Charleston, South Carolina- A North Charleston strip club is suing the city, alleging that police have begun a campaign to “harass, intimidate and interfere” with the Meeting Street Road business.

Silk Stockings by Amber filed the suit in November after police began showing up at the business and harassing employees by calling them names, going through their personal belongings and threatening them with incarceration, attorneys for the club said in court papers.

Attorney Tommy Goldstein, who represents the club, said all his client wants is a little peace and quiet, not money.

“I don’t think a municipality should use its enormous police power to enforce a civil dispute,” said Goldstein. “Here are these police officers, who we are supposed to hold in the highest possible standard, behaving like this.”

North Charleston attorneys denied the allegations in the lawsuit.

City Attorney Brady Hair said the city learned the club was operating in violation of the city’s zoning laws governing sexually oriented businesses after police were called there to investigate other problems, including reports of prostitution.

At that time, Hair said, city officials discovered the club had been annexed into the city in the mid-1990s, but was not a legally zoned use under the city’s laws. Officials also discovered that the club did not have a city license to operate as a sexually oriented business.

“What it comes down to is we discovered a sexually oriented business operating without a license,” Hair said Tuesday.

“We intend to enforce our ordinance as we have against others in the city.”

In the 1980s, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the First Amendment keeps local governments from banning businesses based on the content of what they sell.

But cities may use zoning to limit where such businesses can locate.

In North Charleston, which has a few sexually oriented businesses, clubs like Silk Stockings by Amber can operate only in industrial areas. On top of that, the city sets 1,000-foot spatial separation requirements between such a business and schools, churches and day-care centers.

Goldstein said this week he had not decided whether his client would seek a zoning variance to remain in business. The club, which state business filings show is owned by CBP Enterprises LLC, is zoned for general business, not industrial purposes.

Both Mayor Keith Summey and police department spokesman Spencer Pryor referred comments to the city’s legal department.