Q & A

* The Rev. Wiley S. Drake, First Southern Baptist Church of Buena Park

Buena Park, which recently bought out one of the city’s two adult movie theaters, on Monday denied a business permit request from 24-hour adult bookstore proprietor F Street Corp. of San Diego. The Rev. Wiley S. Drake, 52, pastor of First Southern Baptist Church of Buena Park, is a leader of a campaign by residents against the site proposed at Orangethorpe and Western avenues and for the strictest possible regulation of adult businesses in general. Drake spoke with Times correspondent Lesley Wright.

Q: Why do you object to an adult bookstore if the owners follow all the requirements of the city’s adult business ordinance?

A: Because land use studies prove that two things occur: The crime rates increase 100-fold, crimes like prostitution and pedophilia . . . and as the crime rate goes up, real estate values go down. Also, because of the close proximity to several churches, a lot of children . . . would have to go right past this bookstore. Children are threatened because one-third of all the registered sex offenders in the state live in and around the Anaheim-Buena Park area.

Q: Don’t these businesses have the same right as others in the free market?

A: They do, but you don’t put a manure factory across the street from McDonald’s. You don’t put pornographic literature and the kind of markets that go after sexual abusers in the same area as businesses that go after the family market.

Q: What can you do?

A: We are working in two phases: Appeal to the City Council to be brave enough and strong enough to put pressure on [officials] to deny this--and not be afraid of being sued by F Street. . . . We will boycott and picket and do everything within the law to keep people from going into the store. We will photograph them coming out. We will photograph every car that parks there and send a letter to their home. . . . We’re going to make it the most fearful thing in the world for them to go into that store, [but] we will not break the law.

Q: Don’t you think that violates people’s right to free speech?

A: Absolutely not. It’s a sad commentary when free speech protects hate, pornography, the burning of the flag. Those fall, in my opinion, under the category that you have the right to say anything, but you don’t have the right to yell “Fire!” in a crowded theater.

Q: Some would say that you are trying to impose your religious views on others in the community. Is that the case?

A: Absolutely not. We see it simply as a community value, economically and morally. We are not trying to make it a religious issue. . . . It’s a danger to those children who walk past there every day. It is by no means a right-wing religious movement.