8652: Collecting Chica Chica Cards.

From The New York Daily News…

‘Chica Chica’ cards pimp hookers and prostitution, says state senator who wants to make them illegal

By Kenneth Lovett, Daily News Albany Bureau Chief

ALBANY - They’re called “Chica Chica” cards - and they’re flooding Corona and Jackson Heights, Queens.

They look like baseball cards. But instead of featuring A-Rod or Derek Jeter, they have graphic pictures of naked or half-naked women — with a phone number offering free delivery.

They’re really the business cards of prostitutes and pimps who operate along a stretch of Roosevelt Ave. in Queens — and a move is afoot to make them illegal.

Queens Democratic Sen. Jose Peralta wants to make it a crime to distribute the raunchy cards. He and his Assembly counterpart Francisco Moyo have introduced a bill making distribution of the cards a misdemeanor, categorizing them as obscene material.

“Is this going to eliminate prostitution? It’s not,” Peralta said. “It’s the first step toward improving the quality of life on Roosevelt Ave.”

The lawmakers say that on a nighttime walk down Roosevelt Ave., there will be men uttering the words, “chicas, chicas,” which means “girls, girls” — and they’ll thrust forward one of the cards.

Residents are fed up.

“It’s infuriating,” said Nuala O’Doherty, a 42-year-old mother of three who lives near Roosevelt Ave. “They’re all over the streets in the morning. You can’t get rid of them.”

The cards have led to some awkward questions from her three young kids.

“The kids pick them up,” said O’Doherty. “They’ll ask, ‘Mommy, what are the cards for? Why are the women standing like that? Why do they have no clothes?’

“I don’t have good answers.”

O’Doherty said her husband called the number on one of the cards and was asked all sorts of questions in Spanish about what kind of woman he wants.

“They’ll come to you,” she said. “They’ll bring the girl to you so they don’t have to pay for a room.”

Queens District Attorney Richard Brown calls the “Chica” cards “a vexing problem that is plaguing our communities.”

But he said a law to ban them raises “difficult legal questions under the court’s interpretation of the First Amendment.”