'Keep Your Tyranny Off Our Titties,' Say New Orleans Strippers
In a series of protests, strip club workers and their allies are pushing back against abusive policing.
"Starting on Bourbon Street near numerous still-shuttered clubs, the protest [ended with a rally] where strippers shared stories of the hardships they've faced without work since the raids and denounced what they said is politically motivated enforcement," reported The New Orleans Advocate. They "questioned why the raids were timed at the start of Carnival and argued that a crackdown on 'vice' in the French Quarter is an attack on the business that fuels the city's tourism industry." And they criticized the city for fighting fake sex trafficking at the clubs when there were plenty of sex workers on the streets who could genuinely use some help.
"The people of New Orleans have been told repeatedly that the months-long investigation and outpouring of law enforcement resources was necessary to uncover widespread sex trafficking in the strip clubs on Bourbon," said Michelle Rutherford, legal adviser for Bourbon Alliance of Responsible Entertainers, in a statement. Yet "neither the undercover investigation nor the raids revealed any instances of trafficking or exploitation of dancers or other women in the clubs." "Many see strip clubs as a symptom of the city's dark underbelly, a place of exploitation and abuse," wrote dancer Reese Piper in an op-ed on the raids. "But to me, they represent student loan payments, education and freedom. For the hundreds of people working in the clubs, the crackdowns are a threat to our livelihoods and survival."
For all the months of undercover investigation, ample taxpayer-funded trips to the strip club, and the myriad raids, the only actual violations the clubs were cited for include a handful of dancers per club offering to engage in paid sex acts with undercover police and/or engaging in "lewd acts" such as briefly baring their full breasts or caressing a patron's clothed genitals.
At Hunk Oasis, for instance, two dancers are accused of flashing their genitals at patrons and one dancer sold a small amount of marijuana to an undercover officer.
At Hustler's Barely Legal Club, officers were allegedly solicited for prostitution six times during their month of visits, saw dancers "encouraging the touching of their [clothed] genitals" by customers on two occasions, and saw employees baring their breasts or genitals five times.
At Rick's Cabaret, officers were allegedly solicited for prostitution five times, flashed four times, and offered a bump of cocaine once during their multiple visits.
These are the sorts of things—done discretely by individual actors—that cost these clubs their liquor licenses, weeks of business, and thousands of dollars apiece in fines. (If widescale sex trafficking had shown up, it might be hard to argue that club management knew nothing. But how the heck are they supposed to know whether a dancer briefly bares her breasts to a customer in a private room?) This all highlights how arbitrary rules like anti-lewdness laws and strip club regulations can be. A dancer can grind on someone's lap legally but crosses a line if her hand brushes over the customer's clothed penis. She may wear the tiniest of bikinis, but must never expose her nipples for even a second. These are silly distinctions to begin with, made even sillier by the fact that New Orleans cops would spend months of undercover operations enforcing them—especially in a neighborhood where curbside flashing for beads and drinks is commonplace. Full article at http://reason.com/blog/2018/02/06/keep-your-tyranny-off-our-titties-say-ne?utm_medium=email
But isn't the big claim to fame about the French Quarter during Carnival the publically celebrated flashing of breasts on the streets, on the balconies overlooking the streets (and just about everywhere else) for cheap bead necklaces?
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Is there a LE enforcement effort to arrest the tourists flashing for sex trafficking? I mean, break this down:
1. They (presumably) travelled across state lines, to
2. Engage in lewd acts in public, for
3. Compensation (the beads or an alcoholic drink?), while
4. Others, possibly minors could be "forced" to see and,
5. May even be encouraged to participate
So shouldn't the so called "tourists" be arrested for sex trafficiang? And shouldn't the arrest targets also include:
1. The women who flash
2. The guys (and women) who pay (with beads or other items of value)
3. The merchants that sell the beads, as well the vendors that sold the drinks
4. The police officers who patrol the strets and therefore, provide "protection" to the alleged sex trafficers
5. The sanitation teams who conspire after the fact to cover up the crime by hiding the evidence (in the trash)
6. The taxi drivers who used thier vehicles for transporting sex traffickers and their victims to thier sex trafficking locations
7. The bus drivers and airline pilots and flight crews who also provided transportation to sex traffickers for the purpose of supporting sex trafficking
8. The televsion and other media crews who document Carnival and therefore promote and advertise the services of sex trafficed victims
9. The owners of the construction companies that built the structures used for sex trafficing (buildings and the streets)
Didn't all of New Orleans LE turn in their badges and head for the hills after the hurricane/flood deal?
I think I remember a news report at the time that two of the took of their uniforms and stole a police car and were stopped by other LE in the stolen car!
There are a lot of sex workers hurting financially because of this. A lot of them were seasonal dancers who depend on tourist events to make their money, and they are now stuck there and potentially homeless. Many dancers may now have to resort to escorting to make ends meet. IOW, LE and the officials have created the kind of situation they were purportedly trying to stop in the first place.
FEMA should give each hobbyist a trailer and some cash then they can dole out the relief funds to the escorts.