A story reported on Thursday proves that positive actions are happening to improve the well-being and safety of young people living in Southern California despite the misguided intentions of some of the region's political and law enforcement leaders. 

Officials announced that they have just finished a crackdown across a multi-county area on suspected child predators and others intent on committing crimes against minors:

The effort, dubbed “Operation Spring Cleaning,” was led by the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles Regional ICAC Task Force, which is comprised of five counties — Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino, Santa Barbara, and Ventura.

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The operation took place from April 6 to 19, and was carried out in two phases. The first phase involved undercover investigations across various social media platforms to track down and identify suspected child predators. 

The second phase involved serving residential and arrest warrants across the five counties, targeting suspects engaged in the distribution of child sexual abuse material, online exploitation, and other crimes against children.

LAPD gave more details, including that 265 suspects were nabbed in the operation:

"During the nearly two-week operation, 265 suspects were arrested for child exploitation-related crimes. Many of them “held positions of trust within their communities,” and some were either employed or placed in a role that gave them direct contact with children."

Here's a partial list of the alleged offenses:

• Possession, distribution or production of child sexual abuse material
• Lewd acts with a child
• Meeting a minor for lewd purposes
• Contact or attempt to contact a minor for sex
• Lewd and lascivious acts with a minor under 14 years of age
• Human Trafficking
• Oral copulation with a minor
• Indecent exposure
• Child annoying
• Sending obscene matter to a child for sexual gratification

The operation also swept up convicted sex offenders who may have violated conditions of their parole/probation, including failing to register as a convicted sex offender in the first place. KTLA-TV (linked above) reported that the identities of the suspects have not been released publicly.

One of the best parts of the story: As a result of the sweeping op, 27 children are now safe.

The department stressed that it takes more than law enforcement efforts to locate and take down these despicable online predators or would-be predators, who seek to prey on the most innocent in our society: [emphasis added]

“The united efforts of the LA ICAC Task force and the community, in the fight against the online sexual exploitation of children, will surely assist in keeping the child predators at bay and allow our children to explore the internet without fear.”

The successful law enforcement action comes at a time of heightened awareness by Americans of human trafficking involving children, in the wake of the surprise, box office smash and independent movie, "Sound of Freedom," which was released in the summer of 2023. In case you missed it, you can find RedState's thorough coverage of the movie's massive reverberations here.

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