Nude SF peacenik arrested, later released

Since before the U.S. invasion of Iraq, naked and semi-nude demonstrators for peace have often appeared at SF peace marches, at the annual Bay To Breakers footrace, and at certain street festivals (especially those catering to queers, "hipsters" and the "leather" community). Usually such political demonstrators are tolerated by the San Francisco Police Department.

Sometimes police officers will order demonstrators to cover up their genitals. If the demonstrator promptly covers up, there's not even a ticket, let alone an arrest. SF police openly say bare female breasts are okay. And, as of 2005, they ignore bare buttocks. Only genitals remain questionable, in practice.

Exception #1: A few months ago, when the "Naked Yoga Guy" was ordered to get dressed, he wanted a test case of the legality of his public nudity. So he insisted on getting a "ticket" (properly called a "citation"). He got his ticket, got dressed; but wasn't arrested. He won his case out of court -- that is, the SF District Attorney's office refused to prosecute him for lewd exposure (CA Penal Code section 314). Why? Because, since 1972, mere nudity hasn't been considered lewd in California.

Other SF nudist demonstrators, however, didn't seek any test cases at all. They complied with cover-up orders, received no tickets, and thus set no legal precedents. They were content with SF's de facto cease-fire in the long struggle between nakity and nudophobia, in which cops could decide when nudity was tolerable, and when it wasn't.

Exception #2: But on Saturday, 18 June 2005, there was a temporary breakdown of this peaceful détente. At an artsy street party, a peace demonstator remained clothed for most of the day, while displaying two picket signs which urged people to "Dare 2 Bare 4 Freedom + Peace." Using chalk, he marked similar slogans on the pavement, in two locations (near the main music stage, and near a literary reading). Toward the final hour of the fair, he removed his jeans and his underpants, so that he was substantially nude. As usual in SF these days, where nude demonstrators are no longer novel, some persons voiced approval, while others ignored him. Within his hearing, nobody made any negative comments.

Later, as he stood demonstrating near the main stage, facing the audience, one police officer approached him. The demonstrator expected the routine procedure -- to be told to get dressed, and to comply, without any further problems. But, to his surprise, the demonstrator was arrested and handcuffed. And the officer expressed anger. He was taken to the Mission District police station, and later transported downtown to the intake unit of the SF jail system. (In the unusual city-county of San Francisco, almost all arrests are made by the city police, who serve under The Mayor's appointed Police Chief; but jails are run separately, by a popularly elected County Sheriff.)

Upon being handcuffed, the nudist demonstrator fell into an acute state of depression. What, he wondered, had gone wrong? Why wasn't the usual police procedure followed?

When he entered the downtown facility, he was asked if he were feeling suicidal. He replied "Yes". So he spent Saturday night alone in a "rubber room", also known as a padded cell, where it's very difficult to injure oneself. Ironically, inmates are placed NAKED in such "safety cells". Many times during the night, deputies (both male or female) checked on him to make sure he was still alive and well; and/or to offer him a cup of water (since these cells don't contain a water fountain). He much preferred the solitary cell, rather than mixing into the jail population. By Sunday morning, his mood had improved. When offered food, he refused it.

On Sunday morning, he was no longer considered dangerous to himself, so he was given orange jail clothing and moved out of the rubber room. Then began a long process called "classification", in which officials decide where to "house" an inmate. He informed the jail bureaucracy that he was on a hunger strike, and had not eaten since Saturday, and didn't intend to eat. Officials viewed his hunger strike as slow-motion suicide. He requested a solitary cell, but was eventually placed in a "tank" (also called "pod") for male prisoners with psychiatric problems, in County Jail #1, upstairs.

Classification had taken many hours, so he arrived in this tank after sundown on Sunday. This tank consistes of a large dining room (which has a television and a shower), plus around four cells. Each cell contains six bunk-beds, one toilet, and one wash-basin (which also supplies drinking water). Carrying his mattress, he was told to find a cell. This allowed him to look around for friendly faces, in hopes of being in a cell where he would feel safe. Luckily, a sympathetic prisoner did appear, and invited him to reside in cell #4. Since all six bunks were occupied, the demonstrator placed his mattress on the floor, temporarily, and spent a night or two there, until a bunk opened up in the same cell. Treated kindly by the men in #4, and becoming friends with almost all of them, the demonstrator cheered up. One of them loaned him books to read, which were much appreciated. The demonstrator escaped for many hours into the fantasy world of Tolkien's Middle Earth; and then into the real world of Trappist monasteries, as described by Thomas Merton.

He realized that he could endure several months of this; so his main worry wasn't SF jail life, but the fact that the monthly rent on his hotel room would become due in around ten days, and that failure to pay rent would leave him homeless whenever he got out of jail. He worried abut the fate of his guppies in his fish tank at home.

The demonstrator expected to be taken to court on Monday morning, and arraigned. To his surprise, this didn't happen. So he phoned the SF Public Defender's office, to ask about his case. A staff person told him that his case was "under investigation" -- that is, that the District Attorney was still considering whether to file charges, or not. This was good news, since the D.A. has a limited number of days in which to charge a jailed person; and the inmate must be released if he's not charged within that time frame. The demonstrator began to feel some hope, along with much doubt and puzzlement.

On Tuesday morning, again he wasn't called to court. On Tuesday afternoon, he voluntarily gave a tape-recorded statement to a polite "inspector" (detective) from the SF Police Department. The inspector, unlike some lower-level police officers, was well aware that PC 314 doesn't (usually) apply to naked political demonstrators. On Tuesday evening, since the D.A. had not filed charges,
he was released from jail, and walked home.

Friends want the nudist demonstrator to
sue the city for false arrest.


-- Senior Unlimited Nudes (SUN)
San Francisco, California, USA

Wednesday, 22 June 2005
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