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."
AHHH, golly....doesn’t huckie sweetie like to be touched????
Nice to see that the criminals are already capitalizing on this second round of Prohibition.
BULL!
Bull? Bull what? Bull that there are sex slaves? Bull that women will line up for the job? Or Bull that there is no moral difference between prostitutes and johns?
Or perhaps you doubt there are thousands of sex slaves in America including children.
AND, when you and I go to buy gas,foot, etc, we too will be taxed, just like the hos and underground businesses. Who’s he trying to buffalo into a pen? Comeon..we all pay taxes when we buy stuff...Ole Huckie is doing a franetic dance for those who don’t listen to his words.
Where have you been driftdiver. Women of the “night, morning, noon and afternoon” for the most part are not “driven” to do the dasterdly deed of prostitution, they, for the most part know exactly what they are doing, it’s for the money, as for the johns, I don’t know, I treated only a few of them for injuries, not mentionable on this site.
Return of the speak-easies...
LOL!!!
What fun!!! Bathtub gin, flappers, zoot-suits!!!
Wheeeeee!!!!
God I love America.
If "don't care" is a euphemism for "on the take," then you're right.
A lot of cops like to smoke. A lot of cops like to drink and smoke and look at pretty ladies.
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure this out.
This is a little outside my expertise, but I was under the impression that's what people DID with prostitutes.
Where else would our future political dynasties come from?
Well, again, I'm not defending The Huckster II but I'm saying he has a point and I'm sorry he's the only one who has come out in support of the fair tax.
Look at what you just said -
we'll be taxed just like the hos and underground businesses.
OR, you could say the same thing that you just said this way:
the hos and underground businesses will be taxed just like us.
Once for everyone, under the fair tax.
POT smoking.......? Is that why they legalized it for “medical” purposes? HA Ha Every pot head in those legalized areas have some sort of ailment that the Drs will write a presecription for the WEED. Come On. It was not addictive in the 60s according to the expert smokers in the screaming media, and now it is legal in places, where the pot heads can go so they can continue puffing the weed. Funny, cigarettes are addictive and dangerous, but canibas isn’t?
Yep, for every item taxable, but then smoking and drinking, plus whatever, is not taxable. Only that which is bought on the legal market.
The Libs make up history as they go along.
I am still not getting the point of the Law....
I understand banning the smoking.. not that I agree with it.. but whats the point of banning stripping?
What the hell dose that has to do with smoking?
Darn, I never thought of it in that vein...The hucksters of that day did have fun, till it was over, but they did make a lot of people happy.
That’s what I’m trying to figure out as well. LOL.
Yep ..................... They'll close 'em down just like they did back during the first prohibition.
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