The cops did spend $10,000! Two on-duty Minneapolis sergeants traveled across the country visiting strip clubs with the blessings of their commanders in response to threat of a strip club changing ownership.

VCG Holdings was attempting to buy Shiek's in downtown Minneapolis in 2005, and a liquor license they would then control.
Obviously, to avoid this devastating affect on downtown, the two officers had to patronize strip clubs owned by the company in four states. They paid cash for lap dances and access to VIP rooms.
Under Minnesota law, cities can charge up to $10,000 to process and investigate out of state applications. And in fact, the man applying for the license is this case did reimburse Minneapolis for that amount.
Former Minneapolis police chief Tony Bouza said, "The expenditure of police funds in legitimate investigation doesn't trouble me in terms of prioritizing. The fact that they're getting lap dances and getting to see a little bumping and grinding doesn't trouble me excessively. Sorry I didn't think of it myself."
Great work, if you can get it.


On Frday, the Minneapolis city council voted to blatantly ignore US Supreme Court rulings regarding nude dance venues' freedom of expression, and accepted the recommendation of law judge Steve Mihalichcik to end topless dancing at the Double Deuce.

Mihalichick argued the bar failed to "show[ed] any increased revenue attributable to topless dancing"--and hence failed to justify the continuing "non-conforming use."
Considering the owner had filed for bankruptcy protection before switching to the topless dancing venue, and has run in the black ever since adding live entertainment, that seems a far reach of logic.
The owner's attorney, Randall Tigue, said "This is probably as outrageous a case of misuse of adult entertainment zoning powers as you're ever going to get. And if this ruling sticks, he's out of business."
Tigue went on to say ""As a matter of basic constitutional law, you don't treat one type of speech different from any other type," he explains. "In 1976 and then again in 1986, the Supreme Court made a limited exception for purpose of adult entertainment zoning. The basic reasoning was that you zone adult entertainment differently not because you object to the content of the speech but because of the adverse secondary effects caused by that speech--such as decline in property values, an increase in crime, general contribution to urban blight."
Tigue says the Double Deuce ought to be spared. "No one on the city council ever bothered to ask whether the bar is in fact causing adverse secondary effects. If they had, the answer would be an overwhelmingly 'No."
"We are prepared to produce evidence--from the city's own police records and the city assessors records--that show that the 22nd Avenue Station has not contributed to a decline in property values and that when you compare it to other bars, it is probably produces fewer police calls than almost any other bar in the city."