New Law Requires Change in Display of Adult Materials

There’s a big cover-up under way, and all the City Council members are in on it.

They voted Monday to require that risque newspapers and magazines with scantily clad models on their covers be stashed in special “blinder” racks covering the lower two-thirds of the publication. Businesses will have to foot the bill for the racks, although city officials said some magazine publishers already provide them to stores, free of charge.

The ordinance, proposed by Councilman Sam Kiang, also requires video stores to put certain films deemed “harmful to minors” in an adults-only section closed to minors and labeled with a prominent sign. The law takes effect in 60 days. Some stores already have such areas.

There have been no public complaints from publishers or video store owners, but an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Southern California warned that the law was so vague that it could be brought to apply to great works of art that include sex.

The ordinance does not restrict the sale or rental of the publications and movies to minors, which is prohibited under state law. And it has no effect on minors’ access to vending machines, which worried Councilwoman Marie T. Purvis.

“How are we going to prevent a child from putting a quarter in a slot and pulling out a copy of S & L or M & M or whatever it is?” Purvis asked before voting for the law.

Monterey Park isn’t the first city to try to cover up adult material displays. In Alhambra, Pasadena, South Pasadena and Chino, for example, magazines with sexual themes must be sealed in plastic or stapled shut so customers can’t casually flip through them.

Meanwhile, blinder rack laws are on the books in Rialto, Simi Valley and the Northern California city of Burlingame. A legal challenge to the Simi Valley law has been filed by a newspaper distributor, however, and the case is pending.

Still, the law doesn’t address all the concerns of council members. Two years ago, Mayor Betty Couch said, she was “shocked” to come home one day and find her then-12-year-old son with an R-rated video he had checked out from the public library. He had used his grandmother’s library card to get around the library’s policy of renting movies only to people 18 and over, Couch said.

“What movie was it?” Councilman Fred Balderrama asked. Couch said she didn’t remember.