What's wrong with being naked?
« previous post | next post »
From the 12 June issue of the Bay Area Reporter (all the LGBT news that's fit to print, and more), a fascinating story (with photo) headed "Naked men meet cop". In its entirety:
Two naked men, Rusty Mills, left, and Lloyd Fisher, were walking in front of LGBT Community Center Saturday, June 7 when a San Francisco Police Department cruiser pulled over and Officer Lorenzo Adamson got out. Photographer Jane Cleland captured this exchange:
Adamson: "You can't walk around naked! That's indecent exposure!"
Mills: "It's only 'indecent exposure' if you engage in lewd behavior, and we're not being lewd."
Adamson: "I don't care about all that legal mumbo-jumbo. It's not normal to be walking around naked!"
Mills: "We're supporting World Naked Bicycle Day."
Adamson: "I don't care what you say, it's not healthy and no other police officers would disagree with me. And besides, you don't seem to have any supporters here."
Mills and Fisher were not cited and soon were on their way.
Adamson was clearly affronted. What interests me in this is the shifting grounds that he offers for his objection to the men's nakedness: first, it's against the law; then, it's "not normal"; then, it's "not healthy" (suggesting, I suppose, that exposed naughty bits are a threat to public health); finally, the men have no supporters for it. But, finding no grounds for issuing a citation (even though rejecting "all that legal mumbo-jumbo", not the best position for a cop to take), he has to let them go on their way.
World Naked Bicycle Day is a genuine event, by the way, and it was indeed on June 7 (which was also the kickoff day at the LGBT Community Center for Pride Month in San Francisco). No bicycles are visible in the photo, nor are any people other than Adamson and the two naked men. (I would have thought there'd be more people on Market Street in the middle of the day.) Also no word about where the men came from or where they went to.
(The photo shows the men from the rear, of course. Naked buttocks don't count as naughty bits.)
John Cowan said,
June 15, 2008 @ 2:19 pm
I don't see how they could be completely naked and still have supporters. Seems like a contradiction in terms.
dr pepper said,
June 15, 2008 @ 5:47 pm
(hmm, my post didn't show up. trying again)
Was the cop an immigrant?
What part of "San Francisco" didn't he understand?
Arnold Zwicky said,
June 15, 2008 @ 6:47 pm
Following up on dr pepper: San Francisco and some other Bay Area cities are not like most places in the U.S.: being naked in public is not in itself a legal offense (as the naked guys in the story argued).
This has presented a vexing problem for the local television stations, since at least two regularly televised events, the Bay to Breakers race/walk and the Pride parade, involve significant numbers of naked participants. Coverage (so to speak) of these events is not easy to do. Flaunting your bits in public is not generally actionable in S.F., but doing so on television (on certain channels, at certain times) is serious trouble for the carrier, anywhere in the U.S.
john riemann soong said,
June 15, 2008 @ 7:10 pm
"Was the cop an immigrant?"
Immigrant to the city, or immigrant to the nation?
Chris Waigl said,
June 15, 2008 @ 8:35 pm
In London, it looked like this. I ran into this cavalcade twice on Saturday, right in front of Big Ben (where I had an excellent view from a bus) and on Regent Street. No one I could see found much wrong with it, at least not vocally. I learnt from three awestruck boys, aged about 9 to 12, that "weenie" is a term used in this age group.
dr pepper said,
June 15, 2008 @ 9:36 pm
To the nation. I've never been to SF but i've heard about the street scenes there. I think most americans have.
Bill Poser said,
June 15, 2008 @ 10:52 pm
I think that Officer Adamson needs a remedial course in the rule of law.
