strip club busts.

The only real solution is to become more active in politics oneself. That doesn't necessarily mean running for office, but it might mean finding a candidate and working actively on their campaign. At a minimum one needs to vote, and do so intelligently.

I vote in every election. I don't live on a town, city, village, whatever, so my "local" election is county, then state.

You complain to the local officials. Does it help? In some matters, yes, others, no. In the case of your complaint, I'd venture the "no".

Mega ditto's, (sorry) complain to your Elected Officials - that's what they are for. Clubber's right, SC issues aren't a "vote getting" platform in most places.

Tyranny feeds on apathy. Get involved. I vote in every election local to federal. You also got to let them know where you stand on many issues - from strip clubs to gun control to church/state. Cuz let me tell ya, the moonbats and the fundies are out there in force doing their best to dictate their morals on you by the gun of the police.

In 1988, Joe Redner(Mons Venus' owner)planned to open a club in Homosassa, FL. The county commission passed an ordinance requiring him to have a license and his employees to have permits. He refused, not that the county would have issued said documents, anyway. Redner ended up opening the club and being immediately shut down. He did 6 months in county jail. BUT---he got a good 1st Amendment lawyer and was awarded a large settlement. I live in this county, and no club has tried to open since. Well, there wss a bikini bar but that was boring.

Now I drive to Pasco county. Plenty of clubs there, and they are pretty much left alone by LE. Except for around election time. There is always a series of token busts right before the sheriff is up for re-election. You know they're token busts because they always take place on a weekday afternoon.

yeah, up here at least, the busts seem to happen most often during election years. the new Detroit city council is taking up strip club issues this month, so I wouldn't doubt a number of our "8 mile" clubs get popped for political purposes.

One reason many customers are hesitant to complain to local officials is that they want to protect their reputation and keep it private that they go to strip clubs. I think money speaks, and donating money to local politicians is the best way to open their ears.

"Gotcha" politics makes it hard for ordinary citizens to stand-up for the clubs. If you are married, corporate, involved in civic or charitable organizations or ever aspire to be such, then you stay out of any active support of clubs. It will come back to haunt you. So voting, which I do as a requirement of citizenship, will not help on this issue. You can risk getting a group together and letting a candidate know where you stand on the persecution of clubs, but this will become public knowledge. We can hope for the day when a candidate for office will say the he/she finds prosecution for murder, rape, robbery, fraud or auto theft more important than going after clubs. Or we can wait for the candidate who will announce a policy that SCs are part of the entertainment mix of a vibrant community along with bars, nightclubs, opera, symphony, country-western or jazz festivals, etc. That's a long time comming. Best approach is for the club owners to get together and start making heavy political contributions.

..long time coming. (Heavy night, last night.)

Though I do support the suggestion, that one potential solution is, to participate in local politics, I see many weaknesses to that suggestion. First, as it's been alluded to already, a strip-club supporter has to "go public" with his support ... but oddly, the voting patterns of North America are hypocritical about supporting adult services, so very few people like the idea of BEING KNOWN as pro-strip-clubbing, even if they are strip-clubbers and go strip-clubbing. Voters, protesters, and candidates, often want to keep their club-going secret. That throws a kink into the otherwise open forum of democracy.

Another thing about politics is, it can move forward slowly and is subject to rapid reversals. As with the Joe Redner story (above), he took a long time in testing that ordinance, and although he eventually won his case, it wasn't really good for business. Any location can quite rapidly ELMINATE strip-clubbing, at least in practice if not technically legally; but to ESTABLISH it where it doesn't already exists, generally takes greater energy and foresight. Reactionary moves are easier to implement than tolerant moves are ... another sad truism about democracy.

I'd suggest, in addition to getting involved in politics, getting involved in religion. Meaning, STOP FUCKING GOING TO CHURCH! Don't give the bastards your money, if they're campaigning against strip clubs; or, if they're in your neighborhood, then try one of the following:

-- demand that all church-going activities be kept behind opaque fences, because they're a "danger" to children and because they violate your First Amendment right to be free from other people's religions

-- demand that church-goers refrain from mentioning religion within 500 yards of a school, playground, library, or other public place where children might congregate

-- demand that every church which uses public facilities (sewage, electricity, fire and police protection, etc.) become non-denominational and preach every available gospel 100% of the time (for example, there would have to be a Moslem night every month at the Calvary First Faith True Love Baptist Church, with call-to-prayer, women covered in burqas, and all food prepared halal; and at the mosque, they'd have to have a Methodist fish fry on alternate Wednesdays, including allowing entry to women in flimsy dresses, playing fiddle and banjo music and singing hymns, and eating hush puppies).

Hey, it's the law, after all ... and it's what made this country great. Jefferson and Washington didn't have the type of religious hypocrisy in mind, that we're saddled with these days.

By the way, I'm not exactly anti-religion. I'm anti RELIGION-IN-PUBLIC-LIFE. Which is what any anti-strip-club move in local politics basically is, ain't it?

php- "Homosassa"??? Do you mean Thonontessassa, slightly east of Tampa?? To all Orlando tourists/conventioneers- passing that exit on I4 brings you closer to strip club nirvanna.

Agree with points mentioned on getting involved. Other than voting, or signing appropriate petition, maybe contacting A.C.E. (BACE in OH)- they're a stripclub executives association, and see if they have a PAC that you could donate to.

As few as 100 letters, call,, or email to a Congressman can have a very large impact, as long as they are all of the same viewpoint on an issue.

I do vote but it takes alot more than our strip club customer constituency to overtake the surbuban religious I dont want that shit in my town constituency.

Minnow----no, I mean "Homosassa". It's in Citrus county, which is north of Tampa.

All it takes to put them gee-sus hollering fools in their place is a few the politicians can point at and say the community has a multitude of opinions that need representin.

Also, TAX DOLLARS ...

An empty lot sitting around six days of the week and then filling up with the cult-members conventioneering to their local charismatic leader? ZERO TAX DOLLARS.

Same parking lot utilized for three or five days a week for distribution of heavily taxed items such as liquor and cigarettes? And drawing patrons at a steady clip? BIG TAX DOLLARS.

Also, since it's a cash business, BIG BUY-OUT BRIBE DOLLARS available for the local constabulatory, too.

It's a capitalist country after all ...

BG,

The number 1 rule of investigation, follow the money!

I don't know how voting where I live would do anything. I know already they would never allow anything.

You can't stop it.

I'm all for support in politics and especially local government, but this is one thing that will never go away.

Even in the most liberal places in this country you'll be hard pressed to find people who really get taht pissed about strip club raids. You'll also always find lots of people who probably think its a good thing. Old people especially are probably quick to think this is a good thing, and old people vote.

If you wanted to toss around considerable cash you might stop it sometimes, but I'm not convinced taht would do it either.

Strip club "raids" are an easy way for the cops to pretend like they're really doing something. They're also a easy to place to find "criminals". I challenge someone to find me the SC where a cop couldn't find a reason to arrest someone.

Cops know their risk of death from a SC raid is low vs a raid on a drug dealers HQ or Den. The cops see the SC raids as a way of showing they are on the job with relatively low personal risk. As they are the minions of caesar, they work to please their master. Those who can't compete with SC's in what they sell want the cops to put the SC's out of business. Of course the smokescreen of "morality" enters the picture....LOL.