Missouri- An anti-pornography crusader working with church pastors is preparing to present petitions to area prosecutors seeking investigations into adult bookstores and strip clubs in the Kansas City area.
The group, led by Phillip Cosby, [pictured] executive director of the National Coalition for the Protection of Children & Families’ Kansas City office, plans to present the petitions to prosecutors in Wyandotte and Johnson counties in Kansas as well in Platte, Clay, Jackson and Cass counties in Missouri. The group has collected about 17,000 to 20,000 signatures in all, Cosby said in a news release.
Cosby has successfully petitioned for pornography-related grand jury investigations elsewhere in Kansas.
Cosby told the Kansas City Business Journal in July that he had teamed up with Bill Dunn Sr., chairman emeritus of JE Dunn Construction Co., to enlist the help of area ministers and the Kansas City business community in a fight against obscenity.
The petitions are the first step in calling a grand jury, which would be tasked with determining whether businesses violate the “community standard” legal test of obscenity, which is not protected speech. The test was created in a 1973 U.S. Supreme Court case and is echoed in Kansas and Missouri statutes, Cosby said.
So far, 84 congregations have joined in the petition drive, Cosby said. He plans to compile and present the completed petitions to the pastors on May 17 at the Kansas City headquarters of The Salvation Army. The petitions identify 32 businesses in the metro area that Cosby contends have potentially violated state and local laws pertaining to the “promotion of obscenity.”
After the meeting, the group immediately will leave to file the petitions at the respective courthouses, Cosby said.
“Our goal is to change a community’s lack of knowledge or indifference into active participation in the legal process and to confront the predatory and addictive nature of the pornography industry, especially with the exacerbation of advanced wireless technologies,” Cosby said in the release.