There were the two shooting deaths in front of my club in 2002 and 2003.  There was the death of a cocktail waitress who worked there at the hands of a drunk driver right outside of the club around that time as well.

There was the negligent homicide in 2004 of my husband's best friend, who worked security at a strip club in North Hollywood. 

In the summer of 2003 a stripper who worked at Score's in New York was found murdered in her apartment.

There was the death in 2006 of Sean Bell in front of a strip club in Queens, New York, and, that same year, the triple-murder/suicide by a patron at The Foxy Lady in New Bedford, Massachusetts.

A stripper associated with Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was shot and killed in a drive-by shooting, some suspect due to her knowledge of certain incriminating facts about the mayor.  These stories are only what comes to mind right now.  There are countless others. 

My question to the parents of these victims is, do you see a pattern here?  What really killed your children?

Mothers of children killed by drunk drivers finally got fed up enought to start an organization called M.A.D.D. - Mothers Against Drunk Driving.  They wanted harsher sentences for drunk driving because they were sick of their kids dying in such a senseless manner.

So I have a suggestion for all of you fed-up grieving parents out there to start an organization of your own, perhaps naming it something like P.A.X.I. - Parents Against the Sex Industry.  Because it is my belief that, like myself, many people who end up employed in this business, as bouncers, dancers, managers, bartenders, actors, or what have you, really have no idea of the danger that they are putting themselves in.  They have no idea of the utterly callous and predatory mentality that is at work in the minds of the owners of strip clubs and pornography companies.  They don't understand that these people are not their friends and don't care if they die in the process of working for them.  Plenty more where that came from, is their cold-blooded view.

You could use this organization to lobby for the outlawing of strip clubs and to raise the age limit from the present eighteen for when a person can legally perform in pornographic films.  You could campaign for tighter restrictions on internet porn, showing legislators and the public that the internet is being used to not only get children hooked on porn, but to accept porn as normal, and even encouraging them to become "porn stars" themselves.

There is nothing like the image of a grieving parent as he or she holds up the photograph of their deceased child to move people's hearts, to inspire people to action.  And action is what we need, for this problem to go away.

 

From an article in Detropolis.com:

"Supposedly, as the rumor goes, Kwame Kilpatrick and friends, which in some stories includes Col. Tadarial Sturdivant the Director of the state police, attended a party at the mayor’s mansion. Two or more strippers were supposed to be performing at the party for the guests. Kwame’s wife, Carlotta who still lived at the family home on Leslie Street, supposedly came to the mansion to check or see her husband. She walked in on the party and an unknown police officer, who was supposed to be watching the door, was unable to keep her out of the house and could not warn the mayor or guests. The mayor was allegedly in the process of of a lap dance by one of the stripper’s, whose nick name is Strawberry. Thus the wife was supposed to have caught the act and attacked the girl. Carlotta is then said to have a baseball bat which she either brings with her or finds in the house, in some versions she has The Club, which she uses to attack the girl so severely that the stripper ends up needing serious medical attention which includes a hospital stay. Upon this occurrence the party halts and the DPD officers escort all out and take the mayor and his wife home.

    As the continuing saga goes, the stripper and other non-police persons end up dead. According to the some police officers a girl who has a nickname of strawberry was murdered. But there is no evidence or proof that the real individual is the same as the one from the rumor. The real individual is supposedly and allegedly, according to the same police officers, linked to the drug trade and prostitution. (As this is just a rumor and no proof exists the girls name will not be used.) Political foes of the mayor added to this rumor by claiming that Kwame Kilpatrick and or members of his staff who may have been at the party had this woman and others killed. The public release of this murder and the rumor from being a gossip piece to a public issue coincided with the news event of a Detroit police officer from the internal affairs division, Lt. Gary Brown, being fired for alleged insubordination. Thus the rumor has few supposed witnesses and those with no links to the mayor allegedly end up dead. This is a convenient way to control a story and a way to make it hard to disprove this rumor."