One of the most important functions of government is to set a baseline for acceptable public behavior, public morality, and the maintenance of order.
When it fails to do that, the result is the public safety, public health, and public order crisis we now see in San Francisco and Los Angeles as a result of government indulging the ‘homeless’ at the expense of the law-abiding.
This week we learn bad public policy ideas aren’t limited to California. In Washington, D.C., the city council is considering a bill that would legalize prostitution.
Writing in the Washington Examiner, professors of public policy Louise Shelley and Mary G. Leary explain just how catastrophically bad this idea really is. If the bill is passed, Shelley and Leary predict, “Organized crime will rise, the exploitation of the most vulnerable in our community will grow, and the health and well-being of residents will be undermined.
“This law is especially poorly conceived. It proposes to abolish existing law first and then to establish a task force to study the problem of legalizing prostitution, brothel-keeping, and the purchase of sexual services. This sequencing is the antithesis of the formulation of good policy.”
Not that those downsides ever prevented the D.C. council from passing a law.
The justification for legalizing deviancy this time is much like the justifications used in the past. It’s a ‘victimless crime.’ You can’t control prostitution anyway, so let’s bring these women out of the shadows. Government can regulate it. Government can tax it. And so forth…
Nothing could be more wrong. As the professors explain, “The passage of this law would make D.C. a magnet for traffickers seeking to sell their victims and for customers who would be free to buy the services of exploited individuals with impunity. These sex-buyers are more likely to have arrest records, felonies, acts of violence against women, and to have been subjects of restraining orders. Whom would they prey upon? Not only would our vulnerable minority citizens suffer, but the impunity for the traffickers would result in the import of vulnerable economically disadvantaged people to our city as well as exploited immigrants lacking the right to work or stay in this country.”
D.C. would not only be a sanctuary city, it would also be a sanctuary for pimps!
Legalization of prostitution in Europe has not been a success. “Legalization in Europe has created a large and illegal secondary market in minors and foreigners who are trafficked and controlled by organized crime.”
Legalization certainly won’t do anything for the city’s image. “Human traffickers, often very astute business people, would seize on this opportunity. D.C. would become a mecca for sex tourism, as it would be the only city in the country with legal prostitution.”
Don’t we already have enough people in Congress who prostitute themselves without adding to their disreputable number?
There will be no winners, other than traffickers and pimps, after passage of this law. Only losers. Anyone hurt, exploited or otherwise damaged by this stupid repeal are more unimportant friendly fire casualties of "compassion."
Which makes us wonder when or if the left will ever display "compassion" toward law-abiding solid citizens?
Michael Reagan, the eldest son of President Reagan, is a Newsmax TV analyst. A syndicated columnist and author, he chairs The Reagan Legacy Foundation. Michael is an in-demand speaker with Premiere speaker’s bureau. Read more reports from Michael Reagan — Go Here Now.
Michael R. Shannon is a commentator, researcher for the League of American Voters, and an award-winning political and advertising consultant with nationwide and international experience. He is author of "Conservative Christian’s Guidebook for Living in Secular Times (Now with added humor!)." Read more of Michael Shannon's reports — Go Here Now.