topfree case in New York

[jon71]

I wish I was more technosavvy and I could provide a link. Hopefully someone here with more computer skill can do that for me. If you go to Cnn.com under their "law" section there is a story about nyc paying a $29,000 fine to a woman that they took into custody for being topless. This was in 2005 more than a decade after the courts ruled women have that right. She was apparently treated roughly before being let go. I'm glad that there are consequences to that govt. misaction and I hope it will be something that police and others will be mindful of in the future.

[simonsebs]

New York City pays $29,000 for arresting topless woman (http://www.cnn.com/2007/LAW/06/18/topless.settlement.ap/index.html)

Is this what you were talking about?

[jon71]

Exactly. One of these days I should learn how to do things like that.

[Nude in the North]

The city paid without admitting any "wrong doing".
What a joke.

Why Can't they just admit that the police messed up? It happens all the time. If they would just face up to it and then take steps to "train" the police to do a better job, it would be a lot more respectable.

I'm sure something like this will never happen again in the state of NY. They have had plenty of time to inform the police that it's not against the law to be topless.

Anyway, I'm glad she won a nice sum of money. Too bad it wasn't more.

Steve

[Nu]

Connected to the article is a poll.
Interesting results so far. Two thirds in favour of womens rights to be topless as men can be.

[missouriboy]

I'm glad that there are consequences to that govt. misaction and I hope it will be something that police and others will be mindful of in the future. I'm glad for the woman too, but the thing that leaves a sour taste is the fact that the paying "city" is all the law-abiding taxpayers, not the criminal perpetrators of the injustice. If you violate a law, YOU pay. But when an individual employee of government violates THEIR OWN law, YOU STILL pay (albeit indirectly, through your taxes).

In cases like this, and others, I think sovereign immunity goes too far -- those perpetrators should suffer some consequence for wrongdoing, even if only symbolic. But Nooooo, they always "deny all wrongdoing." Yeccchh!

[missouriboy]

Originally posted by jon71:
Exactly. One of these days I should learn how to do things like that. jon71, it's really easy to learn how to post a hyperlink.

1. Click the Reply To This User button on any post that has one displayed.

2. Observe and record the elements of the link, for future reference.

3. Instead of actually replying, click the X to exit the window.

The elements are (with NO embedded spaces, and NO surrounding punctuation, not even a period at the end): [ url= *** ]display text[ /url ]

*** = the "address" of the desired link. To obtain this:

While you are "at" the desired page, such as Msn.com, place your cursor in the Address Bar, and Left Click, to Highlight the address in there. Copy it (CTRL/C) to your paste buffer.
(This is the box that usually starts with "http://www.xxx.com/etc etc etc". Place the cursor in the white space after the address, then hold Left Click down while moving the cursor left until the entire address is highlighted with the blue background. The Copy function stores only that which is highlighted, or "Selected.")

While typing your post, when you come to the *** within the url= scheme that you're typing, Paste (CTRL/V) the saved buffer into your link, then continue typing the rest of the format to complete the hyperlink.

Note: where I said NO embedded spaces, that doesn't apply to the "display text" portion. You can type whatever phrase you want there, and it displays in place of the actual address. The address could be multiple lines long, and this lets you shorten it, and make it an integral part of your overall message.

[bikerbare]

This story was not only on CNN, it also had almost a full page story in the N.Y. Post. a very widely read newspaper in NYC.

[MJ_KC]

Sometimes I think that the police detain someone just because it looks like they have to be breaking the law because that is the cop's opinion.

Once they get the person back to the police station, they then have to determine for certain whether there was a law broken. Often a district attorney will have to decide.

This is one of those things where the cops are obviously not being taught what the law is. I wonder if this is intentional.

[Sauna]

It makes me happy to read good news instead of permanent wars and crimes.

[Naturist Mark]

Sometimes I think that the police detain someone just because it looks like they have to be breaking the law because that is the cop's opinion.
Ignorance (http://www.tera.ca/articles.html#Buffaloed) - sometimes deliberate - of the legality of topfreedom is high in those places where it is legal.

New York City should know better - they had to pay Amy Gunderson (http://web.archive.org/web/20050319183324/http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/77792p-71667c.html) $10,000 for an illegal topfreedom arrest back in 2001. It is inexcusable that they did it again.

It's been discussed here many times before. The Moravia 4 were arrested a couple of years ago, and finally had the charges dropped - I don't know if any of them filed a civil case, but they have grounds just as good as Amy Gunderson and Jill Coccaro.

For a time activists were holding Topfreedom picnics (http://clothesfreeforums.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/3400016152/m/4550009152?r=8550009152#8550009152) in public parks in New York State as a means of educating authorities on the law.
http://www.tera.ca/Images/Ithaca2.jpg
Ithica NY Topfree Picnic. Police Chief in white shirt.

-Mark

[MJ_KC]

Originally posted by Naturist Mark:
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Sometimes I think that the police detain someone just because it looks like they have to be breaking the law because that is the cop's opinion.
Ignorance (http://www.tera.ca/articles.html#Buffaloed) - sometimes deliberate - of the legality of topfreedom is high in those places where it is legal. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
Police tend to respond to complaints, even if the complaints are invalid. This still causes stress for the person who has to explain to the police that what they are doing is perfectly legal.

It is even worse when the police haven't been taught that a topfree woman isn't doing anything wrong. Police shouldn't be attempting to enforce their own prejudices.

[Naturist Mark]

Police shouldn't be attempting to enforce their own prejudices.
Or other people's prejudices. Their job is to enforce the law and assist those in need - a big enough job for anyone and worthy of respect.

[Bobx23456]

Originally posted by MJ_KC:
Sometimes I think that the police detain someone just because it looks like they have to be breaking the law because that is the cop's opinion.

Once they get the person back to the police station, they then have to determine for certain whether there was a law broken. Often a district attorney will have to decide.

This is one of those things where the cops are obviously not being taught what the law is. I wonder if this is intentional.


Often the police use intimidation and brutality to enforce their own prejudices while ignoring the law. They push someone into a fight and then claim they "had to" defend themselves. They beat someone senseless and then charge him with "assaulting an officer" because he was doing no serious crime in the first place. And that's if they don't kill him.

Many places have no real laws against nudity without obscene acts and intention to offend. Nevertheless, nudity is prohibited by police who use brutality and confrontation to intimidate and enforce prejudice.

Blessings, Bob

[MJ_KC]

Originally posted by Bobx23456:
Many places have no real laws against nudity without obscene acts and intention to offend. Nevertheless, nudity is prohibited by police who use brutality and confrontation to intimidate and enforce prejudice.
They can make the situation bad enough that people won't even exercise their rights because they know what the police reaction will be. They will try to create a situation where they can charge you with something that doesn't even mention nudity in the law.

[Orangexcalibare]

There were a few topfree women today at the Gay Pride parade in town and they faced no police trouble that I saw. They also were greeted with applause from the crowd.