[HISTORY: Adopted by the City Council of the City of Pittston 12-28-1981 by Ord. No.
1981-7. Amendments noted where applicable.]
The City Council finds that the crass commercial exploitation
of explicit sexual conduct through the public exhibition of obscene
films and the sale of obscene publications and devices, and the use
of so-called massage parlors and model studios for the purpose of
lewdness, assignation or prostitution, constitutes a debasement and
distortion of a sensitive key relationship of human existence, central
to family life, community welfare and the development of human personality,
is indecent and offensive to the senses and to 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 total community
environment, the tone of commerce in the City, property values, and
the public safety, and that the continued operation of such activities
is detrimental to the best of health, safety, convenience, good morals
and general welfare of the City of Pittston and the residents, citizens,
inhabitants and businesses thereof. Accordingly, the City Council
hereby declares such activities to be illegal as hereinafter set forth,
and, further, that such activities are and are hereby declared to
be and constitute a public nuisance, and herein establishes penalties
for such activities.
A.Â
Any person
who, with knowledge of the character and content, either sells, gives
away, lends, distributes, exhibits, shows, transmutes or offers either
to sell, give away, lend, distribute, exhibit, show or transmute or
has in his possession or under his control with intent either to sell,
give away, lend, distribute, exhibit, show or transmute to another
any obscene motion-picture film or any obscene literature, book, magazine,
pamphlet, newspaper, storybook, paper, comic book, writing, drawing,
photograph, figure, image, or any written or printed matter of an
obscene nature or any device, article or instrument of an obscene
nature shall be guilty of a summary offense and, upon conviction thereof,
shall be sentenced to pay a fine not exceeding $300 or undergo imprisonment
for a period not exceeding 90 days, or both.
B.Â
Any person
who designs, copies, draws, photographs, prints, utters, publishes
or in any manner manufactures or prepares any obscene motion-picture
film or any obscene book, picture, film, drawing, magazine, pamphlet,
newspaper, storybook, paper, comic book, writing, figure, image, matter,
device, articles or instrument of an obscene nature shall be guilty
of a summary offense and, upon conviction thereof, shall be sentenced
to pay a fine not exceeding $300 or undergo imprisonment for a period
not exceeding 90 days, or both.
C.Â
Any person
who, with knowledge of the character and content, produces, presents
or directs any obscene performance or participates in the portion
thereof which is obscene shall be guilty of a summary offense and,
upon conviction thereof, shall be sentenced to pay a fine not exceeding
$300 or undergo imprisonment for a period not exceeding 90 days, or
both.
D.Â
Any person
who knowingly participates in, supports or in any way aids or assists
any person in selling, lending, distributing, giving away, or showing
any obscene motion-picture film or any obscene literature, book, magazine,
pamphlet, newspaper, storybook, paper, comic book, writing, drawing,
photograph, figure or image or any written or printed matter of an
obscene nature or any device, article or instrument of an obscene
nature shall be guilty of a summary offense and, upon conviction thereof,
shall be sentenced to pay a fine not exceeding $300 or undergo imprisonment
for a period not exceeding 90 days, or both.
E.Â
Any person,
being the owner of any premises or having control thereof, who knowingly
permits within or upon said premises the exhibition, projection or
showing of any motion-picture film, show, presentation or performance
of an obscene nature or permits anyone to sell, lend, distribute,
exhibit, give away or show any obscene literature, book, magazines,
pamphlet, newspaper, storybook, paper, comic book, writing, drawing,
photograph, figure or image or any written or printed matter of an
obscene nature or any device, article, or instrument of an obscene
nature shall be guilty of a summary offense and, upon conviction thereof,
shall be sentenced to pay a fine not exceeding $300 or to undergo
imprisonment for a period not exceeding 90 days, or both.
F.Â
Whoever
knowingly writes, prints, publishes or utters or causes to be printed,
published or uttered any advertisement or notice of any kind giving
information directly or indirectly stating or purporting to state
where, how or who or by what means any obscene motion-picture film,
picture, book, writing, paper, comic book, figure, image, matter,
article or thing of an obscene nature can be seen, purchased, obtained
or had shall be guilty of a summary offense and, upon conviction thereof,
shall be sentenced to pay a fine not exceeding $300 or undergo imprisonment
for a period not exceeding 90 days, or both.
G.Â
No person
within the City of Pittston shall willfully or knowingly engage in
the business of selling, lending, giving away, showing, advertising
for sale or distributing to any person under the age of 17 years,
or have in his possession with intent to engage in the said business
or to otherwise offer sale or commercial distribution to any individual
under the age of 17 years, any obscene motion-picture film or any
still picture or photograph or any book, pocket book, pamphlet or
magazine, the cover or content of which exploits, is devoted to, or
is principally made up of descriptions or depictions of illicit sex
or sexual immorality or which is obscene or which consists of pictures
of nude or partially denuded figures posed or presented in a manner
to provoke or arouse lust or passion or to exploit sex, lust or perversion
for commercial gain or any device, article or instrument of an obscene
nature.
