Adult Stores, Threatened With Huge Fines, Vow to Remain Open

CNSNews.com ^ | November 19, 2001 | Rick Sarlat

[Stand Watch Listen]

Daytona Beach, Florida (CNSNews.com) - Several adult-oriented businesses are embroiled in a bitter feud with Daytona Beach, Fla. officials who have ordered them to shut down or pay a hefty price.

Three adult stores, XTC Adult Supercenter, The Banned Bookstore and House of Leather were warned to cease offering sexually explicit merchandise or they would be fined $1,000 a day. Four adult clubs have been given a harsher ultimatum -- cease and desist altogether or be fined up to $5,000 a day.

The dispute landed in federal court over the summer, with the businesses suing the city over ordinances which control where such adult-oriented businesses can be placed. Late last month, a federal judge ruled the city could not shut the businesses down, but could levy fines as it saw fit. City officials recently began issuing notices warning about the fines, which are scheduled to take effect this week.

"All they have to do is shut down to avoid the fines,'' said Mayor Baron H. Asher.

The business owners, however, are adamant in their refusal to comply. "The deadline is bogus," said Mike Piscitelli, an associate with Ellenton Video Inc., which owns the XTC. "We're aware of their ultimatum and we know that they can issue citations up to $5,000 a day. However we are absolutely never leaving this location, under any circumstances or conditions.''

Ron Krenn, owner of Molly Brown's I and Molly Brown's II, a bikini dancing club and a nude dancing club respectively, echoed those sentiments.

"We're staying open no matter what," he said. "This whole thing is a circus show. They think they're going to fine us out of business, but we're not going anywhere."

Krenn said city officials have gone as far as fabricating violations to drive him out of business. Molly Brown's I was issued a $2,500 fine for one its female entertainers showing too much skin.

But Asher denied the fine was trumped up and said the city intends to fight until the end.

"We don't intend to back off one iota," Asher said. "We are going to rigidly enforce our zoning ordinances and land-development codes. Period. Exclamation point."

Asher added that if inspectors can prove the adult clubs, which include two others named The Pink Pony and Lollipops, remained open between the time of the first fine until the code board's December meeting, each will face a $100,000 fine.

[Bella_Bru]

That doesn't address the problem of women who have neglected their husbands' sexual needs.

I do not worry about measuring up to the pics in magazines that my love looks at. Just like I do not expect him to measure up to any of the men in those magazines or movies.

And once again, I believe the majority of these "devastated" women have deeper marital problems than a few porn mags or movies. Maybe they might want to put down the bonsbons, turn off the tv, get off the couch, and actually have sex with their mates.

[StoneColdGOP]

You know I've never watched any kind of film expecting it to "promise" something to me. It's entertainment, pure and simple. It's a story (no matter how bad) with characters and when it's done, it's done.

If I considered every porno I'd ever seen to be a promise of something I ought to expect in life I'd have died of exhaustion years ago.

[HiTech RedNeck]

There is relatively little danger of children actually getting into one of these shops. That's a strawman. There is much more danger of children getting preyed upon by the adult(erated) scum they attract. In your impractical world where raunch would be allowed to expand without limit, every child would practically have to be surrounded by an armed guard to protect him from the loons on the loose. Kids would be prisoners in their own homes, streets, and schools, in the cruel mockery of freedom that has swallowed itself alive.

[HiTech RedNeck]

It promises you, ahem, "entertainment," no?

Sex should not be divorced from marriage.

[Bella_Bru]

And sex should also not be forgotten by prudish women who think that lying on their backs motionless once a month is enough to keep any man happy.

[slhill]

I don't understand. Are you suggesting that women may not dance naked in front of other people? Does that apply to wives and husbands?

[StoneColdGOP]

It may promise, but I have to deliver.

[Bella_Bru]

Well, of course! Dancing naked might lead to sex that is not in the dark, missionary, praying for a pregnancy, and with thought s of Billy Graham dancing in your head.

[slhill]

And of course, the Victorian Britons, who had very strict public rules for morality, were outrageous sexually, with a huge appetite for pornography just one of their many vices.

[Bella_Bru]

Hmmm......gee that runs against the small contingent of FReepers that believe porn never existed until 1960.

[StoneColdGOP]

Shhh. Don't say that, you might awaken people to a more accurate vision of history.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Hey thanks for the endorsement of the spot-on Calvinistic Puritans! Just in time for Thanksgiving too.

Sheesh, I'd hope that even your Orthodox Priest would have a few choice words to say about how much raunch all this "normalcy," even if it were so, actually justifies defending (hint: none). Why would your touted half of early American marriages in which the brides were pregnant, even bother to take place at all? Even hypocrisy preserves some vestige of honor; it is the tribute that vice pays to virtue.

[Bella_Bru]

And deliver you do!

[Bella_Bru]

Remind me to bring "Delta of Venus" this weekend.

[slhill]

HiTech, the same can be said of the fashion industry. The (non-adult) movie industry. The TV industry. And while a lot of porn involves half-starved harlots, a lot of porn involves everyday people with everyday shapes. And there is yet more involving weird people with weird shapes. In fact, the porn stars are much more diverse in their shape and size than other stars. And people can and do seek refuge from the problems of their marriage not only in porn but in work, in their friends and (where I live) in the pub. None of this means that we shouldn't disapprove of porn. However, the question is whether we should allow our government to ban people from getting porn.

[slhill]

You are absolutely right. I would personally like to see the line drawn at the point where one (or more) of the actors has suffered direct, criminal harm. Direct harm alone won't cut it -- lots of movie stars are destroyed by becoming involved in film.

[slhill]

HiTech, adulterated scum exist independent of porn. Porn does not make them scum. You believe it does, but you want to restrict other people's freedoms, so I think that the onus is on you to prove it. What's more, if people are made scummy by watching porn, then that presumably applies to homegrown porn as well -- so they shouldn't engage in making porn at home.

[Bella_Bru]

So, how much should Stone and I charge for the website?