Jezebel
There's the old saying that fifteen can get you twenty, but in Dallas, Texas, it seems that twelve will get you no punishment whatsoever. Diamonds Cabaret, a Dallas-area strip club, is keeping its license even after it was discovered that the business employed a 12-year-old stripper for two weeks last year. According to Newsweek, the sixth grade runaway had no place to go, so she shacked up with David Bell, 22, and Diamond dancer Demonica Abron, 28. At first, Bell tried to fashion the tween into a prostitute, but she refused. So he took her to the Diamond Cabaret, a place described by Newsweek as located "in a dilapidated office park next to a business that rents hot tubs by the hour."
Newsweek continues: "...the girl lasted about a week and a half in November, working the stage amid flashing multicolored strobe lights and a pounding hip-hop soundtrack laced with obscene lyrics. She made as little as $100 a night, she told the authorities, and gave all her profits after paying the club fee to Bell and Abron, her 'caretakers.'"
David Bell, gentleman that he is, allegedly made the girl perform oral sex on him repeatedly; she eventually escaped while he was sleeping. Though Bell is now in jail (Abron is currently out on bail), the case has caused an uproar around Dallas, because officials have no legal means to punish the Diamond Cabaret. "City ordinances do not set a minimum age for dancers in adult cabarets," reports Newsweek, adding that adult cabarets "are subject to fewer restrictions than escort services, which are also regulated by the city." Essentially, here's no way to even suspend the club's license for a modicum of time although lawmakers are attempting to pass ordinances so that there are some repercussions for gentleman's clubs breaking the law.
Lost Girl [Newsweek]
Comments
12 year old strippers.
WELL GOOD MORNING TO YOU JESSICA.
God damnit Texas! You ruined my friday morning.
Also, she's a minor, assholes. It doesn't matter that the club doesnt have fucking age restrictions for dancers. She's a minor and minors arent supposed to be working. Furthermore, they are not supposed to be taking their CLOTHES OFF and giving BLOW JOBS to 22 yr old men. I mean, what the fuck.
Couldn't they get him for molestation, though?
Huh?
They couldn't even bring "Equus" to the US because Daniel Radcliffe was 17. How is there no legal way to shut down a place that had a 12 year old stripping???
What in the motherfuck is wrong with our legal system? Meanwhile, if the girl had an ounce of pot on her she'd be in jail. FUCK!
They can't get the owner on child abuse, or interfering in the custody of a minor? They can stick crazy charges on other people, but for the real slime they got squat?
WHAT?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
jesus! back to bed for me. really. still in my footie pajamas, crawling back into bed.
damn, as much as it pains me i think its right, i hate when lawmakers rush and pass a bum law in the face of an uproar over a rare situation. Not that most laws are well thought out, the place should be punished in some way, but they should make up a law to punish it and sweep up other "well to do" places.
well, glad i passed up my friday bagel, 'cause now i'm nauseous.
@ForeverBlueGirl: Well, they can, and will. But David Bell wasn't the same thing as Diamond Cabaret--the problem is that the strip club itself, technically, didn't do anything illegal.
@ForeverBlueGirl: That guy is not the owner of the club, he just took her to the club to dance.
@SinisterRouge: Not if she was in Jersey, we are letting everyone run free!
Can't they get them for employing someone who should be at school? Surely there are child labour laws?
@ineffable.me: I was about to say, there are child labor laws. Can't they use those to whack this place?!?!?
This really is too disturbing for 9:30 am. I need more coffee.
@braak: But at least they'll be able (aka they BETTER) to lock that pervert up. He's the one that put her on stage and raped her.
Oh vomit. Twelve? poor child. I can't believe he made her give him oral sex. Then again, with the insane level or degridation towards women (especially those in a "being helped out" capacity) maybe I can. And that makes me sick. No law against it? WTF?
@funnyface: It must be a state-by-state thing, because I know you can't strip a lot of places unless your 18. So in Virginia you can't show your nipples but in Texas you could put a 12 year old on a pole? Good job America, well done.
As my wife is fond of saying: "God Bless Texas!"
This - THIS - is why you don't mess with Texas. As in, don't even get near Texas. For any reason. Do not look directly at Texas. Pretend Texas isn't mouth-breathing near your ear. Do not taunt Texas, and do not allow Texas to follow you home. Do *not* mess. With Texas.
srsly, Texas, fuck you.
Way to step up, Dallas. This makes the whole "Sodomy is illegal" up until, like, two minutes ago all the more horrifying.
Couldn't they make the argument that she was forced to work, thus violating all kinds of civil rights laws? Or that, like ineffable.me said, you can't hire a twelve year old.
Or they could track down all the assholes who visited the strip club and arrest them for watching child pornography. Contributing to the delinquency of a minor. What the fuck ever.
If this isn't illegal, what the fuck is?
Yes, yes, but can we focus on what's really important here? Hot tub rental by the HOUR?? Sign me up! Best lunch break ever!
So, no one blinked an eye when they made an ordinance with no legal age for taking off your clothes in front of grown men? That never occurred to them? Shit, isn't there a minimum legal age to work at McDonald's? What is wrong with this country????
@dosido: I had a date with a Texan last night. It did not go well after he informed me he "took it easy on me" during pool and foosball "so I'd feel better about myself." I'm allll about hatin' on Texas today.
