Sex in the City...Hall

Mayor Tom Barrett had it his way on Friday.

Free adult entertainment was no longer available at city hall.

From TMJ4:

A naughty newspaper sitting on the shelves of City Hall has been yanked.

The mayor ordered the papers be removed from City Hall but the newspaper's owner may be able to put them back.

Turns out, the owner has had a permit since 2001 to distribute the paper at City Hall and even though the mayor ordered the papers be removed from the shelf, the owner could still put them back.

Friday, the Milwaukee Entertainment Plus shelf at City Hall was empty.

After we told Mayor Tom Barrett about it being there on Thursday, he immediately ordered that the papers be removed. Barrett also released this statement: “This publication has no place on the premises.”

He wants to ensure the publication is never again available for distribution within city facilities.

But there's a problem.

“They pay a fee and they have the right to use the space,” Alderman Bob Baumann said.

According to the alderman, the owner still has a permit to put the newspapers there and he could come back from vacation and restock the shelf.

“Now I suppose there's no law that says somebody can't come in here and take all the copies available. It doesn't say one copy per customer,” Baumann said.

...Some people inside City Hall have been fighting to deny the paper's owner a permit, but he's protected by his constitutional rights.

Stout: “So basically there's nothing you can't do to deny this guy the right to have this here at City Hall because of First Amendment rights?”

“Well that's what we're told by our City Attorney,” Baumann explained.

I doubt that the Framers intended to guarantee children to have free and easy access to sexually explicit material in the rotunda of a government building.

Our freedoms should be exercised responsibly.

The fact is they often are not and we must tolerate the irresponsible. That's America.

If the publication's owner has constitutional protection to keep his paper in city hall, certainly offended parties have the right to speak out and protest its presence there.

If the paper stays, then it's up to parents to supervise their children and make sure that they aren't exposed to the inappropriate material.

As for the Mayor, he may have to learn to live with the paper on the premises.