H.Â
No person
within the City of Pittston shall display at newsstands or any other
business establishment frequented by minors under the age of 17 years
or where said minors are or may be invited as a part of the general
public any obscene motion-picture film or any still picture or photograph
or any book, pocket book, pamphlet or magazine, the cover or content
of which exploits, is devoted to, or is principally made up of descriptions
or depictions of illicit sex or sexual immorality or which is obscene
or which consists of pictures of nude or partially denuded figures
posed or presented in a manner to provoke or arouse lust or passion
or to exploit sex, lust or perversion for commercial gain or any device,
article or instrument of an obscene nature.
I.Â
No person
shall own, operate or maintain any massage parlor or model studio
which, as a regular course of business, is used for the purpose of
lewdness, assignation or prostitution, and every such massage parlor
or model studio in or upon which acts of lewdness, assignation or
prostitution are held or occur is declared to be a public nuisance.
Any such person violating this subsection shall be guilty of a summary
offense and, upon conviction thereof, shall be sentenced to pay a
fine not exceeding $300 or undergo imprisonment for a period not exceeding
90 days, or both.
As used in this chapter, the following terms shall have the
meanings indicated:
The standards of the community from which the jury is drawn
or would be drawn if it were the trier of the facts.
Having knowledge of the character and content of the material
involved or failure on notice to exercise reasonable inspection which
would disclose the content and character of the same.
Any method of treating the superficial soft parts of the
human body for remedial, hygienic or other purposes, consisting of
rubbing, stroking, kneading, or any similar treatment, accomplished
by hand or by the use of any instrument.
Any building or structure or portion thereof, located within
the City, which is open to members of the general public, with or
without the payment of a fee, at which massage services are offered.
Any premises on which there is conducted the business of furnishing
figure models who pose in the nude for the purpose of being observed
or viewed by any person or of being sketched, painted, drawn, sculptured,
photographed or otherwise similarly depicted for persons who pay a
fee, or other consideration or compensation, or a gratuity, for the
right or opportunity so to depict this figure model or for admission
to or for permission to remain upon or as a condition for remaining
upon the premises; or
Any premises where there is conducted the business of furnishing
or providing or procuring, for a fee or other consideration or compensation
or gratuity, figure models who pose in the nude to be observed or
viewed by any person or to be sketched, painted, drawn, sculptured,
photographed or otherwise similarly depicted.
Exception. The words "model studio" do not include:
Any studio which is operated by any college or junior college,
public or any governmental agency wherein the person, firm, association,
partnership, or corporation operating it has met the requirements
of the State of Pennsylvania for the issuance or conferring of, and
is in fact authorized thereunder to issue and confer, a diploma or
honorary diploma; or
Any premises where there is conducted the business of furnishing, providing or procuring figure models solely for any studio described in Subsection C(1) of this definition.
Any studio operated by a tax-exempt, nonprofit corporation devoted
to the development of art and its appreciation.
That which is determined as obscene, applying the following
guidelines:
Whether the average person applying contemporary community standards
would find that the subject matter taken as a whole appeals to the
prurient interest;
Whether the subject matter depicts or describes in a patently
offensive way sexual conduct of a type hereinafter described; and
Whether the subject matter taken as a whole lacks serious literary,
artistic, political or scientific value.
So offensive on its face as to affront current standards
of decency and shall be deemed to include any of the following described
forms of sexual conduct, if depicted or described in a patently offensive
way:
An act of sexual intercourse, normal or perverted, actual or
simulated, real or animated, including genital-gential, anal-genital
or oral-genital intercourse, whether between human beings or between
a human being and a animal.
Sadomasochistic abuse, meaning flagellation or torture by or
upon a person who is nude or clad in undergarments or in a revealing
costume, or the condition of being fettered, bound or otherwise physically
restrained on the part of the one so clothed.
Masturbation, excretory functions, and lewd exhibition of the
genitals, including any explicit close-up representation of a human
genital organ or spread-eagle exposure of female genital organs.
Physical contact or simulated physical contact with the clothed
or pubic area or buttocks of a human male or female, or the breasts
of the female, whether alone or between members of the same or opposite
sex, or between humans and animals in an act of apparent sexual stimulation
or gratification.
A device designed and marketed as useful primarily for stimulation
of the human genital organs.
Male or female genitals in a state of sexual stimulation or
arousal, or covered male genitals in a discernibly turgid state.
Fellatio, cunnilingus, anal sodomy, seminal ejaculation, or
any other excretory function.
A natural person, partnership or corporation. Whenever used
in a clause describing or imposing a fine or term of imprisonment,
or both, the term "person," as applied to a partnership, shall mean
the partners or members thereof, and, as applied to a corporation,
shall mean the officers thereof.
