Posted: 8/15/2002 5:32:58 AM EDT
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[size=1]Posted on Sun, Aug. 11, 2002[/size=1] [size=4]Fremont cracks down on illicit massage parlors[/size=4] [b]By Lisa Fernandez Mercury News[/b] In Fremont, the ``Gateway to Silicon Valley,'' techies tensed up from hunching over their computers all day can get their necks and backs rubbed at any one of nearly 30 massage clinics. Last year alone, 10 new shops sprang up, giving Fremont one massage clinic per 7,000 residents, compared with San Jose's one shop per 10,300 residents. But some of the businesses are illegitimate parlors where, police say, prostitutes offer more than just a body massage. Owners of some of the parlors targeted by police adamantly dispute those claims; one owner said a jealous competitor has just been making trouble for him. Nonetheless, Fremont is once again cracking down on illicit massage parlors. Stricter ordinances -- crafted in cooperation with community activists -- governing the massage industry went into effect Friday. Owners must meet greater accountability standards or risk being shut down. The new rules, modeled after ordinances in San Jose, Santa Clara and Newark, were being hashed out long before last month's high-profile FBI raid on an Asian prostitute network that ranged from a Sunnyvale hostess bar to a massage parlor in Knoxville, Tenn., said city code enforcement officer Dennis Robinson. Fremont's new rules require massage businesses to log their tips, undergo an annual license review and block shops from reopening, even under new management, for 10 years at the same location where a license has been stripped. This isn't the first time Fremont has tried to quash the seedy side of the massage industry. In 1994, the city council approved regulations requiring that massage clinics beef up the accredited training for therapists from 100 to 500 hours, restricted the shops to certain commercial districts and doubled permit fees. The state empowers cities to regulate massage establishments, taxi drivers, bingo halls and fortunetellers. Despite those measures, the illegal activity persists, police say. Fremont officials also say prostitution parlors spawn other illegal activities. ``Prostitution establishments disguised as massage parlors inherently attract a myriad of other problems: organized crime, drugs and indentured servitude,'' said Fremont detective Bill Veteran, who has been involved in undercover prostitution stings off and on for at least 15 years. ``Plus, it gives legitimate businesses a bad name.'' Since 2000, four Fremont massage clinics have been stripped of their licenses: Yan Yan Health Center on Maple Street, N&B Relaxation on Thornton Avenue, Ginza Sauna on Grimmer Boulevard and Kimiko's Spa on Fremont Boulevard. At least six women have been arrested on misdemeanor prostitution charges at those places -- as well as at Elegant Tanning Salon on Grimmer Boulevard and Princess Salon on Peralta Boulevard, which are still open. But Han Ming Tan of Fremont, the 34-year-old owner of N&B Relaxation, which shut down in June, insists Fremont police are mistaken about his business. ``We do everything legal,'' said Tan, who emigrated from Guangzhou, formerly Canton, China. Tan lived in New York and San Francisco, working as a chef, before opening up a shop last year because his wife is a masseuse. As he sat recently at his kitchen table, Tan wondered aloud how he was going to pay his mounting bills and why they closed his business. Two of his employees, Nuttaya Kieke, a native of Thailand, and Belinda ``Linda'' Ling Bai, a native of Hong Kong, were arrested on misdemeanor prostitution charges. Tan said police ``have no evidence'' that either one solicited sex. Police reports show an undercover recording June 12 is too fuzzy to hear what went on in the massage room, though an officer alleges Kieke gestured with her hands that sex acts cost between $40 and $200. Two weeks later, police mistakenly arrested Tan's wife, thinking she was Bai. Bai told the officer that she would not have sex with him, but an officer alleges she made a motion with her hand that indicated she would perform oral sex. Bai says she was only asking for a tip for the massage, reports show. The other women charged with prostitution either couldn't be reached at the phone numbers or addresses they left with police, declined to comment or were out of the country. Their attorneys refused to comment. Tan said he ensures his masseuses are licensed and hold valid green cards. He said he condemns prostitution and does not smuggle women to the United States. Tan said the police may have been acting on rumors spread by a jealous competitor. Elaine Kim, an Asian-American studies professor at University of California-Berkeley, said it's common for some poor Asian immigrants with limited English skills to wind up in massage parlors. ``You can't just say, `Oh, those Asians, they bring their bad morals to our country,' '' Kim said. ``There's usually a socioeconomic reason why these things happen. . . . It's so obvious that they come over, maybe are even smuggled over, and these are jobs that they can do.'' As is the case at several other legitimate massage clinics, the majority of customers at Bill Heskett's Fremont Professional Massage and Somatics, are computer programmers and business executives with ample paychecks and tense muscles. Heskett is a vocal supporter of rooting out illegitimate massage parlors and helped the city craft its new rules. ``If a client is looking for a massage and a therapist just rubs lotion on him with her fingertips, even if she doesn't come on to him, then he'll leave, saying, `Well, that was a waste of money, I'll never get a massage again,' '' he said. If there is a come-on, Heskett said, it just makes it worse. ``It give the whole industry a bad rap.'' [url]www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/states/california/counties/alameda_county/3842485.htm[/url] -------------------- California has to be the only state in the union where guys making 6-figures have to pay to get laid because they can't get a date. |
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California has to be the only state in the union where guys making 6-figures have to pay to get laid because they can't get a date. That's pretty humorous. Having known quite a few geeks from that neck of the woods just makes this (and the underlying truth) that much more funny. Seriously, though, I don't get this crackdown on victimless crime. Just rubs me the wrong way. |