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
Statements
A Survivor's Story | Print |  E-mail

As a former client of SAGE Project in San Francisco, I cannot express enough how instrumental SAGE was in transforming my life. When I was first introduced to SAGE, I was drug addicted, living on the streets and prostituting myself to survive. Obviously, that lifestyle was very damaging and involved horrific amounts of violence and degradation. I felt completely isolated from society and saw no hope or future for myself. I came into contact with SAGE through the San Francisco County Jail system. Looking back, I can truly say that it was my introduction to SAGE which saved my life.

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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.

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Statement of Russ Giuntini, Chief Assistant District Attorney, SF | Print |  E-mail

Statement of Russ Giuntini, Chief Assistant District Attorney, City and County of San Francisco

For the past four and a half years, I have served as the Chief Assistant District Attorney for the City and County of San Francisco.  I also served as a prosecutor in the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office for 25 years.  I have prosecuted hundreds of cases in state and federal court, including prostitution and other related sex-crimes.

I have reviewed the text of Proposition K, a municipal initiative scheduled for the November 4, 2008 San Francisco ballot, as well as the arguments submitted against the measure for inclusion in the voter information pamphlet.

If enacted by voters, Proposition K will decriminalize prostitution in San Francisco – which will have severely adverse consequences on San Francisco’s ability to investigate and prosecute related criminal offenses. 

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Motivating, Inspiring, Supporting and Serving Sexually Exploited Youth (MISSSEY) | Print |  E-mail

MISSSEY does not support the decriminalization of prostitution in San Francisco.  MISSSEY recognizes that wherever prostitution exists, nearly half of those involved are under the age of eighteen and defined by laws as commercially sexually exploited children.  The proposition, if passed, would de-fund all programs in San Francisco, many of which provide services to commercially sexually exploited children.  These services are vital to the healthy recovery and transition of commercially sexually exploited children into healthy adults.

Download in pdf format.
Misssey Website

 
Analysis of Prop K - SF Police Department | Print |  E-mail
Letter from the City and County of San Francisco Police Department re: Law Enforcement of Laws Related to Prostitution and Sex Workers.

 "The idea to decriminalize prostitution in San Francisco demonstrates a true lack of understanding of the real problem.  It is purported that some women may be comfortable as sex workers. Most are victims of threats, exploitation and violence. The women are forced into dangerous situations where they must meet with strangers and engage in sexual conduct. Children are forced to work in the sex industry and can be found on our streets as well as the internet. Prostitution is directly related to many other serious crimes (rape, robbery, assault, narcotics, etc.) If you have a factual understanding of prostitution, it is clearly not a victimless crime.

Read the full letter here. (pdf format)

 
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