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Men hand out cards advertising out-call “entertainers” on the Strip on Sunday, July 24, 2011.
By Dave Toplikar (contact) 
Tuesday, July 17, 2012 | 1:35 p.m.
The Clark County Commission plans to try to deal again next month with the controversial so-called "porn slappers" — those who pass out handbills for escort services to tourists walking along the Las Vegas Strip.
The commission has tried in the past to stop the practice, but failed because of the 1st Amendment free speech rights of the handbillers, who often wear brightly colored shirts that read "GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS" along with a phone number.
This time around the commission plans to go after the vendors by making them help clean up the handbills that people toss aside after they see them.
At Tuesday’s meeting, Commission Chair Susan Brager introduced the proposed ordinance that reads in part that the commission “finds that the presence of litter in public places disturbs the aesthetic quality of such public places and that discarded handbills are a significant part of such litter ...”
The ordinance says the commission finds that requiring those who distribute the handbills to pick up the ones dropped near them "does not significantly impact the distributor's ability to exercise First Amendment freedoms and provides a needed service to the community."
The ordinance would prohibit people from throwing any litter — including the handbills — in or on any sidewalk, parkway, street or other public place in the unincorporated areas of the county, which includes the Strip.
It requires the handbill distributors to collect the handbills that are immediately rejected and tossed aside on the ground within 50 feet of the distributor.
It says they have to clean up the rejected handbills every 15 minutes while they are distributing them and at the conclusion of the distribution period.
Brager set a time for discussion on the ordinance for 10 a.m. Aug 7.
Thank God they're at least trying to do things to fix the ridiculousness that tourists have to endure when walking The Strip. From the "pets" to the water peddlers to the card slappers...the Commission seems to actually want to fix the bad experience.
Now if only we could get rid of the costumed characters...
Clean up the strip. I yell imagration when im done there. They usally run.
Do an immigration check and your problem is solved.
. . . a step in the right direction--if it is enforced. maybe they should create a new position, something akin to a meter maid, who would just walk up and down the strip and hand out citations.
This is the most asinine ordinance I've ever heard. The commissioners time could be better spent on passing an ordinance encouraging the population of Las Vegas to recycle by giving out bigger recycling bins. These (3) milk crates picked up every other week are a joke!
about time to do something already ten years to late the strip is already a circus and customers don't want to walk around unless they are punk kids with 20$
this won't work but it is something--think aclu could find something more important to protect than the prostitute peddlers--wonder how much money they are giving them????
as has been mentioned--why not send ins to check these peoples status????
who is paying these people and can irs check them out for not filing?????
this is not free speech--this is advertising for porn! period! end of story!
Yes, there are things the commission can do but this one will not fly. They will pass it and be served to show in court within 30 days.
There are already legal ways on the books to take care of this without a 1st Amendment fight. Time to stop trying to create new laws and enforce ones already on the books.
Free speech is a touchy thing. Many don't like everyone having the right to free speech but you have to be careful about what you try to ban. No use fighting it on the grounds of Free speech or trash, you can't win either way.
This has been tried before and will not stand up in court this time any more than the last.
The person who throws the card on the ground is the one littering. You can't hold someone else legally responsible for their actions simply on the basis of proximity (50 feet).
This is, once again, the County Commission wasting their time and our money discussing, debating, and likely passing a law which has already been thrown out before and will be again.
Arizona has some laws that the Commissioners might want to try.
When Las Vegas was controlled by the mob things were much better. The mob would not tolerate this annoying of the tourists at all and would "take care of business" very quickly.
Wow I had my picture taken with those 2 workers back in April.
You want to stop the porn slappers just ask for a green card.
Blame the people who are actually doing the littering. Perhaps if more people accepted their handouts and disposed of them properly, this wouldn't be such a problem. Take as many as you can get from each slapper and then put it all in the trash. If every tourist did this, they just might run out of the stuff.
