CV NEWS FEED // Democrats in the Colorado legislature blocked a Republican bill aimed at protecting the state’s children from sex traffickers and other predators.
Colorado Politics reported that HB 1092 “would have mandated minimum sentences for those who buy children for sexual exploitation.”
“The bill was heard in the House State, Civic, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee, which is also known as the ‘kill committee,’” Colorado Politics noted. “On [February 15], the panel lived up to its nickname, killing the bill on an 8-3 party-line vote.”
The eight Democrats who voted to kill HB 1092 were State Reps. Andrew Boesenecker, Kyle Brown, Elisabeth Epps, Jennifer Lea Parenti, Naquetta Ricks, Manny Rutinel, Jenny Wilford, and Steven Woodrow.
The committee’s three Republicans, who voted for the bill, were State Reps. Scott Bottoms, Brandi Bradley, and Ken DeGraff.
Bottoms recounted the day the Democrats blocked HB 1092.
He noted that he “sat in a committee all day discussing whether or not somebody that buys little children” would receive stronger jail sentences. “These are two-, three-, four-, five-year-old kids,” Bottoms stressed. “[The predators] buy them for sex.”
“They get off on probation,” he added. “Almost all the time, they get off on probation after buying a child and raping a little child.”
“And we tried to say, ‘Well they need to at least serve a minimum of four years,” he went on:
And then we sat and listened to the Democrats fight against this bill. Fight against putting these people in jail.
[They] came up with all kinds of reasons including that these buyers are victims themselves.
Bottoms called it both “very discouraging” and “very disgusting” that Democrats in his state “would actually defend this.”
Colorado Politics noted:
More than 50 witnesses packed a state Capitol hearing room, with all but three testifying in favor of the bill. While all were adults, many were survivors who testified they had been sold when they were children. The sellers were often either family members or friends. Several testified they did not know the buyers.
Despite the testimony of all of the witnesses, all of the committee’s Democrats still voted to kill HB 1092.
An op-ed that appeared in the Denver Gazette last week slammed the eight Democrats for blocking the bill.
“Colorado falls in the top 20 states for human sex trafficking, often of children. We could top the list after Colorado legislators rolled out a welcome mat for perverts,” the Gazette’s editorial board wrote:
It seems inconceivable that elected officials would signal Colorado as a friendly state for adults to have sex with children — which is always rape — who are sold by foreign cartels and domestic sociopathic profiteers.
The editorial board argued that the Democratic lawmakers “sent a message that Colorado doesn’t care much about adults who use child prostitutes.”
CatholicVote President Brian Burch weighed in on the bill’s stunning failure.
“Democrats in Colorado have now become the party of pedophile rapists,” Burch said. “If you are a sexual deviant looking to prey on children, you can thrive in Colorado without fear of any harsh penalties.”
“The Bible was right,” Burch added. “Those who destroy the lives of innocent children deserve a millstone around their neck. Colorado Democrats prefer a slap on the wrist instead. How many more children must be harmed before voters will say ‘enough is enough?’”
