Ken Paxton is the Attorney General of Texas. He is active in far right culture wars, filing briefs in support of schools in other states who want to be able to discriminate and still collect taxpayer money, creating a hotline to report families with trans children, and fighting the abortion pill. He’s much too active in fighting against LGBTIQA people and abortion to do much about sex trafficking. Don’t take my word for it, look at his press releases to see what he cares about.
Trafficking? That he doesn’t care about despite asking for more money to fight trafficking. He created a new trafficking unit, but it’s not clear what it does. He did not get a single conviction in 2020 and only four in 2021. No wonder Texas is second in the nation for most reported trafficking cases. At least fourteen employees in the trafficking division left, frustrated at mismanagement
One big investigation resulted in several arrests but didn’t shut down anything as they ended up releasing the suspects. One made a plea to something else and one died, but the remaining six were let go. Among the disastrous mismanagement of the case is them losing track of one of the victims.
Ken Paxton is too busy chasing publicity and rightwing radio air time to do his job and lets child sex traffickers continue unimpeded. But remember Hanlon’s Law, don’t ascribe to malice what can be explained by incompetence. There is no suggestion Paxton is working in concert with sex traffickers, just that he is so bad at his job they can operate with impunity.
- Houston Chronicle: As human trafficking surged during COVID, Texas AG Ken Paxton closed 4 cases in 2 years
- AP News: Dysfunction in Texas AG’s office as Paxton seeks third term
- Houston Chronicle: Editorial: Hey, QAnon — Texas had an actual child sex ring. Paxton’s office let them off.
- AP News: A sex trafficking case, a plea deal and a mother’s pain
Brownsville, Texas · Friday, October 21, 2022