Oregon is a hub for sex slavery
From Oregon Family Council,On Friday, the Judiciary Committee heard testimony on a bill that would begin the process of allowing cities to regulate and zone nude dancing establishments. We believe sexually oriented businesses are bad for Oregon families, and neighborhoods and that HJR 42 would be a positive step toward allowing communities to zone sexually oriented businesses. It is not rare to see nude dancing establishments just up the street from a public library or park. Sexual addiction, fed by strip clubs, leads to escalation and a desire for increasingly graphic or violent activities, desensitization, and finally acting out sexually. This does nothing to strengthen families, or protect vulnerable women and children.
The Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, which studies human trafficking solutions worldwide, identifies Portland as a hub for sex slavery because it has the most sexually oriented businesses per capita in the country.
According to the Oregon Human Trafficking Task Force, most cases of human trafficking involve child prostitution. According to the FBI, 300,000 children are trafficked sexually with the United States each year.
.
Just last weekend, in the Registered Guard, Portland was again identified as a center of human trafficking. “‘Portland is the most problematic area in the state for trafficking,’ [Multnomah County Sheriff’s Deputy Keith] Bickford said. A robust sex industry and access to Interstate 5 are among the contributing factors.”
We can do little about I-5. But, we can allow cities to zone nude dancing, and perhaps discourage the sex industry by not allowing them to hide behind a poor interpretation of Oregon’s Constitution.
Certainly, Oregonians want free speech to be protected. But, we don’t believe that that means we must allow the sex industry to run rampant. We believe that with the force of the legislature behind it, there has to be some way to empower cities to control the sex industry in their neighborhoods.
Right now, Tualatin is fighting this battle. Last fall it was the Montavilla neighborhood in Portland. In 2006, it was Salem, in 2003, Nyssa. Oregon cities, and their citizens, want to have a say in where nude dancing is located. Young girls shouldn’t be propositioned when they’re walking down the street. Let’s allow families to live in safety. Let’s decrease the demand for human trafficking. Let’s address this problem.
We have a good idea that the hearing on HJR 42 was merely a token, and the bill will not come out of committee. However, if it brings us one step closer to figuring out how to fix the serious consequences that have been caused by our misguided and loose interpretation of free speech in Oregon, it would be a great step.
The legislature cannot responsibly continue to ignore the consequences that have erupted and the families that have been hurt because of the sex businesses that have been allowed to run rampant in Oregon.
Everyone says they don’t like it. Everyone says they want to do something about it. Yet the problem continues to escalate. Senator Devlin, and Representative Bruun should be thanked for once again bringing this to our attention.
But, just bringing it to our attention isn’t enough. Where is the leadership? Who will provide it so that Oregon can finally have a solution to this extreme and very serious problem.
The Oregon Family Council represents approximately 40,000 individual members, and 1800 churches around the state.
.
Just last weekend, in the Registered Guard, Portland was again identified as a center of human trafficking. “‘Portland is the most problematic area in the state for trafficking,’ [Multnomah County Sheriff’s Deputy Keith] Bickford said. A robust sex industry and access to Interstate 5 are among the contributing factors.”
We can do little about I-5. But, we can allow cities to zone nude dancing, and perhaps discourage the sex industry by not allowing them to hide behind a poor interpretation of Oregon’s Constitution.
Certainly, Oregonians want free speech to be protected. But, we don’t believe that that means we must allow the sex industry to run rampant. We believe that with the force of the legislature behind it, there has to be some way to empower cities to control the sex industry in their neighborhoods.
Right now, Tualatin is fighting this battle. Last fall it was the Montavilla neighborhood in Portland. In 2006, it was Salem, in 2003, Nyssa. Oregon cities, and their citizens, want to have a say in where nude dancing is located. Young girls shouldn’t be propositioned when they’re walking down the street. Let’s allow families to live in safety. Let’s decrease the demand for human trafficking. Let’s address this problem.
We have a good idea that the hearing on HJR 42 was merely a token, and the bill will not come out of committee. However, if it brings us one step closer to figuring out how to fix the serious consequences that have been caused by our misguided and loose interpretation of free speech in Oregon, it would be a great step.
The legislature cannot responsibly continue to ignore the consequences that have erupted and the families that have been hurt because of the sex businesses that have been allowed to run rampant in Oregon.