Lily said,
June 16, 2008 @ 2:02 am
Surely being naked makes operating a bicycle somewhat uncomfortable.
mark said,
June 16, 2008 @ 6:59 am
I do think there must have been bicycles around, otherwise officer Adamson would surely have added 'besides, I don't see any bicycles' to his battery of arguments.
outeast said,
June 16, 2008 @ 7:01 am
I'm not sure I'd agree with your interpretation of what was meant by 'It's not healthy.' To me, that looks (at least potentially) synonymous with 'It's not normal' – that is, that walking around naked in public is aberrant behaviour which is indicative of psychological ill-health rather than being potentially causative of physical ill-health. (I should have thought that if the officer believed that the demonstrators' nakedness was actually a public-health hazard he would have had grounds for arrest?)
TAR ART RAT said,
June 16, 2008 @ 8:20 am
hate it when that happens.
apparently in a summer-weekend getaway lake town near Berlin they had to ban public sex because it was becoming a nuisance. schade.
Janice Huth Byer said,
June 16, 2008 @ 11:28 am
I think the Officer handled it perfectly. His job is to not to go about busting people, but to be alert to any suspicious activity and to respond with the least amount of force and the minimum of confrontation needed to diffuse whatever threat he senses to life, property, or public peace . His verbal exchange constituted an investigation that assured him the men were harmless, while serving to advise them and put them on notice.
Meep said,
June 16, 2008 @ 12:22 pm
But the cop had to have known about the World Naked Bike Ride… at least in Portland, everyone has known about this for months (even law enforcement).
The article doesn't seem to give a complete story, btw.
Karen said,
June 16, 2008 @ 1:34 pm
"Advise them and put them on notice" of WHAT, precisely? His opinion that what they were doing wasn't normal and should be stopped – because he doesn't like it? "I don't care about all that legal mumbo-jumbo" is certainly notice, though.
Pete said,
June 16, 2008 @ 5:03 pm
Lilly – why should "operating a bicycle" naked be any less comfortable than when clothed? It's not like a pair of lycra cycling shorts offer any padding or protection, and some other types of clothing can cause chafing due to the seams or bunching. I took part in the Southampton (UK) leg of the ride and found it perfectly comfortable – actually more so than when clothed as I didn't get so hot.
Incidently, simple nudity (without the intention to cause "alarm or distress") is legal here too, though most people don't realise it.
john riemann soong said,
June 17, 2008 @ 11:39 pm
"To the nation. I've never been to SF but i've heard about the street scenes there. I think most americans have."
I've lived in the US for 9 years and I have been largely unaware!
Janice Huth Byer said,
June 18, 2008 @ 12:38 am
Re: my reply, Karen asks, "Advise them and put them on notice of WHAT precisely?" This a good question I should've anticipated. Precisely that in the case that they weren't, in fact, harmless gentleman, but instead were setting out to do something like, say, have sex in public, then the officer, by the act of simply asking them what they were doing outside naked would, in theory, inhibit them from proceeding to do something illegal, at least on his beat. The point I wanted to make was (1) any officer confronted with unusual behavior is duty bound to "investigate" and (2)what he says isn't meant to stand up to our scrutiny but is aimed at (a) soliciting information for him to assess the situation (b) convey an impression of concern rather than confrontation. Cops are trained to appeal to people's self-interest, which is why he babbled about their health. They're trained NOT to brandish the law and never to allow incipient criminals to use the law to "snow" them. Hence his knee jerk remark about legal mumbo-jumbo. I sense he meant no disrespect to the nude gentlemen's rights.
doviende said,
June 18, 2008 @ 8:55 am
I participated in several World Naked Bike Ride events here in Vancouver, Canada over the past few years, and the number one question i always get asked is about comfort. it's basically no different, in case you are also wondering.
Since i've been going to the local "clothing optional" beach for a while, and doing the yearly naked bike ride, i'm always quite confused when someone decides that being naked is actually something to be concerned about.
relatedly, there was a local woman who started going topless in the swimming pools here, and she ended up getting a ruling saying that women had just as much right to be topless as men. there's been no increase in topless women as a result, but it's nice to know that the law is making more sense as time goes on.