If you rent video tapes in

Hamilton! your rights are in

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Ayatollalt Olivas Urges Censo1sl1i11
at Funda1nentalist Rally
..
''Burn that video card?" he cries
On May 4, 1991, while 99 percent of Hamiltonians
found something constructive do to with their Saturday,
Hamilton! Mayor Adolph Olivas was delivering a rousing
keynote speech to TV cameras and a tiny group of hard-core
church activists agitating for the banning of video tapes
containing sexual scenes and the arrest of video merchants.
Also speaking to the group were Butler County Pros-
ecutor, John Holcomb, and Phil Burress of Citizens for
Community Values (CCV), which sponsored the event.
The CCV is a tiny but aggressive pro-censorship group,
largely made up of religious extremists, which advocates the
banning of sexually-oriented materials and the imprisonment
of store owners and employees who sell or rent materials
which CCV decides is "obscene."
Mr. Burress led off the day's speeches by assuring those
present that the CCV did not want to make it illegal to own
and watch video tapes in one's own home. "It is not against
the law to possess obscenity in the privacy of your own
home unless you intend to distribute it. That's not what
we're talkin' about. They want to keep making this a
privacy issue in someone's home. That's not our concern,"
he claimed.
But Prosecutor Holcomb soon punctured this pretense
of tolerance by demanding that even possession be made a
crime. "Now, what's the solution to the problem?" Holcomb
: "Wel l it--s&ms o me at o e 1g solution is o
address the legislature to make the possession of it a crime.
That way it's a crime to buy it and it's a crime to sell it. And
then we won't have so much trouble." No trouble at all
except for the tens of thousands of ordinary, law-abiding
residents who will be made criminals for peacefully
movies in their homes.
The rally reached a peak with the speech of Mayor
Olivas, who thrilled observers by declaring that "the problem
of pornography is not gonna go away until you start puttin'
some politicians in these offices who care less about what
the TV camera carries than what they can sleep with that
night." Naturally, Mr. Olivas spoke those words directly
into the Channel 9 camera.
The mayor strutted 1 ike a proud rooster as he denounced
"a lovemaking scene with a broom handle, or with a shovel,
or with pain, or with blood, or with human excrement .. .,"
and admonished the crowd to rid the city of the "cancer" of
pornography.
"I'm not talking about the calm stuff. I'm talking about
video tapes that exploit children, that molest children.
That show children being raped," the mayor cried. It's
obvious the mayor was telling a little fib . There is no video
store in Hamilton which sells or rents tapes featuring
children having sex. If such a store existed it would reveal
a frightening failure of law enforcement by the Olivas
administration, since child pornography is indisputably
and rightly illegal.
But the mayor lies about the nature of the tapes in
stores because he knows that most Hamiltonians will not
otherwise support his fanatical drive for censorship. He
must convince residents that video stores are messengers
from Satan selling kiddie porn. Using the same kind of Big
Lie, Prosecutor Holcomb denounces nonexistent ''bestiality."
Mayor Olivas can't honestly convince his constituents
to turn themselves and their neighbors into criminals for
renting tapes, so he works with deception. Because of
pornography, he says, "Children will find it easier to buy
drugs than to graduate from high school." Huh?
The ''War on Pornography" conducted by local politicians
is, in reality, a war on citizens who own VCRs and rent
tapes. Tens of thousands of upright, decent Hamilton residents
rent video tapes with sexual scenes and do not become child
molesters, rapists, or dope dealers. Of course, there are a few
criminals who rentX-rated tapes, but therearealsocriminals
who eat apple pie.
Like most Americans, you just want to mind your own
business and be left alone. But the fundamentalists and the
po 1ttc1ans wont let thisn appen. 1ey want to sena t e
police into your home, or your neighbor's, or the couple
down the street's apartment, to make sure they aren' t
entertaining themselves with sexual materials.
Butler County juries have repeatedly refused to convict
video store owners for renting sexual tapes. So the politi-
cians-especially Mr. Holcomb-have stepped up their
campaign to subvert the legal process and make residents
into criminals. You can help to stop them from doing this.
A politician only listens when there is a serious threat
to his reelection. Unless the mayor and the prosecutor find
out that you do not support censorship and invasion of
privacy, they will continue to give aid to fringe fanatics.
Call Mr. Olivas and remind him that he was elected to
be the mayor, not the Ayatollah. Tell him Americans just
went off to war to protect the rights of others, not to give up
our own. Remind the city council that you will vote to
replace them if they don't oppose censorship. And demand
that future candidates oppose censorship and support the
fight against criminals, not law-abiding VCR owners and
merchants who rent or sell tapes.
Please copy this flyer and distribute to your friends, neigh-
bors, and fellow employees. Get the message out!