Both the California Senate and Assembly Public Safety Committees have besmirched the title of public safety.
The Senate committee chaired by Sen. Carole Migden, D-San Francisco, and the Assembly committee chaired by Assemblyman Mark Leno, also D-San Francisco, have become a limbo for bills that have anything to do with law enforcement and the protection of citizens’ rights. But even more unfortunate is that our legislators have played political games and accommodated the whims of these two “leaders.”
What could more aptly fit under the term of public safety than the protection of children? Such is the case with Senate Bill 33, authored by Sen. Jim Battin, R-La Quinta. Its sole purpose is to plug a loophole that permits child rapists and molesters to receive probation, counseling and to remain in the home of the victim. Were the victim any child in the community, the criminal would receive prison time, but Penal Code Section 1203.066 permits a district attorney to accept a plea of guilty and the “convicted” sex offender goes free on probation.
In the Senate Public Safety Committee, Sen. Migden permitted the bill to be emasculated to a shell that only reiterated the existence of 1203.066 PC. Sen. Battin then had the bill passed in the Senate in its previous entirety with only one dissenting vote, that of Sen. Migden.
In the Assembly Public Safety Committee, the bill failed to pass by one vote. This was a veiled message to Sen. Battin. It is not lost on those in the know that Leno and Migden are friends who have backed each other on various issues in San Francisco, and now California, politics.
Such are the games played by our elected officials. Nowhere, in this case, is the safety and welfare of children really considered. If it were, this gaping loophole would have been eagerly closed.
Are the voters aware of these happenings? Probably not. After all, don’t we elect these people to represent our views?
— Leo Alvarez, Oxnard
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