OHIO STRIP CLUBS
A touch would be a fourth-degree misdemeanor punishable by up to 30 days in jail and a $250 fine. If the touch involves a "specified anatomical area'' - defined as the genitals, pubic region, or female breast - the crime would escalate to a first-degree misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine. The law also requires strip clubs and other "sexually oriented businesses'' to close between midnight and 6 A.M. Regular dance clubs may remain opend until 2 A.M. Citizens for Community Values, a Cincinnati organization, pressured the state to enact the law which could spread to other states. Ohio's new strip club regulations are almost identical to those enacted last year by Prince George's County Maryland as a result of feminist political pressure. The feminist sponsored law, however, was overthrown in the summer of 2007.
Citizens for Community Values claims the laws are needed to protect community values and decrease crime.
These statewide strip club laws were enacted in the same way the Iranian government enacts its laws.
Iranian laws regulate people's activity under the banner of "countering immoral behavior". Iran's clerics largely determine the standards of moral behavior. The police are then used to fine and arrest those who deviate from official standards of morality. Ohio's strip club law was enacted on the basis of "protecting community morals". The group, Citizens for Community Values, determined the moral values for Ohio. They then pressured the Ohio state government to enact strip club laws based on these moral values. Citizens for Community Values acted similair to Iran's government clerics. Ohio's various police departments are now required fine and arrest those who deviate from the moral values of Citizens for Community Values.
Ohio's laws are beginning to mirror Iran.
Additionally, the laws are double standard.
Ohio's strip club law will jail any man who gets a lapdance because of the supposed threat to public morality but will not arrest any cheating wife who tricks her husband into raising her boyfriend's child. Tricking a husband into raising another man's child is deemed as morally acceptable. Any tricked husband who gets a lapdance and is then arrested under the strip club law could validly sue not only the state but possibly the Citizens for Community Values for sex discrimination damages. Also, any dancer fined or jailed under this law would have the right to sue on the basis of harassment. The state cannot justify how she is a threat to public morals but the fraudulent wife is not.
Morality should be based on whether a person is stealing from somebody or stabbing somebody in the back not whether a person approves or disapproves of a particular activity.
Lastly, the claim any strip club causes crime was the same argument used by Prince George's County. This arguement was shown to be false. In fact, preliminary evidence indicates the opposite is true.
Ohio has 3 major cities: Cincinnati, Cleveland and Columbus. Of these three, Cincinnati, by a wide margin, has the least number of strip clubs - primilarly due to the activities of Citizens for Community Values which is based in this city. According to this group's arguments, Cincinnati should have the lowest murder rate among the three cities - by a wide margin. In fact it has the highest murder rate. Checking crime statics for 2004, 2005 and 2006, Cincinnati had the highest murder rate every single year.
It is NOT strip clubs that increase the crime rate, rather, it appears GROUPS SUCH AS CITIZENS FOR COMMUNITY VALUES, VARIOUS FEMINIST ORGANIZATIONS AND OTHER SIMILAIR GROUPS INCREASE CRIME. These organizations pressure local governments to outlaw any activity (such as lapdancing) they dont't like. The police must then waste resources and time enforcing regulations against the activity. These resources could have been used to prevent murder or other crimes.
Police forces are not meant to enforce any group's social ideology - unless you live in Iran.
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