Ohio Mayor Says Ice Fishing Leads To Prostitution
The mayor of Hudson, Ohio, presented a bizarre argument against permitting ice fishing at a local park — he said it will lead to prostitution.
In a viral video clip, Craig Shubert told city council members that if the winter pastime were allowed at Hudson Springs Park, an entirely different type of pastime would naturally follow.
“If you open this up to ice fishing, while on the surface it sounds good, then what happens next year? Does someone come back and say, ‘I want an ice shanty for X-amount of time?’” he asked in the clip, referring to the use of portable shelters for ice fishing.
“And if you then allow ice fishing with shanties, then that leads to another problem — prostitution,” he continued. “And now you’ve got the police chief and the police department involved. Just data points to consider.”
Hudson mayor thinks ice fishing leads to prostitution! Put your poles away boys!*
*Same guy who thinks creative writing classes are child pornography. pic.twitter.com/9N0R2tVri6— Amanda Weinstein (@ProfWeinstein) February 9, 2022
It’s not clear what “data points” Shubert, a Republican, was referencing. Shubert’s colleagues seemed to nervously laugh off his suggestion.
The conversation leading up to that point was about the risk of death that comes with ice fishing, for which there are actual data points.
Shubert, who serves in a largely ceremonial role in a wealthy Cleveland suburb, has already been in the news for his opinions about sex.
Last year, he argued that Hudson school board members should be held accountable for “pornographic content” in schools. Among the materials he found objectionable was a book called “642 Things to Write About.” Two of the book’s prompts involved a sex scene.An investigation into Shubert’s conduct at a school board meeting revealed that those specific prompts had never even been assigned.
It didn’t matter, though, once the scandal made national headlines and school board members started receiving death threats.
Shubert also argued that 40 other unnamed books “of highly sexual and pornographic material were made available to children in the school,” the Akron Beacon Journal reported in November.
This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.
