WAVE 3 - Louisville, KYAnti-Rape Group Posts Pictures Of Adult Bookstore Customers Online

Anti-Rape Group Posts Pictures Of Adult Bookstore Customers Online

By Dina Kaplan

(LOUISVILLE, October 9th, 2003, 6:30 p.m.) -- If you frequent adult bookstores or strip clubs, your picture may be on the Internet right now. As WAVE 3's Dina Kaplan reports, a newly created group in Louisville is hoping to shut down some sexually-oriented businesses by humiliating their customers. It's a story you'll see only on WAVE3 News.

The website features pictures of people entering and leaving sexually-oriented businesses. The reason: "Practically no one wants their photo taken coming out of an adult bookstore, and especially don't want it put out on the Internet."

At the core of the group are victims of sexual assault who say adult businesses foster violence against women, so they're trying to shut them down by setting up a website that essentially "outs" people visiting adult bookstores.

John Reneer just founded the group, War-Line which runs the website. His goal is to shame adult bookstore customers into reconsidering walking inside. War-Line's ultimate goal is to shut down adult businesses in Louisville.

The group's members, like Angi Haake, hand out literature that warns strip clubs and pornography promote violence against women.

Since Saturday, Haake has sat in protest of an adult bookstore on Preston Highway for eight hours a day, seven days a week. She says she is committed to this cause because she is a rape victim. "Almost every woman I've talked to has been raped, assaulted in some way, and it has to stop."

When we called the Center for Women and Families, a spokesperson told us, "there is an increase of harassment and sexual assault within the vicinity of these establishments."

No one from the Preston Highway bookstore would speak with us, and none of its customers wanted to speak on camera. But we wondered if the website is in fact legal. Attorney Jon Fleischaker says since the pictures are not taken on the businesses' property, the stores don't have a right to sue.

As for the customers, Fleischaker says "if you're on a public street and going into the front door of a place, then the law would say you don't have a reasonable expectation of privacy."

Obviously, even War-Line members says not every person that walks into an adult-oriented business is a rapist or potential rapist. And of course not every person who walks out has a greater tendency to consider violence against women.

But here is an interesting note about this group: John Reneer has been convicted of murder and sodomy. He says he started War-Line to shine a light on the problem of violence against women.

Reneer said he plans to continue taking photos at adult businesses all around Louisville.

On the Web:

• War-Line "Busted" Pictures

Online Reporter: Dina Kaplan

Online Producer: Michael Dever