While all of the coverage of the government shutdown, and perhaps your own planning for the holidays, was distracting you, an appalling story coming out of the Washington state flew under the radar.
On Nov. 14, 2025, the Washington State Sentencing Guidelines Commission voted to recommend reducing sentences for adult child predators convicted of attempting to prey upon children in sting operations. According to The Center Square, the commission’s vote was 7-2-3 to lessen the sentence for offenders with no prior convictions for explicitly exploiting minors. That’s seven in favor, two against, and three abstentions.
Needless to say, in the Democrat-run state, the left is once again the party running to the defense of evil, this time and once again, leftists are on the side of deviants with a child fetish.
The next step is for this recommendation to move to the Washington State Legislature for a possible vote during the 2026 session, and if all goes well for the degenerates, it will be signed into law by Gov. Bob Ferguson before this time next year.
The newly recommended proposal is patterned after Senate Bill 5312, which Sen. Lisa Wellman sponsored. Specifically, it would reduce the standard sentencing terms for those offenders nabbed for the first time in operations that are known as “Net Nanny” stings. This is where law enforcement engages in dialogue with potential child predators who use the internet to solicit sexual activity with minors.
During the sting, law enforcement officers may pose as adult guardians of children, or sometimes as the minors themselves. At some point in the operation, after the sicko takes the step of arranging a meeting with the child, and then physically showing up for the meeting, he (usually men) is apprehended and charged.
Those on the left, who never saw a deviant they couldn’t empathize with, say this is a crime without a victim, since the sting operations do not involve “real victims.” So in accordance with typical leftist logic, the “real victims” are the predators.
Would the folks at New York Times Magazine rather police dangle actual children in front of predators as part of sting operations? It seems they would.
The new proposal would reduce time spent in prison, and it would shorten mandatory sex-offender registration from “lifetime” to five years. It would also reduce post-release supervision from “lifetime” to three years in some situations.
The commission pointed to a 2022 report from the Washington Sex Offender Policy Board to provide a rationale for its recommendations. That report found that those convicted only through sting operations repeat that offense at rates 80% below those who attempt to molest and assault actual children.
So apparently as a reward for this statistic, the leftists who run the sentencing guidelines commission are doing predators a solid.
Washington Sex Offender Policy Board Chair Brad Meryhew, who spoke at a commission meeting, said many of the predators that these sting operations apprehended “have very little experience with the world.”
So that’s the secret. We now need to punish criminals on the basis of their criminal experience. Those with lighter criminal resumes should receive lighter sentences, regardless of the horrific nature of their intended crimes.
This whole way of thinking penalizes and undermines the very concept of crime prevention and deterrence.
The minority Republicans on the commission, and even some not-so-conservative victims’ rights people, spoke out, saying the reduced sentencing guidelines would take the power of deterrence off the table, and ultimately lead to higher danger to real minors out in the community.
Surprisingly, not all Democrat politicians were in lockstep on this. Rep. Lauren Davis said, “many of those caught in these stings, of course, who hold positions of power, including positions, judges, teachers, et cetera, that have plenty of experience with the world, so to speak.”
After all the debate, the takeaway is pretty simple. Washington wants to be a sanctuary state for child predators. Prove me wrong.
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