WTF, WTF, WTF?!? Seriously, how does something like this happen? And, okay, this must have been a pretty skeezy club, but how could there not be even *one* man who went in there and said "WTF, that's a child"? Aaaah! Seriously, how the hell does this happen, and how the hell are they not able to penalize the fucking club?
@NefariousNewt: Seriously. At the very least they can get them for that. Problem is the cops like to go down the goddamn stripclub after a long day of eating motherfucking donuts all day and they dont want to close down the only place where they can get handjobs while eating hot dogs and watching wrestling.
FUCK THE POLICE.
Also, as an aside, I'm not too surprised at the other stripper's name. DEMONica.
@braak: I don't get it - isn't it technically child porn? I mean, she was mostly unclothed, and she's a child. HUH?
@Muffyn *my bunny does crack*: I think Jenna Jameson started stripping when she was 13 in Cali. I might be wrong, but I remember some story about her ripping her braces off with pliers so she could rub her prepubescant booty into men eating wings on their lunch break.
Every man or woman who frequents that place should be arrested on suspicion of watching child pornography. If you can't suspend their license hit them in the effing pocket....oh and then burn the place down naturally.
@Snowbunny: Yeah, he's in jail now. He's going away for a long time.
But, if he and his partner misrepresented the child's age and identity, asserted that they had custody of the child, et cetera, it's not unreasonable that the Diamond Cabaret might be able to slip past the law on this one.
@Cindy: There are child labor laws, but a lot of them don't actually prohibit minors from working. They limit the number of hours that the child can work, set minimums on payment, that kind of thing. And I'm guessing she wasn't at the club during school hours.
@lina_lamont: question (and not snarky in ANY means) COULD you arrest the men that went there? I mean you go to a place like that and you expect the club to "hire" the appropriate "legal" people for strippers. I mean, it is REALLY giving them the benefit of the doubt to say they didnt' know she was underage, but I don't think that would hold up in court. Would it? Damn this is messy and gross. WHO hires someone that looks like a kiddo without looking at references? This is definately child labor laws.
How can you hire a twelve year old?! She probably looked like a kid!
Good sweet christ on rollerskates...I'm birthday hungover and now my brain hurts worse.
@missjwalker:
*nods in agreement*
@tokenblackgirl: For some reason I don't think "no 12 year olds taking their clothes off for the pleasure of dirty men" is a bad, rush-to-judgment law.
@Snowbunny: oh man. I can't take this. I get skeeved (nowadays) at how young I lost my virginity, but that was to a bf of comparable age. I cannot imagine what the childhood of these girls was like.
@CristinaS: Well, hell, I don't know. First of all, it's Texas.
Second of all, she probably wasn't naked. I'm not sure strippers can even be completely naked in Texas anyway. So, what, she was onstage as scantily-dressed as any number of twelve year old girls at the beach are every day, in public?
I'm not saying I approve of this, I'm just saying that it's possible that it's kind of a weird confluence or ordinances that allowed this to happen.
And I'm not hugely worried that it'll happen again--Texans are vehemently opposed to legal pornography and child endangerment, they're already trying to fix the gap in the laws.
@KathrynwithaY: Happy birthday! Eat a croissant, it might help.
@missjwalker: because McD's employs the workers. At a stripclub- they do not technically employ the dancers- there is no payroll for that. The stripper pays the house a fee for the right to dance on the stage.
@KathrynwithaY: "Well she looked 18 y'all!"
@Cindy: I was wondering about the labor laws too... I think it may be that you arent allowed to work officially, meaning you cant file taxes, but no one can do anything if it is off the books?
@Snowbunny: Don't blame Texas!! To be honest, until this story broke, I kinda forgot that Dallas even had a red-light district. *sigh* Big D, you're breakin' my heart here.
The best part of this story, which I heard last week because I am a Texan, is that when the club owner asked the girl to fill out her paperwork, and asked for her age, she told him she was 20. Then, because she should have been learning math in school, not doing it on the street, the guy had to help her figure out what her birthdate should have been based on her age. She told him she forgot what her birthday was.
But then given our state rankings in education, maybe that's not so unbelievable.
@braak: According to Newsweek, it was an all-nude club.
OK, so she wouldn't have been able to get in the club as a customer, but she's old enough to work there? What.The.FUCK?
@dosido: My husband and I made a cross country trip from LA to NY last year. We drove through Texas. MIND YOU, it wasn't funky, fun or even remotely civilized TX, like Austin or something. This was panhandle fucking nothingness TX. It was flat and vast and yellow and creepy. I informed Mr. La Comtesse "We are driving STRAIGHT through to Oklahoma, dude. I'm not spending the night in the wilderness of TX aka "TX Chainsaw Massacre".
Observe Mr. La Comtesse and his thoughts on TX.
@braak: Well, they need to fix them faster! Honestly, nobody noticed that there wasn't a law against this!
[www.facebook.com]
@ineffable.me: I imagine the dancers are independent contractors, not employees.
@KathrynwithaY: Happy Birthday! Sweet christ on rollerskates is my new favorite saying!
@dosido: HEY. Step off.
@Philthyist: Ditto that, and I read she signed something saying she was 19. I don't think strip clubs are known for doing the most extensive background checks.
I'm NOT defending this place or these jackholes, just my (to paraphrase BAngieB) pretty, pretty state.