Las Vegas Weekly

October 19, 2009 · 10:42 PM

Touch your body, get a citation — is this right?

By Justice

Sometime in the past few days, I showed up at work just hours after the police were there, handing out citations like party flyers. I heard that one girl got a citation for touching her own breasts. We’re violating the law by touching our own bodies. Does that sound weird to anyone else?

I asked about the police activity within earshot of the owner who interjected, “Follow the rules and you have nothing to worry about.” I know that they don’t want to alarm anyone. They wanted to sweep the raid under the rug and proceed with business as usual. I know that following house rules wasn’t good enough to avoid a citation but a business needs to be run and sending us out to dance as sacrificial lambs was not a problem for the owner. A bouncer who had been there agreed with me. A manager disagreed and assured me it was safe to dance on the minefield.

A cocktail waitress was going around talking to girls one-on-one making sure they all understood the situation. She also gave us physical descriptions of the police officers. I know a dancer who got a citation for warning other girls of the presence of the police during a raid. Someone once told me that the DJ will play a certain song to warn girls that the police are there. It’s nice to have support.

Anyway, I am beyond scared. It is too stressful to work in so much fear. I just can’t have something like that on my record.

What bothers me the most is how wrong this whole thing is. Police officers go around getting free lap dances all night. They’re having drinks and getting hard. They’re enjoying themselves and then punishing the hard working people of entertainment.

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