I'm Worried About Getting Arrested
I've been having a great time dancing off and on for the past few months, but the growing stories of arrests are getting to me.
I am hearing about 6 inch rules, saying simple things like, " I wanna have fun", and being pulled into a vice cops lap all resulting in a prostitution convictions that will haunt you forever.
I am in the Dallas area, so I dont know if regions play a part, but I would appreciate your thoughts
Thanks tracy
Re:I'm Worried About Getting Arrested
The best thing for you to do is to find out the regulations your city has for strip clubs and adhere to them.
Re:I'm Worried About Getting Arrested
Quote:
Originally Posted by onlythebest link=board=27;threadid=13334;start=msg174375#msg17 4375 date=1095055004
The best thing for you to do is to find out the regulations your city has for strip clubs and adhere to them.
That's a great first step.
However, read Noelle's recent thread about getting arrested in Seattle. In some municipalities, the laws/ordinances make it nearly impossible for dancers to make money without the rules being at the very least bent because said rules are so ridiculously strict.
It seems that these crackdowns often increase during an election year, such as this one.
Re:I'm Worried About Getting Arrested
I would be EXTREMELY careful in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area.
It is the home base of several religious operations and a bust there will cost you around $4000 in fines and possible jail time. These groups have millions of dollars available being used to pressure politicians and conservative church members to help them run adult businesses into the ground and they will NEVER let up. Club owners have spent millions of dollars in attorneys fees just to stay open.
3 club busts here an you will have a felony conviction and jail time.
I would ask around to managers and other responsible dancers regarding club busts and what happens.
I know a girl who was busted there and it was such a major issue she was changing clubs nightly along with her appearance and eventually quit working there.
I would recommend getting a consultation with an attorney specializing in prostitution cases. There are several there. He could tell you what is up and keep the basic amount needed for bail set up if you need it.
Money was bumpin' here until May 2000 when the shit hit the fan and many customers are cautious about buying dances now.
Lots of girls who were there when money was great left after cops were making their rounds of the clubs several times a week.
That is why you see very few Dallas area posters on SW anymore.
Re:I'm Worried About Getting Arrested
I'vre seen no let up in the number of dances here. The biggest problem, well the second biggest problem, is selling a lap dance to tight fisted customers. The biggest problem is the fear of being arrested for giving them.
Are lap dances legal? Illegal and just limited enforcement?
Re:I'm Worried About Getting Arrested
A lap dance is illegal. Lap dances have contact. No contact is the rule.
Re:I'm Worried About Getting Arrested
Can a girl just stage dance and be safe, or is the little bit of contact there also a risk that can be used to arrest her?
Re:I'm Worried About Getting Arrested
You aren't safe on stage unless you adhere to the no-contact rule. Don't put your breasts on their face (or let them come in contact with the customer). Don't grind their crotch with your butt, or with anything else. Don't do body slides.
I've had TABC officers watch me do a dance and when I was on stage (in Dallas and once in Austin). I put my hands on the guys shoulders as I leaned over him, but other than this...there was NO other contact. The only contact he had with me was when he put the money in my garter. For safety reasons, you shouldn't let anyone put money in your g-string. If an officer sees the guy graze your behind or leg as he slides the money in, he could give you a ticket for this if he is being a jerk that night (and they usually are). If you can't balance well enough to put the garter around your ankle, then put it on your lower thigh area, or better yet, take the money in your hand.
If you simply just don't put your breasts on anyone's face, do body slides, grind, let them touch you...you probably won't have a problem with getting busted.
Re:I'm Worried About Getting Arrested
I would constantly be on my toes there and it is very helpful to be tight with the managers you work with as they can tip you off if/when vice is around.
The organizations who have funded the nationwide anti pornography movement are in Dallas and local politicians in the Metroplex have constant pressure on them to bust the clubs.
Just like the billboard on I-45 south of town says "Stop the Porn and be Reborn."
If you can't offer a decent dance, and have to work under constant fear is it really worth working there?
Houston clubs are safer than the ones in Dallas.
Re:I'm Worried About Getting Arrested
Things in Houston have calmed down, most of the clubs were busted over the summer and the damage was done. This is what I hear through the wire......
Re:I'm Worried About Getting Arrested
Actually. . . .
I haven't been dancing since my freaky pre-SuperBowl experiences, and I swore I'd never dance in Houston again, but . . .
my doggy needs expensive surgery, so I drug myself to the HPD to get my stripper license, as earlier this year a club manager told me I didn't need one (grrr).
After obtaining my permit, I asked the officer if they had a list of rules/laws/regulations available. They told me that the city could not afford to print out (or even have posted) such a thing, as it is 61 pages long. I was told that I could find it very easily on the HPD website under the vice section (which I've yet to find, btw. I found a site where the rules might have been, but the site said the link was no longer available.)
The real kicker is the cop followed this up by telling me that I couldn't be within 3 ft of the customer, or touch him or allow him to touch me at ANYTIME. To clarify (and okay, secretly laughing that in Brothel, USA he could even say that with a straight face,) I asked, "But we can like touch their arms and whatnot while we're talking to them right?"
