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Wells Gets Booty Ban

booty.jpg

You know the fifty-color fliers and postcards good neighbors leave on your windshield? The ones inviting you to those exclusive afterhours parties and special events? The ones that would make Luther Campbell nod in approval?

While I’m not sure who actually responds to this spam and goes to these things, I do know that they constitute an annoyance. How many of these cards have I tossed into the backseat of my car? Too many!

It’s not a shock that people have complained. Southwest residents have been up in arms over them for a while. They’ve started calling them “Booty Cards.” Kinda perfect.

And they got Councilmember Tommy Wells‘ attention. After months of effort, Wells—along with the D.C. attorney general’s office—has been able to at least banish one company from distributing them. Wells, in a press release, calls this a “partial victory” for Southwest residents—and D.C. citizens in general.

Although he considered them pornographic, Wells knew he couldn’t fight them on indecency issues. Instead, his office went after the company over the trash they produce. A smart move!

-”This is just one battle in a much larger effort,” explains Wells’ Chief of Staff Charles Allen.

The press release gives the blow-by-blow:

“A consent decree was entered into by the District and one of the companies sponsoring event space that many of the cards were promoting, not to distribute any fliers anywhere in the District in the future….

The consent decree is a result of Councilmember Wells’ efforts with Office of the Attorney General (OAG) which filed suit in DC Superior Court under DC v. Eric Hudson, Wayne Mason & CD#15 CL2001, Inc. seeking a temporary restraining order to stop distribution of the offending fliers. The case is scheduled for an initial status conference on May 23, 2008.

There remains an outstanding issue to determine with accuracy and specificity the responsible owner of the flier distributor company, MetroMac. The OAG has been working diligently and aggressively on this case, but has been unsuccessful in identifying and locating the owner to date.”

This is not a surprise. Maybe the OAG needs to start showing up at these parties with subpoenas.

4 Responses to “Wells Gets Booty Ban”

  1. sara.h Says:

    i got one of those cards on my car the other day, and then it rained. there is residue on my windshield. annoying.

  2. eric Says:

    last time i checked the constitution protected this sort of thing. then again us DC residents don’t get a vote so i guess i shouldn’t be surprised by other rights getting taken away from me.

  3. Adams Morgan Says:

    Wow…Jim Graham’s never done that for his Ward..thanks Jim! A couple of the ANC’s forbid neighborhood bars (through the “voluntary agreement” process) from putting them on windshields but that doesn’t stop all the other bars outside of the ‘hood from doing it.

    And Eric, I wouldn’t call littering a neighborhood (and in particular placing information on someone’s private property–their car) to be a first amendment issue… You must be a promoter…

  4. Mike Licht Says:

    The flyers are a nuisance, a source of litter, and in the worst of taste, but “Pornographic?” http://www.tommywells.org/content/view/376/2/

    Please, Tommy.

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