Everyone says they don’t like it. Everyone says they want to do something about it. Yet the problem continues to escalate. Senator Devlin, and Representative Bruun should be thanked for once again bringing this to our attention.
But, just bringing it to our attention isn’t enough. Where is the leadership? Who will provide it so that Oregon can finally have a solution to this extreme and very serious problem.
The Oregon Family Council represents approximately 40,000 individual members, and 1800 churches around the state.
Even libeal Hardy Myers as attorney general tried to get the court to revisit their obscene definition of speech. Justice Gillette said from the bench that the discussion just "made him grumpy."
The legislature can fix this problem any time they have a mind to. All they have to do is refer a constitutional amendment to the ballot with one of their fixed ballot titles and exempt it from court review. They did that to get rid of Measure 37 and the Double Majority. If they are going to cheat, why not do it for a good cause.
Voters will approve a reasonable restriction on "protected" sexual speech and get past the supreme court's antics. But the fix has to be constitutional and the supreme court cannot have access to the ballot title.
This is a far reaching issue. We even lost Measure Seven, the best property rights measure in the nation, because of the court's fixation on sex. They tossed the entire measure, because it did not extend its compensation provision to porn shops and nude dancing parlors when they were zoned away from schools and churches. The court said that made porn shop owners second class citizens.
That's how serious the Oregn Supreme Court is about protecting porn and nude dancing (and curtailing property rights).
FYI, AG Hardy Myers argued before the court that the founders of Oregon's Constitution did not mean for sexual expression to be a First Amendment issue. Gillette roundly rejected that "ultra conservative" notion of original intent, as he called it. Of course he rejected original intent. Why limit his power as a judge to what the Constitution intended?
>Sexual addiction, fed by strip clubs, leads to escalation and a desire for increasingly graphic or violent activities, desensitization, and finally acting out sexually.
Could we please one what this statement is based? I know Ed Meese tried to make this connection when he was Attorney General, and never could. I know a few years ago there was a study of bars here in Springfield, none of the strip bars rated any notable amount of police calls. Sports bars got vastly more police calls.
>According to the Oregon Human Trafficking Task Force, most cases of human trafficking involve child prostitution.
Could we please have some linking here? Are we talking about strip clubs or child prostitution?
If Oregon has such a huge child prostitution problem, how come I have never heard of a child prostitution ring being broken up here but regularly here about school teachers being sexually involved with kids.
Going by this logic, it seems to me schools encourage sex with kids far more than strip clubs.
>We can do little about I-5. But, we can allow cities to zone nude dancing, and perhaps discourage the sex industry by not allowing them to hide behind a poor interpretation of Oregon’s Constitution.
Maybe its me, but attacking sex slavery and child prostitution through zoning seems a little odd. If you know its going on, why not simply go and arrest those involved?
Why does this seem a little bit to me like you are trying to take an issue everyone is against, child prostitution, and use it as a way to shut down something you just don't like?
Please, until you start busting up child prostitution rings in strip clubs you've got nothing here.
>want to have a say in where nude dancing is located. Young girls shouldn’t be propositioned when they’re walking down the street. Let’s allow families to live in safety.
Are you seriously saying young girls get propositioned walking past a strip club more than they do walking past a bar?
Can you please show the crime stats showing families live with decreased safety if they are near a strip club?
My wife goes to strip clubs every now and then with her girlfriends. Want to know why? Its the safest bar in the world. They have twenty zillion bouncers in there and if a guy hits on you and doesn't stop when you say no, he is so out of there its ridiculous.
I know more women who go to strip bars with their girlfriends for exactly this reason than I know of women who have ever been propositioned or assaulted near or in one.
>Let’s decrease the demand for human trafficking. Let’s address this problem.
Good idea. So why don't you get off the strip bar thing? Why don't you address the problem of human trafficking? If you know it is going on in strip bars, why do you need the zoning issue? I should think it would be very easy to shut down a strip bar that was involved in human trafficking.
>The legislature cannot responsibly continue to ignore the consequences that have erupted and the families that have been hurt because of the sex businesses that have been allowed to run rampant in Oregon.
How have family been hurt by sex businesses running rampant? Have they had a rampant sex business go through the windshield of their car late one night on a country road?
