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."
I’ve been growing tobacco for years. Pretty fun.
I gave up smoking last Dec though. Mostly at my wifes request.
http://www.seedman.com/Tobacco.htm
A lot of men can't afford market rates. Demand greatly exceeds supply. Legalization would likely make sex slavery so unprofitable as to be no longer worth the risk to the slavers.
Legalize prostitution and tax them.
Also require them (the sluts) to get checked for STDs every so often.
This is a service men want, free market etc. Most of the strippers are way hotter than any of the “johns” could ever nail on their own. Why not let them pay for it?
I completely agree. Many of these girls happen to enjoy sex with multiple partners all the time. Why not make some money on it.
I am certainly no Huckabee supporter, but it is very clear that you don't understand the FairTax at all.
The FairTax isn't Huckabee's idea, it has been around for quite a while - Huckabee just adopted it and it is pretty much his only good idea.
In this article, the patrons are bringing their own smokes and alcohol so your point is not clear.
Let's say that the clubs were selling drinks and smokes illegally and clears $200k a year. Under the current system, the seller is not taxed ever by the Feds since it won't be reported as income.
Under the FairTax, the seller would pay taxes as he purchased items. Even if he bought items under the table, eventually the money would make it's way to a legal item that would get hit.
“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.”
First they call them nightclubs and then it refers to rental homes, how organized is this activity?
Eliot Ness.
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'd go with not being taxed as #1, and having fun without permission as #2...
Nice, concise definition of our two "parties": Dems are furious about missing some tax revenue, and Pubs are upset someone is having fun that they don't approve of.
Or they may enjoy the sparkling conversation and interesting outlook on life
Yeah, Where’s Kucinich when they need him most?
Electing him as Mayor again would be a Gaff. He’ll bankrupt the city in 6 months then tax the strippers, prostitutes, clubs and raise taxes on the good citizens of that city.
...and new ones will open as the old ones are closed. Prohibition doesn’t stop vices, it only drives them underground. It does however make criminals wealthy so they can afford to buy corrupt officials.
Look at the boom in organized crime that alcohol prohibition caused during the 20’s. Look at the boom in organized crime that drug prohibition has caused now, especially in Columbia and Mexico. Coming soon to the US BTW.
Prohibition of vices causes more problems than the vices themselves do. Better to regulate and tax vices so they can be monitored than drive vices underground and into the hands of criminals.
I admit that I am fairly clueless about economics. Buuuut: I was joking. However, two flaws with the FairTax are that it is only an improvement if the IRS goes away, and it's difficult to imagine folks in DC giving it up, and that underground economies will always exist, in some way or another (there will always be bad guys).
Because. . .
1. The family is the basic building block of society (rich, poor, hindu, tribal, Catholic, whatever) and prostitution destroys families by:
a. encouraging men to hire whores instead of get married
b. creating an easy way to cheat on their wives
2. Good men are absolutely necessary to a great nation. Prostitution weakens men tremendously by:
a. encouraging them to fornicate/commit adultery
b. causing them to think of women as items for sale
c. destroying the most commendable quality in a man -his willing to sacrifice himself for the weaker women and children. Rather than protecting and defending women, he now exploits them.
3. Good women are absolutely necessary to a great nation. Prostitution destroys women by:
a. legitimizing an industry that absolutely destroys women body, soul, and spirit
b. making rape an almost non-issue (if she’d take $75 to get laid, why is it a felony to force her? shouldn’t it be the equivalent of shoplifting?)
4. Prostitution destroys the most innocent of human beings, children, by:
a. increasing the number of children whose mothers are whores (how many serial killers had prostitute mothers? This absolutely devastates kids)
b. producing unwanted pregnancies (all sex will, even if you use protection, it happens every day) with the resultant abortions
c. breaking up families by encouraging fathers to cheat
d. creating legitimacy for prostitution in the eyes of little girls (a valid career choice) and boys (why be a man, just hire a whore! what are women good for, anyway?)
5. It means more out of wedlock sex, even if they get checked for STDs, the check will just turn up “positive,” so, then they get treated, hopefully, which is not always effective, super strains of gonorhhea anybody?
To pretend that prostitution is somehow benign is crazy. It is a terrible activity and should be discouraged as much as possible.
“Many of these girls happen to enjoy sex with multiple partners all the time.”
Boy, are you off base. I’ve known whores. They hate you.
They are almost always either:
-crazy victims of childhood abuse re-raping themselves in a sick self abuse cycle
-drug addicts who have no other way to make the money to pay for their habit
-slaves in either a literal or psychological sense
The Happy Hooker is a myth.
Do we call these “screw-easies”? (To choose a less monumentally offensive phrase)
Ping!
Makes me wonder.
The supreme court and legislators determine that the Constitution contains an inferred (i.e. made up) right to privacy, which includes the right to kill an unborn child merely for the sake of convenience.
Yet, the same constitution does not guarantee a woman the right to dance around naked and rub her boobies on some chubby accountant’s forhead for tips?
they might as well print the constitution on toilet paper.
Your points are valid and I agree with many of them. However, Government has no business telling anyone what they can do with their own bodies, and on private property. (Not that anyone ever owns their property since the Government always charges you property tax, but thats another rant :-)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.