Both officers in the office responded that "entertainers are to stay three feet a way from customers while 'entertaining' at all times."
I'm not sure how to interpret this. Where they trying to tell me that talking could be construed as "entertaining?"
As for the three foot dance rule- the Houston strip clubs I've seen barely have a foot distance betweens chairs when busy- - - if you try to follow the three foot rule with the guy for whom you're dancing- - you'll end up breaking it behind you with the guys head you'll be humping!!!
Re:I'm Worried About Getting Arrested
Didn't the dallas PD post a bunch of arrested dancers pics on the internet recently?
Highly prickish, if i'm remembering it right.
Re:I'm Worried About Getting Arrested
The Houston laws are laughable and completely impossible to adhere to for the reasons you mentioned above, aside from money reasons.
Like most other cities, you just break the rules and hope for the best. Following the laws just isn't feasible. Its risk versus reward baby, and if you're risk averse, you just have to work in another industry.
Re:I'm Worried About Getting Arrested
When I mention Houston being safer than Dallas, I am talking about enforcement wise.
These laws on the books are ridiculous in every city. I don't think the city officials and the cops can keep a straight face when they write and attempt to enforce them.
Houston does random enforcement and some of the club owners pay to keep vice presence at a minimum. And oftentimes the girls who are actually committing sex acts will get popped before girls who are just dancing too closely. and managers whom you are tight with will tip you off of a vice visit lots of times.
What happened at St. James recently involves the club firing a manager who was an ex cop. He retaliated by calling in his cop buddies to get revenge.
Dallas never lets up for long and you never know what to expect there. That is why many veteran dancers left.
Re:I'm Worried About Getting Arrested
That's so typical- one guy pisses off another, and the people that really get hurt are the girls :0(
Re:I'm Worried About Getting Arrested
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tina link=board=27;threadid=13334;start=msg176915#msg17 6915 date=1095477412
What happened at St. James recently involves the club firing a manager who was an ex cop. He retaliated by calling in his cop buddies to get revenge.
So he has the DANCERS busted and their pics posted online?? ??? That is just dickitude in action. What a bastard!
Re:I'm Worried About Getting Arrested
I second what Madcap said. It's amazing how some people in LE act towards the entire industry. personally I think there are more pressing issues that busting strippers for getting "too close"....come on
Re:I'm Worried About Getting Arrested
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Originally Posted by Katrine link=board=27;threadid=13334;start=msg176914#msg17 6914 date=1095477401
The Houston laws are laughable and completely impossible to adhere to for the reasons you mentioned above, aside from money reasons.
Like most other cities, you just break the rules and hope for the best. Following the laws just isn't feasible. Its risk versus reward baby, and if you're risk averse, you just have to work in another industry.
Yup, this is the bottom line on dancing today in many areas of the country. If you follow the laws to the letter you can't earn any money. If you do what every other dancer is also doing in order to earn money, you run the risk of being busted.
Texas also has one of the worst state prostitution laws to deal with. For example, if two dancers are on stage at the same time, if one dancer happens to brush the other dancer's breast, and if a customer is tipping at the rail, this has all the ingredients necessary for a prostitution bust to stick. The dancer touching another dancer's breast constitutes 'sexual contact', and the customer's tip constitutes payment in exchange for that sexual contact.
Re:I'm Worried About Getting Arrested
Quote:
Originally Posted by traceyluv link=board=27;threadid=13334;start=msg174353#msg17 4353 date=1095051242
I am hearing about 6 inch rules, saying simple things like, " I wanna have fun", and being pulled into a vice cops lap all resulting in a prostitution convictions that will haunt you forever.
If a cop pulls you in his lap its called entrapment. Personally I like clubs that have cameras and RECORD everything so if a situation like that occurs you have proof.
Another random thought, I started working at a club in Florida and the girls were telling me that when they get raided (not for prostitution, not for pasties, but for not having your butt completely covered (go figure) they aren't even allowed to get changed and get hauled to the police station wearing there costumes -- now wouldnt that be indecient exposure...
Re:I'm Worried About Getting Arrested
Quote:
If a cop pulls you in his lap its called entrapment. Personally I like clubs that have cameras and RECORD everything so if a situation like that occurs you have proof.
Actually, hard incontrovertible evidence of a dancer's innocence like security cam videotapes is the ONLY sort of evidence which will be taken seriously by the judge and jury if a dancer is busted. Otherwise the dancer finds herself in a "word of a stripper versus the word of a cop" situation, and if the cop denies having pulled a dancer onto his lap it never happened legally speaking. The dancer bringing up such a point would be admitting that she was sitting on the cop's lap = instant guilty verdict in cities with a distance rule.
Quote:
Another random thought, I started working at a club in Florida and the girls were telling me that when they get raided (not for prostitution, not for pasties, but for not having your butt completely covered (go figure) they aren't even allowed to get changed and get hauled to the police station wearing there costumes -- now wouldnt that be indecient exposure...
I had one cop try to handcuff me and take me to jail wearing nothing but 6" heels after dragging me offstage ! Fortunately they saw the difficulties this might create once they put me in a holding cell, and let me get changed before putting the cuffs on !