[HISTORY: Adopted by the Board of Supervisors of the Bear
Creek Township 4-5-1977. Amendments noted where applicable.]
GENERAL REFERENCES
Nuisances — See Ch. 86.
The Board of Supervisors finds that the inundation of the commercial
market with pictures, descriptions and accounts of explicit sexual
conduct by the public sale, distribution and exhibition of obscene
motion picture films, publications, devices and objects for the purpose
of the commercial exploitation of explicit sexual conduct and behavior,
and the increase in direct and personal confrontations of the public
with lewdness, assignation and prostitution in the form of business
establishments which in the regular course of business are used for
such purposes, constitutes a debasement and an unrealistic and perverted
distortion of a sensitive, key relationship in the human existence,
central to the family institution, which remains the foundation of
our society, community welfare and the development of our human personalities;
is indecent and offensive to the senses and to the public morals and
interferes with the comfortable enjoyment of life and property, in
that such interferes with the interest of the public in the quality
of life and the total community environment, the tone of commerce
in the Township, property values and the public safety and morality;
and that the continued existence and operation of such activities
is detrimental to the best health, safety, convenience, good morals
and general welfare of the Bear Creek Township, Pennsylvania, and
of the residents, citizens, inhabitants and businesses thereof. Accordingly,
the Board of Supervisors of the Bear Creek Township herein declares
such activities and conduct to be unlawful and, further, that such
activities and conduct are declared to be a public nuisance, and herein
establishes penalties for such activities and conduct.
Terms used in this chapter, unless the context requires otherwise,
mean as follows:
The standards of the average person in the community from
which a jury may be drawn if it were to be the trial of fact in an
action arising hereunder.
The transfer of possession or control, whether with or without
consideration.
To show publicly or display, or to provide for the showing
or displaying to any member of the public, whether with or without
consideration.
Having actual or constructive knowledge of the character
or content of the subject matter, material or conduct. A person shall
be deemed to have constructive knowledge of the character and content
of the subject matter, material or conduct if he has knowledge of
facts which would put a reasonable and prudent man on notice as to
nature of the matter, material or conduct.
Any book, magazine, newspaper or other written or printed
material; or any picture, drawing, photograph, motion picture film
or other pictorial representations; or any statue, object or other
figure; or any recording, transcription or mechanical, chemical or
electrical reproduction; or any other articles, equipment or machines.
Includes any:
Includes the showing of the human male or female genitals,
pubic area or buttocks with less than a fully opaque covering or the
showing of the female breast or any portion thereof below a point
immediately above the top of the areola, with less than a fully opaque
covering, or the depiction of opaquely covered male genitals in a
discernibly turgid state.
A public nuisance and shall apply to:
Any place where obscene motion picture films or live performances
are publicly exhibited, presented or shown as a regular course of
business or possessed for the purpose of such exhibition, presentation
or showing;
Any place where an obscene motion picture film or live performance
is publicly and repeatedly exhibited, presented or shown or is possessed
for the purpose of such exhibition, presentation or showing; or
Any place of business where obscene publications, materials
or matter are sold, distributed or exhibited to the public.
As applied to motion picture films, live performances and publications,
any motion picture film, live performance or publication which:
The average person, applying contemporary community standards,
would find, when considered as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest.
Depicts or describes patently offensive representations or descriptions
of:
Ultimate sex acts, normal or perverted, actual or simulated,
heterosexual or homosexual; or
Masturbation, excretory functions, exhibition of the genitals
or genital area or the female breast or any portion thereof below
a point immediately above the top of the areola, with less than a
fully opaque covering.
However, nothing contained in this subsection is intended to
include, nor does it include, any film or publication which, when
considered as a whole and in the framework in which it is used, possesses
serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value.
Matter or material, as follows:
The dominant theme of which, taken as a whole, appeals to the
prurient interest.
Which is patently offensive because it affronts contemporary
community standards of decency and morality relating to the description
of sexual conduct.
Lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value.
Conduct which is so offensive as to ignore contemporary community
standards of decency and morality, and shall be deemed to include
all forms of sexual conduct and sadomasochistic abuse, if depicted,
described or represented in a patently offensive manner.
Includes any natural person or individual, whether male or
female, firm, corporation, partnership, association, lessee, agent
or other legal entity. This term as applied to partnerships shall
mean and include the partners thereof, and as applied to corporations,
shall mean and include the officers thereof.
Includes but is not limited to any building, structure or
place or any separate part or portion thereof, whether permanent or
not, or the ground itself, whether enclosed or open.
A shameful or morbid interest in nudity, sexual conduct or
excretion, which goes substantially beyond customary limits of candor
in depiction, description or representation of such matters. If it
appears from the content and the character of the material or the
circumstances of its dissemination that the subject matter is designed
for a specially susceptible audience or a clearly defined deviant
sexual group, the appeal of the subject matter shall be judged with
reference to such audience or group.
