Occupational Hazard....edited with more information.
Well, I found out that the night before last, one of the largest and oldest topless clubs in Los Angeles was raided. A number of people, including the owner, manager and several girls were arrested. Vice has been making sweeps across the San Fernando Valley and Orange County, as there's this contingent of conservatives who are trying to shut down clubs across Southern California. In Orange County they've been very successful, and in the last five years all but two have been forced to close their doors.
The people who have put together these petitions are claiming that the offending clubs are too close to residential neighborhoods, but even the those that aren't anywhere near the burbs have been targeted. Our Governor has been supportive of these prospective bills, and the police have been actively working to dump the clubs, even though no bill has been passed. Now, it takes some doing to actually shut down a club (at least it does in Los Angeles County). Most of these attempts are overturned in Court, and the whole exercise amounts to little more than harassment. But while the clubs are shut down after a raid, which they can do for up to two weeks while "investigating" before the Court date, the clubs, obviously, lose a lot of revenue.
As the story goes, the big infractions that were cited by the police as the reason for making the arrests Thursday night were that a dancer had playfully slapped another dancer's posterior region as she came off stage. This was "lewd conduct" - and for this, both dancers and the aforementioned were arrested and taken to the precinct without the benefit of being allowed to put on their street clothes. This is not law, by the way, it was a decision made at the whim of the arresting officers, who determined that hauling the girls out of the club (in the rain) in bikinis and seven inch platforms was acceptable.
The other thing was that there were a few girls, of course, who had some small amounts of marijuana in their lockers. They were arrested also. This is not petty whining. If a judge decided to enforce an extreme interpretation of the law in the case of the illicit ass smacking, the dancer could be charged, convicted of sexual assault and required to register as a sex offender, the same way that a convicted rapist or child predator would, with the same lifelong stigma and repercussions that would predicate.
Anyhow, I'm not so much looking forward to going to work tonight.
Addendum: Orange County does have a proximity law for clubs, which was passed a few years ago, barring clubs from being within 10 miles of - dig this - not residential, but business districts. I find that charming. When I worked at a topless club in Orange County, the biggest petitioners to have us shut down were the Mercedes car dealership down the road, and a local church. Both the employees of the dealership and the old, decrepit pastor of the Methodist church came in regularly for, you know, some beers and a bit of good, clean, wholesome, hypocritical, all-American fun.
The people who have put together these petitions are claiming that the offending clubs are too close to residential neighborhoods, but even the those that aren't anywhere near the burbs have been targeted. Our Governor has been supportive of these prospective bills, and the police have been actively working to dump the clubs, even though no bill has been passed. Now, it takes some doing to actually shut down a club (at least it does in Los Angeles County). Most of these attempts are overturned in Court, and the whole exercise amounts to little more than harassment. But while the clubs are shut down after a raid, which they can do for up to two weeks while "investigating" before the Court date, the clubs, obviously, lose a lot of revenue.
As the story goes, the big infractions that were cited by the police as the reason for making the arrests Thursday night were that a dancer had playfully slapped another dancer's posterior region as she came off stage. This was "lewd conduct" - and for this, both dancers and the aforementioned were arrested and taken to the precinct without the benefit of being allowed to put on their street clothes. This is not law, by the way, it was a decision made at the whim of the arresting officers, who determined that hauling the girls out of the club (in the rain) in bikinis and seven inch platforms was acceptable.
The other thing was that there were a few girls, of course, who had some small amounts of marijuana in their lockers. They were arrested also. This is not petty whining. If a judge decided to enforce an extreme interpretation of the law in the case of the illicit ass smacking, the dancer could be charged, convicted of sexual assault and required to register as a sex offender, the same way that a convicted rapist or child predator would, with the same lifelong stigma and repercussions that would predicate.
Anyhow, I'm not so much looking forward to going to work tonight.
Addendum: Orange County does have a proximity law for clubs, which was passed a few years ago, barring clubs from being within 10 miles of - dig this - not residential, but business districts. I find that charming. When I worked at a topless club in Orange County, the biggest petitioners to have us shut down were the Mercedes car dealership down the road, and a local church. Both the employees of the dealership and the old, decrepit pastor of the Methodist church came in regularly for, you know, some beers and a bit of good, clean, wholesome, hypocritical, all-American fun.