In Houston, there are “massage parlors” and “adult modeling studios” everywhere. And not just out by the airport or in the warehouse district, but in strip malls right out in the open. Some even advertise they have an ATM and take credit cards.
It’s fairly obvious to anyone what’s going on at these places, yet the cops seem to turn a blind eye. I’m a fairly libertarian fellow, so the existence of these business doesn’t bother me, but I am surprised they seem to stay in business unmolested in the current political climate, when it seems everyone is thinking of the children. I can think of a few possibilities as to why:
The cops (and their bosses) know that there will always be hookers, and it’s safer for everyone to keep it off the street.
These place may be a lot harder to bust than I would think. The cops try and don’t succeed, or have given up.
There was an entire strip of such shops on the way back to my father’s home up until about two years back. Massage parlor, x-rated video, then asian massage parlor, all with open 24 hours signs. There was really no question what was going on in there. I doubt they went out of business for financial reasons, so I’m putting my money on #2.
In Denver, escorts and massage parlors and such are openly advertised in the back of the seedier rags like Westword and the Denver Police seem to be only concerned with street prostitution.
Basically, resident complaints will generate enforcement action, and they admit as much. Since there aren’t any real neighbors to get annoyed, Denver Police have a pretty blatant live and let live policy. When condoms get left on someones lawns and someone complains, police will start cruising in marked cars first, and if that doesn’t solve the problem, undercover stings with both johns and prostitutes will commence until they move elsewhere. Like Colfax. Which is a commerical street and doesn’t generate too many resident complaints.
Residual crime aside, why would there be any issue at all?
The U.S. decided to free slaves, allow women to vote, and re-allow people to drink alcohol.
Take out the “war on drugs” , institute a few limits, and we might all be better off.
That said, “natural selection” or any other form of natural population control can’t be harmful for our species. We’re gonna burn this planet out in a few decades anyways though.
A “brothel” was busted here a year or two ago, right in the middle of a vanilla suburb. Most people were surprised, but a few of us wondered what the big deal was.
I imagined myself outside the “brothel” on the day they got busted.
“Random person” says “I’m sure glad that that sort of thing is out of our neighborhood, those people should be in jail!”
I say “Why?”
RP says "because people have sex in there.
I say “So do the people there” points to the house next door
RP says “Yeah, but there are people that PAY for it there.”
I say “You just described Valentines day, without the obvious cash/gift transaction.”
When I moved to my current town, there were three ‘massage parlors’. Two of them closed within three years or so - the last is still operating. What closed the first two was irate/indignant neighbors watching them constantly, and calling the cops whenever someone was observed going in. My guess is the cops finally closed them just to stop the constant calls. (This is a Navy town, so I think that the last one (which is right by the gate) will stay open for a LONG time. Funny side note - Our town was named an ‘All-American City’ back in the 80’s, and the Mayor commented on how surprising it was being named such, even WITH the ‘massage parlors’.)
Greensboro NC had a bunch of Parlors when I was living there in the late 80’s/early 90’s. When I went back for a reunion last year, they all seemed to be gone. I guess things got out of hand and the cops finally swept them to another location. Whether that meant new locations in Greensboro or out of town altogether I don’t know.
I think the main reason they stay in business is #1. Many cops tend to think of prostitution as not worth busting. This might change though if things start getting ugly and other crimes like murder and drug business become attached to the brothels. And that is probably pretty often.
Here in Sydney, some of them are legal. Those ones are no mystery - they are subject to government inspection (health, etc), they pay their taxes, and they quietly go about their business just as does the supermarket next door.
We also have lots of illegal ones. They seem to come and go. I’ve always assumed it was to do with kickbacks and “freebies” to the cops, but I’m not sure.
The last group is equally puzzling - the street walkers. I live about twenty yards from Canterbury Rd, one of Sydney’s (in)famous curb-crawling strips. The girls tend to come and go over long term cycles (five years or so). There will be a push from the religious right, the mayor pledges action, the cops go out and clean up Canterbury Rd, and the ladies of the evening are gone. Six months later, one appears. Then two. Then it’s full-on action.
I’m proud of my state for allowing legal brothels (I think they use the term “bordello”). They are regulated and relatively safe. Anything that cuts out the street trade and the exploitation is OK by me.
I live in a town that enacted a “six foot rule” in relation to lap dances. Please hold that thought in mind as I tell you the most direct path from downtown to the city commissioners homes is most likely a street jam packed with 24 hour massage parlors and lingerie modelling. But not one itsy bitsy strip club.
There is so many of them, I wonder what someone who wanted a legitimate massage has to do to find one? I guess it would be like a real businessperson in Nigeria needing to biuy something over seas. SOL.
AFAIK, the places in the area that advertise massage actually give massages. I have always heard that the hookers walk 2nd street down town, but I can’t verify that.
I am curious, what is the legal fiction between an actual cat house and a go go joint that provides bump and grind lap dances that result in guys achieving orgasm? Is it simply the lack of penetration? Are the places actually violating laws but mostly ignored? How far is too far?
Jim {Not that I am against the Lap Dance places, they seem to be much better for overall public health than actual text-book prostitution.}
You read about them every once in a while in this neck of NJ (NW - Morris county), but it’s fairly rare, and they’re usually centered on one of the major commuter routes - Route 10, Route 46, etc.
There was one busted just last week in Chester, NJ, which was a HUGE suprise, as it’s a very wealthy community (those of you in NJ probably know the now-defunct Larison’s Turkey Farm restaurant - a Chester landmark for decades). It’s the kind of place people flock to on the weekends to go to the farms & antique stores. The place was located in a strip mall near the center of town.
It’s not obvious to me. I always thought such establishments were “handjob houses” rather than full-blown brothels. (An important distinction, at least to me – I would never go there simply because a handjob is something I can give myself, for free.)
BTW, if you want an actual massage, make sure you’re getting a licensed massage therapist (LMT). I go to those a lot, for pain and cramping in my neck and shoulders and upper back.
They bust them regularly here and they’re definately not out in the open. I found out when I moved into my house that the house across the street and down two had been left abandoned when the lady who owned it died intestate, and it ended up as an ersatz brothel until it got busted! It was boarded up for ages, but they evidently either auctioned it or cleared up the will and it’s been renovated and sold now.
Every so often there’s a story in the paper about a big brothel bust. They don’t seem to go after the ones in the phone book under “escorts”, but we don’t have any "massage parlors’ hanging around.
Here in Boston, the police policy seems to be: “don’t ask, don’t tell”. IMHO, the sex trade will always be with us, so local government should make it as safe and crime-free as possible. Of course, if the p[olice are being paid off, it is a different matter-but if a rich guy can buy what he wants 9in the sexual sense0, why isn’t the same opportunity available to the hoi polloi? Publicly licensed brothels (ala Nevada) would make the trade much more controllable.
