Last week, we covered the story of the California Public Safety Committee’s Democratic members who blocked a bill that would have increased sentencing guidelines for repeat offenders in child trafficking cases. Senate Bill 14 would classify such serial traffickers in the same category as rapists and killers, locking them up on felony charges for up to 25 years to life. The Democrats shockingly argued that they opposed putting more people in prison. That story was quickly picked up all over the country and the outrage even spilled over on CNN. On Thursday evening, facing massive public shaming and even criticism from Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom, the Democrats relented and allowed the bill to move forward. It is expected to be signed into law soon.

Democratic lawmakers in California revived a stalled child trafficking bill Thursday following public pressure after they initially chose not to advance the legislation.

The bill, Senate Bill 14, would increase penalties for child traffickers and would add the crime to the list of serious felonies in California, FOX Los Angeles reported. Anyone convicted of at least three serious felonies would face a prison sentence of between 25 years to life.

Earlier this week, Democrats on the state Assembly Public Safety Committee chose not to advance the bill, because they opposed longer prison sentences, arguing it isn’t a deterrent to crime. Gov. Gavin Newsom publicly supported the bill, introduced by Republican state Sen. Shannon Grove, prompting Democrats to change course after he went against the party.

This is one of those rare cases where the system appears to have worked as intended. Democrats enact all manner of policies that people may find unproductive or simply crazy, but they are frequently ignored. But in this case, the position of the Democrats on the Public Safety Committee was so far beyond the pale that nearly the entire nation was outraged. And since the Governor is currently eyeing a possible national election run, he realized he couldn’t afford to be lumped in with his fellow party members on the crazy train, so even he flipped sides and joined with the opposition.

Sadly, California and Texas are two of the states with the highest incidences of child sex trafficking due to their proximity to the southern border. California’s progressives largely have a mindset that reacts negatively to the idea of locking anyone up, particularly if they crossed our border illegally. But there are thankfully still some things that are very much a bridge too far for decent Americans, and this is one of them. The idea that locking up people who are repeatedly proven to be selling children into sexual slavery is somehow “too harsh” isn’t just crazy. It’s evil, and it needs to be called out as such.

It could potentially be beneficial if California’s voters could take something positive away from this experience. So many of the policies of the Democrats are directly leading to the declining quality of life for people in that state. This child trafficking fiasco was only the latest and worst example, but it should highlight the underlying problem.

Progressive Democrats increasingly show us that they value the lives of criminals over victims. They oppose law enforcement and seek to weaken or disable it wherever possible. They oppose the enforcement of some of the most basic crimes. And the result has been obvious for some time. California is a mess, particularly in the larger cities. People are fleeing in droves. But now a bright light has been shown upon some of the worst of the worst.

The state of California could still reverse course and turn things around. But the voters would need to break their old habits and stop electing the same pack of crazy people to office and allowing them to set public policy. If they can’t take this latest example as a reason to do that, it’s honestly difficult to have much sympathy for them. But we can still hope that this will serve as a splash of cold water in the face of the state’s parents next November. Nobody else can save them if they aren’t ready to save themselves.