High court recently upheld ban; merchants decry restrictions

By Jacob Bennett
jmbennett@clarionledger.com

Pointing to an empty wall where sex toys were once displayed, the Adult Video
and Bookstore clerk's voice rose.

"They about put us out of business," she said, declining to give her name. "How
are they going to tell a man what to do in the privacy of his own home?"

Jackson police have ordered Adult Video and Bookstore, Terry Road Book Store and
Heritage Video Inc. to remove their sex toys.
The city is cracking down after the state Supreme Court last month upheld a
state law that bans the sale of sex toys.

The law defines as illegal any device used primarily for stimulation of human
genitalia. The fine is $500.

A Terry Road Book Store employee didn't want to discuss the crackdown.

"They said to take them down. I took them down," she said, declining to give her
name.

Adult Video and Bookstore employees said they were outraged at restrictions on
what they can and cannot sell. "I don't think it's right," one clerk said. "Sex
is in every home in the world."

A co-worker agreed. "We don't push it on anybody."

Adam and Eve and ZJ Gifts LLC, the Memphis-based owner of Christal's chain of
adult stores, sued the state of Mississippi in 2001, contending the state law
thwarted the rights of customers to purchase adult toys.

Last month, the state Supreme Court ruled there is no fundamental right of
access to buy sexual devices. Advertising of the sexual devices also is not
protected by the right to free speech, the court ruled.

Doctors and psychologists, however, may prescribe sexual devices for their
patients, the court said.

Jackson police hadn't enforced the law in a few years because it was on appeal,
Jackson police Sgt. William Gladney said.

The ordinance divides Mississippians.

"I think it's a good law," said Paula Nevels, 50, of Vicksburg. "I think (sex
toy use) leads to pornography and that leads to our children being exploited. I
think a lot of it is perverted, anyway."

Calvin Miner, 27, of Jackson said he doesn't see what is the big deal.

"It really doesn't matter to me, but I don't think they should ban it," Miner
said. "Everybody has their own preferences. It's your own choice."

People who own sex toys shouldn't worry, Gladney said. "We're not going into
people's houses," he said.

But it is illegal to have sex toy parties where devices are sold from home,
Gladney said.

You've got to love Jacktown, Mississippi. (Or Jack-off-son, as some of my randier sorority sisters used to call it when we were serving time at Millsaps.) To paraphrase a post I recently made on the Ole Miss board,

Where else can you drive five blocks or fewer from downtown to a restaurant or a bar, and see dumpster divers, tree-waterers (using their God-given hoses), street preachers and cigarette-butt pinchers, all on the same trip! And then there's the excitement of wondering if you'll lose a tire on Fortification Street.

And after lunch, on the way back to your car, you might be panhandled, mugged, or simply handled, only to find that your car is not there! And Jackson's Finest will arrive at the scene whenever they can get around to it, and give you five minutes of their precious time, concluding with, "You have insurance, don't you?"

But, by the grace of God, this burg is a *****-free zone!
:bang:

Yes, thank god the government is protecting you sex-crazed jacksonians! You deserve it! :roflol: