Stanton Pickets Launch Series of Protests Against Adult Bookstore

About 200 demonstrators carrying signs with such slogans as “Save Stanton From Perverts” and chanting “Porn Hurts Kids” marched in front of an adult bookstore Saturday, the first in what a coalition of church groups plans as a series of protests.

Stanton city officials, claiming the Earmark Books and Video Center violates zoning regulations, have filed a lawsuit seeking to close the store. Marchers Saturday criticized a judge who turned down the city’s bid for an immediate closure order.

One organizer, the Rev. Lawrence Baird of St. Polycarp Catholic Church in Stanton, urged the protesters to wage a battle against the “forces of evil” represented by the store.

“We are here this afternoon to fight terrorism,” he said. “The real terrorism in our society is from people like this.”

Earmark’s Owner Unmoved

Earmark owner Ginger Cox, viewing the protest from her store, was unmoved.

“I will stay open. Absolutely,” Cox said. “I don’t think they have the right to put somebody out of business.”

The city’s ordinance prohibits any “adult entertainment” business from locating within 500 feet of a residence, school, church or park. No trial date for the city’s lawsuit has been set.

The protesters showed up in front of the store at Beach Boulevard and Orangewood Avenue shortly after noon to hear speeches by local church leaders.

The protesters, organized by the Rev. Lou Sheldon of Trinity Church in Anaheim and the California Coalition for Traditional Values, vowed to maintain a picket line every Tuesday through Sunday from 4 to 8 p.m.

Sheldon said 2,300 Stanton residents have signed a petition opposing the store, adding that the intent of the pickets is to frighten off customers and hurt Cox financially. “You won’t see that happen right away. The effect on the store will not really come to bear until we’ve been there awhile,” he said.

On the sidewalk in front of the store, 27-year-old Jeff Smith, who said he “didn’t even know the store existed” until reading about the protest plans in a newspaper, carried on a solitary counterdemonstration complete with a sign expressing his belief in the free enterprise system. “I feel that if a government or a group of people restrict (the bookstore’s) rights, then that same government will eventually restrict other people’s rights, including religions,” he said.

Despite the pickets, a few customers continued to use the store and others dropped by to express support for Cox. Kathy and Steve Linn of Anaheim brought their 4- and 5-year-old boys into the store (adult entertainment items are partitioned off in the back of the store and customers must be at least 21 years old to enter the area) after spotting the pickets while driving by.

“What gives these people the right to say what’s acceptable?” said Steve Linn, calling the picketers “self-proclaimed advocates for God.”

Sheldon said the 2,300 signatures indicate that the community is united against the Earmark and stressed that the group would oppose Cox, even if she relocated to satisfy the ordinance. He said the protest will continue, and fliers detailing the coalition’s point of view will be mailed to residents within a radius of about five miles of the store.

The city’s ordinance should be ruled constitutional because it reflects community standards, he said. “Every responsible community in our nation has some kind of ordinance regulating this,” he said.

But attorney Roger Diamond, who represents Cox and adult bookstore owners in several other Southern California cities, including five in neighboring Garden Grove, said the ordinance is unconstitutional because it makes it impossible for Cox to find a place to move, effectively denying her the right to do business. The protesters, he said, “have a right to protest but the law also gives Mrs. Cox the right to operate her store. Everyone should have the same freedoms.”

He argued that the items at the Earmark aren’t available to children and no child pornography or bestiality is included. “These people are protesting on purely religious grounds,” he said. “I wonder why they don’t channel that energy into picketing at toxic waste dumps or liquor stores. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a church group picketing a bar but people can get drunk, get in their cars and kill somebody after going to a bar.”

Stanton City Atty. Thomas Allen wasn’t available for comment Saturday.

City Councilman Mike Pace said the city has provided Cox and the courts with a list of relocation sites for the store, and he said he feels adult businesses don’t belong in centers with existing businesses such as an ice cream parlor, drug store and doughnut shop.

In the lawsuit, Superior Court Judge Judith Ryan in June denied the city’s request for a preliminary injunction. The case probably won’t be finally decided until after the Supreme Court rules on a similar ordinance in Renton, Wash., Pace said. “I feel very strongly that the Renton ordinance will be upheld,” he said.

Besides Trinity and St. Polycarp, the Nazarene Church of Stanton and Assembly of God Church in Stanton are participating in the picketing.

Cox said she can wait it out. “I think a lot of people are really getting a kick out of it. It’s a three-ring circus out there,” she said.