Exotic dancers march on the streets to protest crackdown on New Orleans strip clubs

Strip club dancers, workers and supporters march﻿ in New Orleans on ﻿Thursday to protest recent police raids that closed several strip clubs on Bourbon Street.﻿ Strip club dancers, workers and supporters march﻿ in New Orleans on ﻿Thursday to protest recent police raids that closed several strip clubs on Bourbon Street.﻿ Photo: EMILY KASK, Contributor Photo: EMILY KASK, Contributor Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Exotic dancers march on the streets to protest crackdown on New Orleans strip clubs 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

Waves of exotic dancers took to the streets Thursday after strip clubs were shuttered in crackdowns rocking Bourbon Street in New Orleans just 11 days before Mardi Gras.

Undercover stings revealed prostitution at eight strip clubs on or near the booze-soaked magnet for tourists. Police Chief Michael Harrison said in a news conference Monday that drug activity was alleged at four of those clubs following the suspension of liquor licenses.

The flurry of police activity is part of a broad, ongoing effort to curtail human trafficking in the city, Harrison said.

Louisiana Alcohol and Tobacco Control Commissioner Juana Marine-Lombard told reporters at the same conference that "prostitution in and of itself is sex trafficking."

But Louisiana law says that "fraud, force or coercion" must be evident to meet the legal definition of human trafficking. Harrison later conceded the distinction between prostitution and human trafficking, saying that "we do not consider it to be one and the same."

Beau Tidwell, a New Orleans Police Department spokesman, said Friday that no human trafficking charges have been filed, and he would not say if he expects any to materialize.

Voluntary closures of affected clubs have triggered protests involving hundreds of strippers, Bourbon Street workers and other supporters, who say the crackdowns are thinly veiled attempts to remake the image of the French Quarter into a family-friendly destination.

"We are protesting because they are trying to shut down most of the clubs on Bourbon Street to make it some kind of Disneyland-cruise ship port," exotic dancer Emily Hernandez told Agence France-Presse.

Photos from the protests show dancers holding signs with slogans such as "It's Bourbon St., not Sesame St." and "We are not victims" to push back against law enforcement activity they say has harmed business.

The closures and protests came after a NOLA.com/Times-Picayune profile published in October concluded that New Orleans strip clubs were grimy dens of human and sex trafficking.

Author and former sex worker Melissa Gira Grant has said that the report blurred the distinction between forced prostitution, voluntary sex work and exotic dancing, and that no clear signs of trafficking at clubs have surfaced as a result.

Dancer Reese Piper said the closures may have the unintentional consequence of forcing strippers into the sex trade after losing out on revenue.

"Regardless of how or why, stripping is our job - and it's our right to work without fear just like everyone else," she said.