KANSAS CITY — The National Coalition for the Protection of Children & Families, along with pastors in the greater Kansas City area, plan to deliver petitions on May 17 requesting grand jury investigations of charges of "promoting obscenity" in six local counties.

The petitions name 32 adult businesses that may have violated state laws. The counties involved are Johnson and Wyandotte counties in Kansas, and Cass, Clay, Jackson and Platte counties in Missouri.

In an April 4 press release, NCPCF organizers say that they expect to gather 17,000-20,000 signatures on the petitions, and cite over 80 churches and organizations supporting the petition drive.

"I want the 'community standards' question asked," MCPCF Kansas City Executive Director Phillip Cosby told XBIZ. "Whatever evidence the grand jury picks, I want that checked."

The petitions are available for download from the NCPCF website, nationalcoalition.org, and are specific to each county, naming individual businesses, with addresses and telephone numbers, that may have violated the appropriate Kansas or Missouri state law.

According to the press release, NCPCF Sheriffs and County Prosecutors in each of the six counties have received an initial obscenity report, and held meetings who local pastors which included "a dialogue on the correlation between an increasingly sexualized culture, the corresponding burden of fantasy-driven criminal behavior and the frustration a prosecutor feels from the apparent desensitization or indifference of the general populace and faith community."

Plans call for pastors to gather the completed petitions the morning of May 17 and deliver them to the six county courthouses.