A Democratic California lawmaker who supports a bill that would keep convicted pedophiles behind bars for longer excoriated her colleagues last week, saying she was “done” with her own party “protecting” those who abuse children.
State Senator Susan Eggman, 63, who represents an area just outside San Francisco, delivered a heated floor speech last Thursday.
“I’d like to say as a progressive, proud member of this body for the last 12 years, I’m done,” Eggman said. “I’m done with us protecting people who would buy and abuse our children. I’m done.”
HOLY SH*T!!! 🔥🔥🚨🚨
Susan Talamantes walks away from the Democrat party in California after 12 years !!
“I’m done. I’m done with us protecting people who would buy and abuse our children.”
“I don’t want people buying little girls anymore. And I’m tired of saying it’s okay… pic.twitter.com/G28gJAVpwc
— TONY™ (@TONYxTWO) May 30, 2024
“I don’t want to send more black and brown men to prison,” she continued. “I don’t want more people in prison. But I don’t want people buying girls. I don’t want people buying little girls anymore. And I’m tired of saying it’s okay and that we have to protect the men who do it.”
Eggman went on to say that as a mental health professional and as a social worker she has spent her “entire career working with people who have been wounded, I’m not going to say beyond repair, but they have been wounded to their core by the abuse that’s been heaped on them oftentimes by those that they love and look to protect them.”
“And if their parents won’t do it then by God we should,” she said.
Currently under California law, purchasing sex from a child is only a misdemeanor that carries a punishment of two days to a year in jail and a $10,000 fine.
The bipartisan bill Eggman supports would make buying child sex a felony punishable by at least two to four years in prison and a sex offender registration.
Last month, the bill moved forward, but not before Democrats made significant changes. The new version of the bill would only allow prosecutors to level felony charges if the minor was under 16, meaning those who attempted to buy sex with a 16-year-old or 17-year-old could still only be charged with a misdemeanor.
The bill’s author, Republican State Senator Shannon Grove, reacted with dismay to the “hostile amendments” to her bill, her voice shaking as she responded.
“To force these amendments on me in front of survivors, to water this down to avoid 16 and 17-year-olds,” Grove said at the time.
Before the changes, Grove explained that she spoke to sex trafficking survivors last year who told her, “You’ve got to go after the buyers” in order to really crack down on the child sex trade.
“I want to make the solicitation, the person who’s going out there going, ‘Hey little 13-year-old, 14-year-old, 15-year-old.’ I want to get that person. I want that person to face felony charges. That’s what the bill does,” Grove said during a phone interview with The Daily Wire.
Last week, Eggman also said that her party has “got to move back into the center” on this issue “or we all look like fools and laughingstocks.”
“A lot of these kids can be throwaway kids. They’re poor kids, they’re kids of color, but they shouldn’t have to live a life determined by what happens to them by others at a very young age and have the Democratic Party of California say, ‘It’s okay,’” Eggman said.
