THEY'RE SMOKING!!!
Call in Das Antirauchende Kommandos!!
Posted on 02/10/2008 5:11:36 PM PST by GOP_Lady
CLEVELAND -- Underground nightclubs where patrons can smoke freely and watch strippers after midnight have opened in some of the city's residential neighborhoods since the state began enforcing new restrictions on strip clubs and public smoking last year, police say.
Some of the nightclubs, also called "smokehouses," offer customers the opportunity to have sex with prostitutes, police said.
"They have succeeded in creating this underground, sleazy, cash-only business that cannot be regulated, taxed or secured by police," said attorney Skip Lazzaro, who represents legal nightclubs.
Informants have told police that patrons are mostly white suburban men. Customers bring their own liquor, cigarettes and cigars. A reference is sometimes required for entry, and doormen collect as much as $25, billed as a fee for a buffet. Some clubs also provide condoms.
The smokehouses are comparable to the illegal gin houses, or "speakeasys" that operated during Prohibition in the 1920s and early 1930s, Cleveland police Detective Tom Shoulders said.
"You put too many restrictions on people, they're going to find someplace else to go for their entertainment," he said.
A law banning dancers at adult clubs from touching patrons or each other, and also halts nude dancing after midnight, went into effect last fall.
The smoking ban, passed by Ohio voters in November 2006, outlaws indoor smoking in most public places. Local health departments began enforcing that law in May.
Police haven't been able to raid the underground clubs, because neighbors haven't been complaining, Shoulders said. Police have asked landlords to monitor activities in their rental homes.
"These guys aren't stupid," Lazzaro said of the smokehouse operators. "They know that if they want to stay open, they have to fly below the radar, avoid complaints and the attention of neighbors."
Detective Joe Bovenzi, a member of Shoulders' vice team, predicted the smokehouses would eventually be closed.
"Someone will be treated wrongly and drop a dime," he said. "Or there will be fights or shootings, and we'll move in."
If it was legal they could zone the nude dancing and other activities to an industrial zone or other non school/residential areas.
Some activities adults choose to do are not going to go away by making laws.
2000 plus years prove that.
People in a FREE society will find a way to do what they want no matter what the anal-retentive pols do to ban something.
Which of these most bothers the authorities? I'm betting the taxes Number One and someone somewhere is having fun without permission Number Two.
“I am only in favor of decriminalizing whore houses so women that don’t want to be used against their wishes aka human trafficking.”
Why would decriminalizing prostitution have any effect on human trafficking or the sex slave trade? Do you honestly think women will line up to have sex with 15-20 guys a day? Not to mention the children that are part of that ‘underground’.
“And no I do not advocate females making this lifestyle choice.”
How about males? IMO, there’s little difference between the prostitute and the john. The one difference is the prostitute probably didn’t start it by choice.
Call in Das Antirauchende Kommandos!!
Free-market economics at its best.
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those who never read history are doomed to repeat it....all this last, as I recall, preceded one heck of a financial hangover as well....
Bunny Ranch.
No children no sex slaves.
And IIRC that was the whore house the govt. ran for awhile but could not turn a profit.
As for Johns the fact that a man is going to use a female human being for a self pleasuring seman deposit sums that man up in that dept of his life pretty much.
I agree the John and the whore are no different in moral charactor.
Does not mean that decriminalizing a business propisition for sex is going to put a dent in sales.
And yes I believe decrim..would have a factor in women being used in the sex slave trade.
“Libs don’t study history.”
No need to study it, they rewrite it anyway.
>>I heard about this story on the radio during my drive into work. The Cleveland Police said that they would be going after the “smokers” too. Welcome to the hell that the people have created.<<
There are people who don’t like Atlanta’s strip clubs but they are open and above board. The girls are licensed individually and can have their license pulled for prostitution. The revenue for the city is large.
Its not perfect but it beats the hell out of a city full of underground crack dens filled with dancing hookers.
Are the Church ladies behind this again, or the feminazis?
Well, I'm no fan of The Huckster II but he had a point about this. I don't recall him saying that he, or anyone else was going to "eliminate" the underground economy.
I seem to recall him saying something to the effect that when these pimps and hos and dealers go to buy gas, food, etc, with the cash they made from their criminal activities they WILL pay tax on it.
Doesn't mean I'm voting for the guy, it just means he has a point here.
Ah, the days of no whiskey, wine and women. Those were the days!!! Now we have a new crop....GOOD;;;; People are people and will find what they want no matter the crazy, “I’ll help to live to be 130 years of age!”., the democrat (socialist) party.
Ohhhh, but it is popular, except for the paid enforcers. They will get the glory for a little while. Shoot outs, car races and the whole sheebang, but the “speakeasies” will condintue. Democrat.....socialists in action....bolsheviks in Amerika. No smokee, No fattie in foods...we will take care of you...yep...
Yep, you’re right...and there are no street walkers.
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