A California lawmaker has introduced federal legislation to ban the so-called crush videos now making the rounds of some adult entertainment fans - and a Hollywood legend is among those backing the legislation. \nMICKEY ROONEY - wants to crush the crush videos.
Ventura County's key law enforcement officials joined Rep. Elton Gallegly Monday to announce the bill, and actor Mickey Rooney was among those speaking against it.
"The fact that people are making money at this is an atrocity," Gallegly said at a press conference Monday. "And it's an atrocity that we can end."
The Simi Valley Republican says the bill is worded narrowly enough to avoid First Amendment objections, worded to bar distributing crush videos across state and international boundaries. Violators would face fines and up to five years in prison if the bill survives into law.
Rooney, known as an animal rights activist, pleaded with Gallegly and others at the conference to put an end to the films, which depict attractive women, often in stiletto heels, stepping on small animals often taped, tied, or even stapled to the floor. Titles are said to include Mistress Di, Princess of Death and Vicious in Las Vegas.
"Is this the kind of world we want to hand down to our children?" asked Rooney, with his wife at his side. "This is sickening and despicable stuff that needs to end."
Crush tapes are not generally well-known so far, but Gallegly says demand has produced a cottage industry generating close to $1 million a year, with the videos selling for up to $100 each.
For now, the crush tapes normally show such small animals as mice and guinea pigs, although the Los Angeles Times says at least one such video has shown a monkey involved. Ventura County District Attorney Michael Bradbury, who also attended the press conference, says law enforcement is concerned that the makers of crush videos might move toward larger animals and, at worst extreme, a live human death as in the notorious "snuff" films of the 1970s.
The crush videos first attracted county authorities in 1998, after officials in New York and the Humane Society tipped Bradbury's office that a man from Thousand Oaks was producing and distributing crush videos through a Los Angeles-based company called Steponit Productions, the Times says. The paper says this man has since quit producing crush videos - but he remains under investigation, with information likely to be handed to a grand jury in the near future.
Crush videos are said to be marketed over the Internet almost exclusively, and over 2,000 titles are now said available. The tapes rarely show faces, and law enforcement officials believe their sales leave little trail to follow, the Times says.
