Arrives weekly on Tuesdays. Sign up for The Docket, The Assembly's weekly courts newsletter. Arrives on Tuesdays. It was not the first time Holder, a former reporter for the Carolina Peacemaker and former Guilford County public school teacher, had grilled officials about policies regarding women working in illicit massage establishments.
Holder has repeatedly argued they are victims of sexual slavery, and police should concentrate on shutting down the unlicensed venues, not on arresting the immigrant Asian women who work there. There are at least establishments that mix massage with masturbation in North Carolina, according to Rubmaps, which posts alleged reviews from customers claiming to have received sexual services at these spas. Although state law requires such licensure, no North Carolina city has shut down an illicit spa for lacking it.
At several council meetings last year, and in multiple emails to Mayor Nancy Vaughan and Police Chief John Thompson, Holder asked why the city had issued these licenses rather than using the lack of state licensure to shut down illicit spas. When a spa appears on sites like Rubmaps or comes up in a police investigation, the group contacts the property owner, describes the lack of licensure and any indication of criminal activity, and urges that the business be evicted.
He received no response to this query, and neither it nor the raid resulted in closure. Holder got the emails via public records request, and they became a hot topic at a December city council meeting.
At that point, all contact is supposed to stop. So, the policy change says we will not allow an officer to have that happen to him. Carolyn de Berry for The Assembly Thompson said the Greensboro Police Department is also drafting an ordinance that would bring municipal law more in line with state statute. The details of the proposed ordinance will not be public until presented to council, but he said it will focus on licensure and the landlords who rent to illicit massage parlors.