My first trip to Vegas was for a national judo tournament..The slappers are a worthless part of the strip.This year A few months ago walking with my girl friend one of these morons walked up to her saying pussy,pussy pussy holding a card towards her face..I verbally went off on him and his nut case helper who was running around making animal sounds or something like that.She had to stop me from lighting these trash givers up with a broken arm.True in 100 plus visits this was the only hassle I have had with these boys but,it was enough to almost to ruin the trip as I could have gone to jail for what almost happened. LAS VEGAS wake up get rid of these bums.
Seems to me the little cards have phone numbers on them.....why not have the phone company add a $5 ticket to their phone bill for every card the city picks up....they could even pay people $1 to turn each one in....then the costumed folks would be out taking the cards to make a buck.
We need to organize and have a round the clock presence handing out porn cards and those "catalogs" in front of the houses and in the neighborhoods of all those ACLU lawyers that crop up on the news defending these slime-balls (and I am no prude.) 24 hours in the neighborhood till they cry uncle! Free speech, right?
I'm all for getting rid of these handbill slappers but I'm also troubled by the "people" who think its OK to litter by tossing them into the street. Really now? You find littering on any level acceptable? It's a scummy thing to just toss your unwanted cards to the ground. Find a trash can and accept some personal responsibility.
Yes please! I would go as far as contributing to a "clean up the strip" fund if there is one!
Comment removed by moderator. Inappropriate
Porn Slapper are a Commercial Enterprise, No different from the "Characters" and Water Sales outlawed on the Strip. If their Cards did not Create Revenue for a Business They would not be there.
They are Not The Same as a Preacher Standing on the Corner. If you are there as a Business To Generate Revenue Then You should need a Vendors License. Otherwise Realtors old Hand out Housing Books, Liquor Stores could give Coupons (or anyone else for that matter). I think the ACLU is ALL Wet. They did not aid the Occupy movement in Las Vegas in Peaceful Demonstrations when No Revenue was sought, yet they are very quick to support business interests. I think the local chapter has lost it's way - OR possibly far Worse.
If Las Vegas politicians weren't receiving monetary kickbacks from these "Porn Slapper" companies-I guarantee that these porn slapping vendors would be gone in a New York Minute. All you've got to do is follow the money to REALLY realize why they're still on the Strip.
Does this apply to the idiots who put handbills on your car in parking lots as well???? Those all end up on the ground. I've been known to drive around parking lots looking for the jerks so I can give them their "stuff" back :(
Although many municipalities have created anti-loitering laws/ordinances, the Supreme Court has ruled that such anti-loitering laws/ordinances are unconstitutional because they violate one's first Amendment right to assemble peaceably. Curfew laws are also unconstitutional. Such laws/ordinances afford too much discretion to police enforcement resulting in arbitrary arrests which violate one's liberty per the Constitution to assemble freely. Hence, the ACLU is merely fulfilling their mission in protecting everyone's civil liberties under constitutional interpretation as set forth by the Supreme Court.
Such proposals set forth by the Clark County Commission to forcibly require citizens by penalty of law to remove litter from public areas affords police too much discretionary enforcement which would result in arbitrary arrests while violating one's liberty to assemble freely and consequently cannot be enforced by the courts.
If resolution is to be found, such proposal(s) must be reversed engineered, in that, any law/ordinance proposals set forth by the Commission must not only be constitutional and enforceable by courts but provide clear public notices of such potential violation(s) so that police enforcement cannot be interpreted as being too discretionary and arbitrary.
In my view, the "issue" regarding such public "solicitors" is that their loitering impedes normal pedestrian access and unabated movement upon a pubic walkway -- in my opinion it is the restrictions to public accessibility and movement upon a public walkway posed by such solicitors which should be the focus of the Commission's resolution proposal -- as I believe an individual's right to freely assemble upon public property is a cherished liberty while it is reasonable that such assembly should not impede the normal course of public access and movement for the implicit purposes of soliciting a product and/or service.
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If you can get Supermarkets in trouble and fined for having shopping carts taken off their property, why couldn't you fine the people putting out the cards?
Will the same law apply to Jehohvah's Witnesses?
Or is that trash they pass out considered freedom of religeon?
Same trash no matter who is doing the littering.
Both are just trying to drum up some business.
Vegasvampire, it's simple....supermarkets can not legally be fined for having shopping carts taken off their property.