Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration “has declined to issue fines after over 14,000 violations of a sex trafficking law by Florida hotels and lodging establishments,” Raw Story reported on Sunday, November 20, 2022 (see story here).
“An investigation published on Sunday by the Sun Sentinel found that 6,669 hotels and other lodging establishments had received 14,279 citations since a 2019 sex trafficking law required them to make modest changes to protect victims,” Raw Story said (read the Sun Sentinel story here).
Raw Story added, “It’s not clear why DeSantis has not ordered his government to use the law,” which was sponsored by a Democratic state senator, “to crack down on sex trafficking.”
But it’s well-known that DeSantis is business-friendly; during the pandemic, he sacrificed Florida residents’ lives to keep businesses open. (Florida has twice the Covid-19 death rate as Washington, see data here.)
To him and other Republicans, business profits are more important than human lives; for example, early in the pandemic, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, a Republican, said vulnerable senior citizens should be willing to sacrifice their lives to keep businesses open (see story here).