Includes any book, magazine, article, pamphlet, writing,
printing, illustration, drawing, picture, sound recording or a motion
picture film which is offered for sale, distribution or exhibition.
The flagellation or torture by or upon a person who is wholly
or partially nude or clad in undergarments, a mask or bizarre costume,
or the condition of being fettered, bound, tied or otherwise physically
restrained on the part of one who is wholly or partially nude or so
clothed.
Includes but is not limited to any act of masturbation, homosexuality,
sexual intercourse or physical conduct with a person's clothed
or unclothed genitals, pubic area, buttocks or, if such person be
a female, the breast.
[Amended 8-1-1995 by Ord. No. 1-95]
A.
Any person, as defined in § 88-2 of this chapter, who knowingly sells, distributes, exhibits, donates, lends or transmits to another, or offers to or intends to sell, distribute, exhibit, donate, lend or transmit to another, any obscene matter or material as defined in § 88-2 herein shall be guilty of an offense hereunder.
B.
Any person who manufactures, publishes or prepares any obscene matter
or material shall be guilty of an offense.
C.
Any person who knowingly sponsors, directs, produces, presents or
participates in any performance knowing the same to be obscene in
content and character shall be guilty of an offense.
D.
Any person who knowingly sponsors, supports or participates in or
aids and abets any person in procuring, selling, lending, distributing,
donating, showing or transmitting any obscene matter or material to
the public or any member thereof shall be guilty of an offense.
E.
Any person, being the owner, lessee or sublessee of any property
or premises or having control thereof, who knowingly permits within
or upon said premises the exhibition, presentation or showing of any
performance, obscene in nature, whether it be live or film, or permits
the sale, distribution, exhibition, lending, donation or showing of
any obscene matter or material to anyone while within or upon said
premises shall be guilty of an offense.
F.
Any person who knowingly writes, prints, publishes, transcribes or
utters or causes to be written, printed, published, transcribed or
uttered any advertisement, invitation or notice of any kind giving
direct or indirect information, stating or purporting to state where,
how or by whom or by what means any obscene matter or material can
or might be viewed, seen, purchased, received, obtained or had shall
be guilty of an offense.
G.
Any person who willfully or knowingly engages in the business of
selling, distributing, exhibiting, lending, donating, showing or advertising
for sale to any person under the age of 18 years, or who has in his
possession with the intent to engage in said business or to otherwise
offer for sale or commercial distribution to any individual under
the age of 18 years, any obscene matter or materials, the cover or
content of which exploits, is devoted to or is principally made up
of descriptions, depictions or representations of obscene sexual conduct
or sadomasochistic abuse or which consists of photographs or drawings
of nude or partially nude figures posing or presented in a manner
to provoke or arouse lust or passion or to exploit such sex, lust
or sadomasochism for commercial gain, or any object, device, article
or instrument of an obscene nature shall be guilty of an offense.
H.
Any person who knowingly displays at newsstands or magazine stands
or any other business establishment frequented by minors or where
said minors are or may be invited as part of the general public, any
obscene matter or material, the cover or content of which exploits,
is devoted to or is principally made up of depictions, descriptions
or representations of obscene sexual conduct or sadomasochistic abuse
or which consists of photographs or drawings of nude or partially
nude figures posing or presented in a manner to provoke or arouse
lust or passion or to exploit such nudity, sex, lust or perversion
for commercial gain, shall be guilty of a summary offense.
I.
Any person who shall own, lease, operate or maintain any place, building,
apartment or establishment, or any part thereof, which, as a regular
course of business, is used for the purpose of lewdness, assignation
or prostitution, and every such place, building, apartment or establishment
in or upon which acts of lewdness, assignation or prostitution are
held or occur, as a regular course of business, is declared to be
a public nuisance. Any such person violating this section shall be
guilty of an offense.
J.
Subsections A through I of this section shall not apply to any persons who may possess or distribute obscene matter or participate in conduct, otherwise prescribed and prohibited by said subsections, when such possession, distribution or conduct occurs in the course of law enforcement and judicial activities, in the course of bona fide school, junior college, college, university, museum or public library activities or in the course of employment of such an organization.
[Amended 8-1-1995 by Ord. No. 1-95]
Any person convicted of violating any subsection of § 88-3 of this chapter shall be sentenced to pay a fine of not less than $25 and not exceeding $600, and costs of prosecution, for each and every violation, or to a term of imprisonment for a period not exceeding 30 days, or both. Each separate instance of sale, distribution, lending, donating, showing, advertising for sale or transmitting, or the offering to do the aforedescribed, in violation of the provisions of this chapter shall constitute separate and distinct offenses.
This chapter shall become effective immediately and shall apply
to existing establishments which are presently engaged in the type
of activity herein declared to be illegal and a public nuisance.
