CCP 11-16-1995 - Laserfiche WebLink

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- :IJ b/5b I I . On June 21, 1988, Attorney General Hubert Humphrey 11/ announced the formation. of a Working Group on the Regulation of Sexually Oriented Businesses to assist public I . officials and private citizens in finding legal ways to reduce the impacts of sexually oriented businesses. Members of the Working Group were selected for their special I , expertise in the areas of zoning and law enforcement and included bipartisan representatives of the state legislature as well as members of both the Minneapolis I . and St. Paul city councils who have played critical roles in developing city ordinances regulating sexually oriented businesses. I ., The Working Group heard testimony and conducted briefings on the impacts of . sexually oriented businesses on crime and communities and the methods available to I reduce or eliminate these impacts. Extensive research was conducted to review regulation and prosecution strategies used in other states and to analyze the legal I . ramifications of these strategies. . As testimony was presented, the Working Group reached a consensus that a I comprehensive approach is required to reduce or eliminate the impacts of sexually -. I oriented businesses. Zoning and licensing regulations are needed to protect residents from the intrusion of "combat zone" sexual crime and harassment into their . neighborhoods. Prosecution of obscenity has played an important role in each of the I cities which have significantly reduced or eliminated' pornography. The additional threat posed by the involvement of organized crime, if proven to exist, may justify the I ~ resources needed for prosecution of obscenity or require use of a forfeiture or racketeering statute. I . The Working Group determined that it could neither advocate prohibition of all . sexually explicit material nor the use of regulation as a pretext to eliminate all sexually I oriented businesses. This conclusion is no endorsement of pornography or the businesses which profit from it. The Working Group believes much pornography . I f conveys a message which is degrading to women and an affront to human dignity. Commercial pornography promotes the misuse of vulnerable people and can be used . I by either a perpetrator or a victim to rationalize sexual violence. Sexually oriented businesses have a deteriorating effect upon neighborhoods and draw involvement of I l organized crirne. -. I -2- .