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On Wednesday, former US Representative Linda Smith, of Vancouver, stood with the mother of a teenage "sex slave" girl in a First Avenue parking lot adjacent to a downtown Seattle strip club.
It was part protest and part celebration.
Dominque Davon Booker, a pimp who has been using the mother's child and other children to pay his bills, is now locked up.
The Seattle PI says Linda and others were celebrating new legislation that "mandate significant increases in the penalties faced by those convicted of pimping children while preventing those accused of paying children for sex from simply claiming they thought the child was of age."
Since her service as a US Representative, Smith has founded Shared Hope International, an organization committed to fighting sex trafficking and providing help for the victims of the sex industry.
She told the PI, "This bill starts the process. It simply cannot be tolerated to buy a child by the hour or by the act."
King County Prosecutor, Dan Satterburg echoed her sentiments--- "Were talking about kids who were taken off the streets and made sex slaves."
While this bill is a good start, Linda Smith and others are pressing for both enforcement of the new law and for more help for the casualties---the little kids and their families.
I am personally impacted by this in that I have seen, first hand, the resulting devastation to families and children, during the years I served as a youth minister in Seattle, Salem, Or. and North Hollywood, Ca.
I am often critical of both Governor Gregoire and the majority in the State Legislature, however, I take heart that sometimes, not often, but sometimes, good things can come from them.
Thank you to the Legislature for passing this bill, to Governor Gregoire for signing it and for law enforcement who will enforce it.
And thank you, Linda Smith, for all you do. May God bless you.
God bless you and thanks for your support.
____________
Gary Randall
President
Faith and Freedom
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