Perspective: Time to leave lap dancing alone

The fog has begun to lift in Tampa's lap dancing war. In customarily blunt fashion, Hillsborough County Judge Elvin Martinez has dismissed all lap dancing cases pending in his court, finding the ban unconstitutional and a recipe for government abuse. The city should halt any further enforcement until higher courts clarify the matter.

Martinez has shown the courage that made him an effective, if sometimes troublesome, state lawmaker. No other official in Tampa has had the guts to call the six-foot ban between dancers and clients what it is: a cheap political ploy that tramples the rights of consenting adults under the masquerade of public safety.

Martinez pointed out that the law makes a criminal of anyone within six feet of a naked person in a dance club. Patrons walking to the restroom, or vendors delivering soft drinks to a club, are subject to arrest. The judge was not comforted by the city's argument that it targets only dancers and patrons.

"This selective enforcement," he wrote, in a four-page ruling, "provides the police with unfettered discretion to arrest." The local law is so broad, the judge found, it threatens to punish "dancers and patrons who are engaging in otherwise constitutionally protected First Amendment rights of freedom of speech and association."

Tampa Mayor Dick Greco and the city council pooh-poohed those concerns when they sought to make headlines in 1999. So transparent were their motives, the city didn't even bother to prove that lap dancing caused harm to society by spreading disease or increasing prostitution. "The findings," Martinez wrote, "must not be based upon evidence that simply allows the government to speculate that secondary effects exist."

Martinez dismissed charges for nearly three dozen defendants who were lucky enough to have their cases assigned to his court. But hundreds more in Hillsborough are awaiting trial. Given the constitutional issues involved, and the disparate way the various judges are handling the same types of cases, the city, in all fairness, should refrain from making further arrests. It would show bad faith with Martinez's ruling, and could increase the city's liability should the ban be rejected by the higher courts. Tampa police, after all, have plenty to do. This isn't Mayberry. Society won't collapse if cops leave the nude bars and patrol our streets.

Contact the Times | Privacy Policy
Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright