Strip Club Showdown: Cockrel Storms Out

DETROIT (myFOXDetroit.com) - Chaos outside as strip club workers argued with a local pastor was matched with the chaos inside. Councilwoman Sheila Cockrel stormed out of the meeting.

"It is the height of irresponsibility for a council member to walk away from the table and not vote. We are elected to vote on matters," said Council President Ken Cockrel, Jr.

Matters regarding strip clubs in the city of Detroit and an ordinance that would ban alcohol, keep dancers six feet away from customers and require strippers to cover up more.

After Sheila Cockrel left the meeting, there were not enough members to take a vote on Friday.

"It also shows a high level of disrespect for the people who put elected officials in office," Ken Cockrel, Jr. said.

The vote was supposed to happen next week. Sheila Cockrel says there's a reason it shouldn't come that soon, saying the council wasn't given enough time to read through all of the ordinance. A vote, she says, would be premature.

"I do not believe that it is appropriate to attempt to legislate other people's morality," Sheila Cockrel said. "I think one has to really take into accounts here there are 7,000 jobs in this industry in the city, and there's three million dollars that are going into the city's tax coffers."

There was talk of using security to bring her back into the meeting. FOX 2 learned she left the meeting and went to the Clique Restaurant for a bite to eat. That didn't happen. Waiters inside tell FOX 2 angry strippers mouthed off to her. She left without eating.

Surprising? Councilwoman Cockrel doesn't think so. "There's lots of passionate feelings... No one said anything to me specifically. This is a deeply emotional issue. There are lots of very strong points of view on all sides," she said.

"You're not elected to walk away from the table and prevent your colleagues from being able to vote because there's now not a quorum," said Ken Cockrel, Jr. "That's essentially what council member Cockrel did today, and I just think, frankly, it's deplorable. It's reprehensible."

Councilwoman Cockrel says had she not left, she would have allowed the council to "hijack democracy." What will happen next? It's likely this will come up with the new council on January 31.