regulate their victims. The state replicates these circumstances when it threatens survivors with prosecution beneath a loitering legislation to incentivize them to cooperate or present data. By threatening arrest and incarceration, the federal government alerts to survivors that they can not belief the prison authorized system and that it’s not there to guard them. These practices solely make it harder for survivors to belief the companies which might be accessible to them, equivalent to housing, well being care and counseling.
SB357 is a small step within the means of repairing our programs that trigger hurt to survivors.
Survivors of trafficking want help and assets with out the specter of arrest in addition to sturdy labor protections that each one staff deserve.
Human trafficking has existed so long as inequality has existed and actually addressing it means doing the work to scale back inequality — versus grandstanding for consideration.
Leigh LaChapelle is affiliate director of survivor advocacy on the Coalition to Abolish Slavery & Trafficking. Tony Hoang is govt director of Equality California.
California
What California city has the best weather for you? Take our quiz
California has plenty of options when it comes to finding a place with your preferred weather. If you like cool weather, some cities spend nearly the entire year below 70 degrees. If you hate the rain, there are locations that average just a few inches per year.
The Chronicle gathered data about temperature, precipitation, air quality and extreme weather for 61 places across California, including the 20 most populous cities with data available. In total, 53 of the state’s 58 counties are represented in the analysis.
While there may not be a perfect match with everything you’re looking for, this quiz will help pinpoint a place that gets close.
California
California woman dies from Fresno County's first human case of rabies in more than 30 years
A California woman died of rabies after allegedly being bitten by a bat in her classroom, according to Fresno County health officials.
The woman, later identified as Leah Seneng, 60, marks the first human case of rabies in Fresno County since 1992.
“In general, rabies is a disease that affects the brain, and it is very rare. But when it develops, it can cause very serious consequences,” said Dr. Trnidad Solis, Fresno County Health Department’s deputy health officer. “It’s transmitted through saliva; it is not airborne.”
RABIES PATIENT BECOMES FIRST FATAL CASE IN US AFTER POST-EXPOSURE TREATMENT, REPORT SAYS
Seneng, who was an art teacher at Bryant Middle School in Dos Palos, was bitten by the bat when she was attempting to rescue it in her classroom, local outlet ABC30 reported.
She first came into contact with the bat in October, but did not display symptoms until approximately a month later, according to Fresno County health officials. She was admitted to the hospital and died four days later.
PEANUT THE SQUIRREL EARMARKED FOR EUTHANASIA BEFORE BEING CONFISCATED AND WAS RABIES-FREE: REPORT
“The most frequent route of transmission is through the bite of an animal that has rabies. With rabies, unfortunately, there is no cure. So, when symptoms develop, there is no treatment, and often when it develops, it is often fatal. So we want the public to know that prevention is key to preventing rabies infection,” Solis said.
Fresno County officials do not believe there is a threat to public health at this time, but are working with the Merced County Health Department to identify any other possible exposures and administer vaccines.
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Seneng’s coworkers have set up a GoFundMe account to assist her family during this time.
California
Another batch of raw milk from a trendy California brand just tested positive for bird flu
- Two batches of raw milk from a trendy California brand have tested positive for bird flu this week.
- Bird flu has been spreading rapidly among cattle in the US.
- Experts say drinking raw milk is dangerous, and can cause food poisoning.
Another batch of raw milk just tested positive for bird flu in California.
Last Sunday, Fresno-based Raw Farm voluntarily recalled a first batch of cream top whole raw milk with a “best by” date of November 27. By Wednesday, the California Department of Public Health announced that a second batch of Raw Farm cream top, with a “best by” date of December 7 had also tested positive for bird flu, based on retail sampling.
“We’re not making a big deal about it, because it’s not a big deal,” Kaleigh Stanziani, Raw Farm’s vice president of marketing, said in a short video posted on YouTube after the farm’s first voluntary recall was announced earlier this week.
She said there had only been an indication that there might be a “trace element of something possible,” emphasizing that there had been no reported illnesses of Raw Farms cows or positive tests from the cattle.
Raw Farm owner Mark McAfee later told the LA Times that the California Department of Food and Agriculture had requested that his company “hold delivery of further products” until Friday, after conducting thorough testing of two Raw Farms and one creamery on Wednesday. (McAfee could not immediately be reached for comment by Business Insider during the Thanksgiving holiday.)
Raw milk may be helping bird flu spread — but not in the way you might think
Scientists suspect that cross-contamination of raw milk between animals may be one reason the H5N1 virus is spreading rapidly among cows in the US — and could even contribute to the human spread of the virus. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cautions that dairy workers might be able to contract bird flu by infected raw milk splashed into their eyes.
There is no definitive evidence yet that humans can get bird flu from drinking contaminated raw milk. Instead, health authorities generally recommend avoiding raw milk because of other serious health risks, including food poisoning with bacteria like Salmonella, E.coli, or Listeria.
There are no known health benefits of drinking raw milk. Instead, all evidence suggests that pasteurized milk is just as nutritious, and is safer to consume.
Still, raw milk has become a trendy product among some influencers. Gwenyth Paltrow says she has it in her coffee in the morning.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President-elect Trump’s pick for Health and Human Services secretary, says he wants the US Food and Drug Administration to stop its “war” against raw milk.
Over the summer, “Carnivore MD” Paul Saladino released a raw milk smoothie in partnership with the elite Los Angeles health foods store Erewhon featuring unpasteurized (raw) kefir from Raw Farms, and powdered beef organs.
California has some of the loosest rules around raw milk in the country; it’s generally fine for California retailers like health foods stores and grocers to sell it, raw milk products just can’t be transported across state lines, per FDA rules.
Michael Payne, a researcher at the Western Institute of Food Safety and Security, told The Guardian that people consuming Dr. Paul’s $19 smoothie were “playing Russian roulette with their health,” and ignoring pasteurization, “the single most important food safety firewall in history.”
California dairy farms have been seeing an uptick in bird flu cases since August. The state has reported 29 confirmed human cases of bird flu, and all but one of those was sourced back to cows.
Last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported the first confirmed case of bird flu in a California child from Alameda County. The child had no known contact with infected farm animals, but may have been exposed to wild birds, the California health department said in a statement.
The child had mild symptoms and is recovering well after receiving antiviral drugs.
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