A South Carolina nightclub’s liquor license renewal was denied by an administrative law judge, who reasoned that issuing the license would be “detrimental to the community,” as reported here. The club’s troubles began earlier this year when it was forced to defend a public nuisance action. The public nuisance hearing centered on the club’s wet T-shirt contests — which Myrtle Beach officials say violated the town’s adult entertainment laws.
The public nuisance hearing presented an all-too-familiar anomaly in adult entertainment litigation. On the one hand, a neighboring business “vividly described … fights, public urination and vomiting, public drunkenness, disorderly conduct, vandalism, noise and trespassing that occur on a nightly basis as the club’s patrons are released onto the street at closing time.” On the other hand, the nightclub offered to hire a uniformed security guard to help police the area after closing time, but the judge said he didn’t think that security would abate the nuisance created by the club “in any meaningful way.”
Many local governments (perhaps Myrtle Beach as well) prohibit off-duty law enforcement officers from working security at nightclubs or, especially, adult entertainment establishments. One could argue that these cities and counties should be less concerned about their image (of promoting immoral entertainment), and more concerned about crime prevention — assuming, of course, that wet T-shirt contests do not systematically cause fights, public urination and vomiting, public drunkenness, disorderly conduct, vandalism, noise and trespassing.
Cary Wiggins on the Web