>Everyone says they don’t like it. Everyone says they want to do something about it.
No they don't. What gave you this idea? I don't have any issue with it. What Id like to do is do something about people who try and use an issue like child prostitution to try and get a zoning change. That's sleazier than anything I have ever seen going on in a strip club.
>so that Oregon can finally have a solution to this extreme and very serious problem.
Oh get off it. You want a zoning change. Zoning is not an extreme and serious problem. Its a freaking zoning change.
The human trafficking and child prostitution is a serious issue. It is not a problem though because we don't know the extent of it, and I have a feeling its not any greater than anywhere else. The reason why I think this is any sort of sex slavery thing being run out of a strip bar would be big news.
I do not here stories of sex slavery, child prostitution or anything of the kind being broken up in strip bars with any frequency. Given that Oregon does have quite a few strip bars, this is odd, given your contention that this is a wide spread problem. Therefore I think your contention is wildly at odds with my observation.
I think you simply don't like strip clubs, and see a change in zoning law as a way to go after them
I think you guys are using sex trafficking and child prostitution to make the impetus for doing so more dire because of the lurid nature of such crimes.
Everyone is against child prostitution and human trafficking. If you guys are fired up about the issue, go after that. Go hang out in some strip clubs and notify police the second you see all this child prostitution and human trafficking.
Why don't you guys do that? Why don't you do something actually substantive on the issue you claim to care so much about.
The sex industry sure does. They go after people like crazy who engage in child porn. Through the ASACP ( association of sites advocating child protection, formerly adult sites against child pornography ) they at least make the attempt to offer adult sites a way to keep kids off of them ( they established the RTA coding system, so webmasters could code their sites to keep kids off ), they established a system to report child porn. Have you guys done anything like that?
To use human trafficking and child prostitution as a side show to change zoning laws is really a little low.
=======
Come on!!! Tell us the real reason why you wife goes out to strip clubs!!!
Is it A?) She is not getting enough at home
Or is it B?) Times are tight and a little extra income never hurts
Or is it C?) A little fun with the girls chasing hot and bothered boys with lots of pent up "energy" never hurt anybody
Or is it D?) All of the above
Sorry dude, you just set yourself up for that one. Maybe being clever isn't your strong suit?
Anonymous in Albany, this kind of thing shouldn't really bother anyone with a decent amount of self-confidence in their relationship.
This is reminiscent of the claim that marijuana is a "gateway drug" to heroin. Or that masturbation makes you go blind.
These people are trying to use wild accusations of child prostitution and rampant adult stores to get a zoning change.
Are adult businesses obnoxious?
Sure they are.
But so is just about every other business.
If you are living in a house and a McDonalds opens up next door, I can guarantee you that is going to bug you way more than if a rampant adult business wanders into the area and decides to make its abode next door to you.
How about a muffler shop? Would you really prefer hearing an angle grinder and air wrenches going all day compared to some strip club?
Really the only thing bad about strip clubs and adult businesses is that they are architecturally tacky. They tend to look like windowless bunkers.
And who do we have to thank for that? Why the very people who are scared of us seeing a herd of rampant strip clubs acting out sexually. Frankly I wouldn't mind it if these places had a nice sign, maybe a head shot or two of the performers inside. Anything other than structures that tend to make the local Eagles lodge look like a Gaudi inspired cathedral.
OoOooooooo someone might wander inside and see a woman with no clothes on. OOoooooooo I'm so scared.
I......I... see... naked....people.
The Sex Sense - A major motion picture from Dino DeLaurentis
Starring Bruce Willis, Newly Reincarnated Laurence Olivier, and Jacqueline Bisset
The Sex Sense - Where only a zoning change can save you from HELL!!!!!!!!!
A bunch of college kids playing frisbee naked. Oh my Gawd! Where are we going and why are we in this handbasket!
It is not rare to see nude dancing establishments just up the street from a public library or park.
Bob T:
So? Are you afraid that on your way to the library, you might accidentally walk into the club instead? There's such a club on SE 122nd, a short distance from the Midland Library (which is itself next to a park!), yet I've never had any trouble knowing which one is which.
Be satisfied that there are laws that kids can't go in the clubs, and that there are no windows. And move on to pushing for free market policies -- they're good for families.
Bob Tiernan
NA Voter -- Portland