Four Foot Rule In Seattle

[+ Lucky]

Seattle has enacted a new law requiring strippers to remain at least four feet from the client during a lap dance. Nick the Dick might be the only dancer you could still touch!

One lawyer complained that the rule was like swatting a fly with a sledgehammer!

 

Council panel OKs rules for strip clubs

 

By Jim Brunner

 

Seattle Times staff reporter

 

Tough new restrictions on Seattle strip clubs were approved by a City Council panel yesterday, including a "four-foot rule" to separate dancers from patrons.

 

Despite objections from some dancers and attorneys representing local clubs, the council's Finance and Budget Committee voted to send the legislation to the full council for a vote Oct. 3.

 

The rules are similar to those in other cities, but attorneys for two Seattle clubs argued that the restrictions were unfair and designed to put them out of business.

 

"It seems to me ... that what the council is doing here is basically swatting a fly with a sledgehammer," said Gil Levy, who represents Rick's in Lake City.

 

Jack Burns, an attorney for Déjà Vu in downtown Seattle, said the city had produced no evidence that the clubs were linked to crimes such as prostitution or illicit drug use.

 

Of 190 arrests inside clubs in recent years, none involved prostitution or drug dealing, Burns noted.

 

Instead, the charges were virtually all related to violations of the current law governing conduct of dancers. That law prohibits sexual contact with patrons, but does not force dancers to keep a certain distance away.

 

A few neighbors of Rick's urged the council to bring Seattle in line with other cities, calling the move long overdue.

 

"I am completely disgusted by the City Council's behavior," said Kelly Meinig, a longtime critic of Rick's, who blasted the city for extending a moratorium on strip clubs for 17 years while failing to pass new zoning laws.

 

The moratorium was recently struck down by a federal court and the city must now decide where to allow new clubs to open. Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels intends to propose zoning rules by mid-December, said Sung Yang, the mayor's council liaison.

 

Tiffiny Neatrour, 24, who dances at The Sands in Ballard, said she was angry that the council appeared determined to pass rules that could take away her lucrative job by virtually eliminating the "lap dances" that earn tips for dancers.

 

"Nobody wants to pay for a dance four feet away. It makes me mad. I don't know what I'm going to do," she said.

 

Neatrour, who has two children, said she typically earns $200 to $300 a day dancing. She was one of a few dancers to attend yesterday's committee vote. More than a hundred showed up at an earlier public hearing to voice their strong opposition.

 

Besides the four-foot rule, the proposal would prohibit customers from handing money directly to dancers, require brighter lighting and force clubs to post a "code of conduct" in public areas.

 

Councilman Peter Steinbrueck said he was worried that the city had not proved that strip clubs were really crime magnets. "We better be able to back that up," he said.

 

Steinbrueck also amended the proposal yesterday to ensure that customers at nude dance clubs be held accountable for rules violations.

 

Councilman Richard McIver, chairman of the finance panel, said he wasn't swayed by the dancers' arguments about their possible loss of income.

 

"Drug dealing might pay family wages," he said. "That doesn't mean we should legalize drugs."

[tazmanian5230]

Poor Tiffiny, maybe we should take up a collection for her.

[Linden Groves]

Because of our liquor laws out here, all of the strip clubs are alcohol-free. And sad to say, there are no male strippers at all. The nearest male strippers can sometimes be found in Vancouver, B.C., but it's no Montreal or even Toronto. The next closest male strippers are in Portland, Or. So frankly, the four-foot rule is not exactly a tragedy here. Well, except for poor Tiffany.

[+ Lucky]

In Oregon there is apparently also a four-foot rule, but the Supreme Court there ruled that it was unconstitutional.

[+ Lucky]

RE: SIX Foot Rule In LA?

 

Not to be outdone, the LA Police want a SIX foot rule!

 

L.A. Police Commision Wants Lap Dancing Ban

By Jill Leovy, Times Staff Writer

 

 

Lap dancing, the political hot potato that pits free expression against indecency, should be outlawed, Los Angeles' top police officials voted today.

 

And no tipping allowed.

 

The Los Angeles City Police Commission today urged city council members to adopt a "six-foot rule" for adult clubs, which would outlaw physical contact between dancers and patrons. The legislation would also prohibit direct tipping of performers by patrons.

 

The Los Angeles Police Department has long sought the change, saying the existing prohibition on skin-to-skin contact is insufficient and difficult to enforce.

 

Adult club operators loudly cried foul.

 

"This is a city of 3½ million people," said attorney John Weston, spokesman for some 20 business owners who are fighting the measure. "Surely you can have room for diversity in the laws."

 

The measure passed by the commission would also require patrons to remain at least six feet away from exotic dancers, who would be limited to performing only on raised stages with rails.

 

The measure, which the council unsuccessfully tried to make law two years ago, is supported by police who say they have difficulty enforcing the current law.

 

But Weston said that restricting dancers to a stage is, "like saying all television has to go back to black and white."

 

The Los Angeles City Council passed a similar measure in 2003, but it was immediately challenged by industry opponents, who filed a petition for a voter-referendum aimed at overturning the new rules.

 

Faced with a choice of putting the issue to a vote, the council opted to repeal a rule requiring patrons to keep their distance from dancers. What remained on the books was a watered-down version of the original that prohibited VIP rooms and set standards for security guards, but allowed lap-dancing. Skin-to-skin touching between dancers and patrons had been illegal, and remains so.

 

Since then court decisions have allowed more restrictions.

 

The courts would view the current proposal favorably, assistant City Atty. Michael Klekner told the commission, because "you are not regulating dance, you are regulating physical contact. That is conduct that is not protected...by the constitution."

 

LAPD Det. Ben Jones told the police commissioners that the ordinance is needed because some adult dance halls are hotbeds of prostitution, workplace violence and other crimes, and police have had difficulty enforcing laws in them.

 

He told of officers arriving at clubs to find used condoms littering the floors. Right now, the law allows a nude dancer, "to go into a dark corner with a patron and sit on his lap, and for him to grab her buttocks and move up and down and there is no way to know if there is prostitution going on unless we go up to them and separate them."

 

But industry representative Weston objected, calling the proposed measure unnecessary, and wasteful of police time. "If there's prostitution, arrest those involved," he told the commission.

 

Police Commission president John Mack called the proposal, "a well-crafted ordinance," and after a few questions about how directly lap-dancing relates to prostitution and other crimes, the board voted to recommend the measure to the City Council Public Safety Committee.

[tazmanian5230]

RE: SIX Foot Rule In LA?

 

Lucky,

This wont ever work in NY...... My can of Cream wont shot that far....

 

 

"I've said it before and i'll say it again... If you don't like 15 Minutes, then simply ignore it."

 

BN 2005}(