/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/dmn/2GZWRGAQZFA4FODYFJ2QWT4BUM.jpg?ssl=1 "How dumb do Dallas strip clubs think we are?")
Some Dallas strip clubs want us to believe that after 2 a.m. they’ll suddenly switch from operating as sexually oriented businesses and become simple late night restaurants instead.
They’ll stop serving up pole dances and other adult entertainment and innocently peddle hamburgers, wings and other menu items. Oh, at least one of the clubs admits it may, “from time to time,” offer “artistic shows” during those four hours. But not to worry; those shows won’t be sexual.
How stupid do they think we are? Yet these are among the arguments made by Houston lawyers on behalf of XTC Cabaret, Silver City Cabaret, Tiger Cabaret and their owners in a federal lawsuit filed Friday in Dallas.
The city of Dallas laudably passed an ordinance in January 2022 requiring SOBs to shut down at 2 a.m. U.S. Senior District Judge Barbara Lynn in May 2022 granted the clubs’ request to block it, but last October an appeals court overturned that ruling. Police began enforcing it on Nov. 30.
Let’s not forget that the original basis of the city’s early-morning operating ban was public safety. Police saw a sharp increase in crime in the vicinity of these businesses between the hours of 2 and 6 a.m.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed with Lynn’s finding that the city inflated those crime statistics. The new law was reasonably based on evidence showing the sexually oriented businesses “were responsible in significant part for the noxious secondary effects targeted by the Ordinance.”
But still the Dallas strip clubs refuse to give up their fight against the hours restrictions. This time they’re asking U.S. District Judge Jane Boyle, a former U.S. attorney and chief felony prosecutor in Dallas County, to block the city from enforcing the ban and award monetary damages.
If the clubs stop providing adult entertainment at 2 a.m. and serve food and drink, they argue, they should be allowed to stay open. So they’ll cut the music, turn up the lights and be like Denny’s?
In an email to the clubs’ attorney Nov. 29, Dallas Police Maj. Devon Palk of the special investigations division said he’s not buying it. Neither are we. He said owners and managers could be charged criminally for violations.
There’s no court date yet for a hearing on the clubs’ request. But we hope Boyle will set one quickly, see this as a desperate attempt to sidestep law, and deny the request.
We welcome your thoughts in a letter to the editor. See the guidelines and submit your letter here. If you have problems with the form, you can submit via email at letters@dallasnews.com
