Nothing says West Texas hospitality like a pair of cold handcuffs on your wrists and a tour of downtown Lubbock from the backseat of a squad car.
Certainly that's not the "Giant Side of Texas" the Lubbock Chamber of Commerce hopes to impress upon visitors. Yet, it's exactly the kind of welcome that left eight Chippendale's dancers glad to see Lubbock in their rearview mirror.
Chippendale's began in the 1980s as the brainchild of Indian immigrant Somen Banerjee. It quickly became a famous male revue, playing in countless venues around the world - including Broadway - was mocked on Saturday Night Live and now is at the Rio hotel in Las Vegas.
It is with that success the Chippendale's and the managers of Jake's Sports Café hoped would bring crowds to the venue for three schedule shows. However, this is Lubbock, and the show people hoped to see quickly turned into something else entirely.
Friday night, 30 minutes into the first of the three scheduled shows, officers from the Lubbock Police Department arrested eight Chippendale's dancers, their managers and a manager of Jake's Sports Café, which was holding the show. The entire incident began after a Chippendale's dancer, according to the Lubbock Police Department, began "simulating a sexual act."
According to witnesses at the scene, the simulated sexual act reported by the LPD was nothing more than one of the dancers blowing on a woman's neck. Now I'm sure many of you have seen the signs showing positions needed within the police department, but apparently besides officers, the force in Lubbock is also missing a little play in the bedroom. How else can you explain someone describing a blow on the neck as a sex act?
Besides the sexual frustration of the LPD, the real problem this entire Chippendale's debacle underscores is the seeming unwillingness of police to follow their job description and fight crime.
This past weekend, two people lost their lives in apparent murders. According to the official LPD Web site, this past year saw a rise in the number of murders, robberies and burglaries reported by 18.2, 18.8 and 13.8 percent, respectively. Where is our police deterrent?
Perhaps they are enforcing speed limits throughout the city or, on the weekends, issuing citations for a minor in possession. This weekend when 27-year-old Gabriel Herrera and 72-year-old Ross Bennie Mosley were stabbed, where were Lubbock police? Sitting at Jake's waiting for half-clothed men to blow on women's necks, of course.
Incidents like the one at Jake's only begin to describe why people consider Lubbock stuck in the mid-19th century. This is the Lubbock that Natalie Maines remembered when she wrote "Lubbock or Leave It."
The show in Lubbock didn't - and wasn't supposed to - feature male nudity. Most cities would have considered that fact enough to eliminate the show as being sexually oriented. Promoter Jacob Ledesma, in an interview with KCBD, talked about how the men of Chippendale's have performed in locations such as Abilene, Odessa, San Angelo, El Paso, Albuquerque, N.M., and Las Cruces, N.M., without incident.
The Chippendale's dancers can perform in Abilene, which has long been reported to have more churches per capita than anywhere else in the country, but when they attempt to put on a show in Lubbock it's too hot to handle.
Members of the city council and chamber of commerce want to highlight Lubbock as the "Giant Side of Texas" with a focus on art and entertainment. However, with incidents such as this one, it makes Lubbock look like it is full of a giant side of BS.
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