I think part of davids's issue with clubs may be due to the situations in Seattle and Vegas - two cities where the ties between SCs and crime are apparent (see seattleweekly.com for more on Seattle).
Are things similar in your town? Are the clubs owned by people with criminal records? Do SC owners make campaign contributions or outright bribe officials? If you see police in the club, do you get the impression that they're looking the other way? Please share.
It's odd, because a couple places I visit had to go to court to stay open, and a couple other places are owned by friends and relatives of the politicians and police. I know if religious authorities knew what went on at my favorite club, they would pressure LE into shutting it down permanently.
So when a customer spends money at a strip club most of it is going first to the girls who are blowing it mostly of their drug, alcohol, and gambling problems, and then organized crime is taking their cut? Man! Seems like Tsunami relief would be a better way to help out poor people these days...
Anyway, to answer your question: one of the naughtier strippers at Rick's told me that the cops who come in explicitly looked the other way at the naughty things she does. They have a quota they need to arrest and pick the girls at random to fill that number. They don't really care what the girls are doing.
This naughty stripper also told me that the problem the cops have with Rick's doesn't have to do with what the girls do but "other problems" with the owners. They just harass the girls at Rick's to put pressure on the owners to resolve their "other problem".
I wonder how many cops visit Rick's themselves after work?
Just recently I remember the bathroom attendant at a popular club remarked how this one guy just set his badge (undercover? cop) right in the middle of the two sinks next to the bathroom attendant. I suppose that's a bit unusual to be that open about it if you're undercover.
Shadowcat, you're partially right of course. But even when I travel and am out of town overnight I still prefer days. I don't like crowds anytime anywhere but especially not in clubs. I really like to sit and chat with the ladies to get to know them, and the only time you can do that is during the day when it's slow. BTW, it's my experience that an awful lot of off-duty cops hang out in strip clubs, along with the drug dealers. Makes for an interesting atmosphere.
I wonder about the media, too. The above article is the first I've read to touch on the prostitution busts and police incidents that happen there. All other articles I've read assumed the club was clean and just trying to make sure their expansion plans were approved. Maybe that was just smooth PR work by the club and the officials who got caught though.
I have no idea who owns these clubs but I'd be surprised if organized crime wasn't behind the fancy gentlemen's clubs at least. I think a lot of criminal types hang out in many clubs. I've known a lot of dancers who have criminal records. And I've seen drugs being sold in clubs, in fact I think many small-time drug dealers regularly hang out in clubs and a lot of the dancers are their customers. I also think all this adds to the fun, I've always considered strip clubs to be "a walk on the wild side" and for me that's part of the attraction. It also helps to explain why I usually only visit clubs before dark.
Most clubs in Detroit are run by some branch of organized crime. Occasional busts, usually around election time, are supposed to make us believe that law enforcement really cares. I doubt if full contact with extras could exist without cops and others being paid to look the other way. (We even have a case of a cop in suburban Detroit who got busted for paying a dancer with counterfeit money, but that's beside the point.) Rumor has it that the nude clubs in Windsor, Ontario, Canada use dancers recruited by biker gangs or pimps who recruit in French Canadian farm country. How do you get a bank loan to set up a club, get a liquor license from the state, keep the cops at bay and keep elected public officials quiet. Everyone gets paid.
I came across some old Grand Jury Reports at the County Store. They were neato! I wish I didn't have so many books already or I would have bought them all up. Basically corruption was rampant in the clubs and everywhere else in the olden days as it is right now. One of the purposes of law is to grant power and profits to some persons and peonage to other persons.
Michigan has serious restrictions on granting liquor licenses, a "hangover" from the Prohibition Era. Only so many licenses can be granted per city pre percentage of population. So as the population declines in Detroit it gets harder to get a liquor license for a club. Pay a bribe and you might get on the short list. Pay a kicback to a bank loan officer and you get financing. Pay the cops and you get an "understanding." Pay the president of the neighborhood assocation and you might avoid a picket line or a petition drive. Now who has this kind of money and nerve?