83 more days behind bars for Naked Rambler

[Bushnud2]

Tue 4 Sep 2007
83 more days behind bars for Naked Rambler

THE Naked Rambler has been ordered to serve a further 83 days in prison after picking up his 11th conviction for breach of the peace.

Stephen Gough, 48, was picked up by police officers on July 31 on his release from Saughton prison wearing only a pair of boots.

A number of pedestrians and motorists witnessed Gough, and one driver even tooted his car horn at him. He denied his nudity amounted to a breach of the peace at Edinburgh Sheriff Court yesterday.

But Sheriff Kathrine Mackie disagreed and ordered him back to prison - where he has been almost continuously for the last 16 months.

His solicitor, John Good, pointed out that the jail time he had served was the equivalent of a three-year term, but said his client still refused to wear clothes and planned to continue his solitary confinement at Saughton. He told the court: "It is Mr Gough's position that people should not be afraid of the human state."

The ex-Marine, who comes from Hampshire, was originally arrested during a trek the length of Britain as part of a campaign for the advocacy of public nudity.

Related topic

Naked Rambler
http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=952
This article: http://news.scotsman.com/edinburgh.cfm?id=1408372007

Last updated: 04-Sep-07 13:41 BST

[HaroldTheNudist]

the man is a hero. If Stephen Gough was an American I would recommend he receive the Congressional Medal of Honor.

[bikerboy]

hero maybe, but still don't we go with the law and not break it. There is a point to stupidity. Prison is not worth it in my opinion. It is supposed to be nude fun in the sun, not LOCKDOW!

Just my thoughts. Don't care if I get change back on my penny. LOL

[nudebushwalker]

It's got to the point with him, that he isn't being locked up for being naked these days, but rather for thumbing his nose at the law, and for contempt of court...

"Hero" ? I think not - there is nothing heroic in his actions any more, and to employ that word is to abuse and prostitute the word "hero"..
He is no more a hero than a sports star, a celebrity, or a person running down the street yelling out "Fire" - hero and heroic are commonly misused and over-used terms these days - especially in the Mass Media.

[sawdust]

I wonder how much it has cost the court and the prison system to hold this man for all of this time and to what end? He will continue to have free room and board at the governments expense and in the end will not change his non nudist ways. More jail time=more expense=more free housing and meals. He has got a freebe system going for himself and the courts are helping him to keep it going. Sawdust

[nudebushwalker]

... would probably be better all round, if only the British court system, and the media, could both agree to totally ignore him - and stop giving him so much free publicity (and notoriety..) - as that seems to be what he thrives on.

http://oakhurstonline.com/icon/tongue.gif

[Stu2630]

From my perspective, as someone who is strongly opposed to irresponsible public nudity, Steve Gough's behaviour and punishment is sending clearest possible message that society won't tolerate what he is doing.


There is a point to stupidity. Prison is not worth it in my opinion.

Actually, I agree with that. His stretches in prison now attract little press interest in Scotland, and virtually none in the rest of the UK. He is achieving nothing now for any cause, legitimate or otherwise, beyond wasting his life behind bars. He's becoming largely forgotten and he certainly isn't doing anything useful for nudists.

Stu

[NudeAl]

You know this is starting to sound like well just throw him in a cell til he rots and forget about him. They guy is either extremely committed or mentaly unstable and since I'm not qualified to judge that

[HaroldTheNudist]

Originally posted by NudeAl:
You know this is starting to sound like well just throw him in a cell til he rots and forget about him. They guy is either extremely committed or mentaly unstable and since I'm not qualified to judge that

I admire Steve Gough's tanacity. Prison time is well worth the cost if it involves promoting nudism.

I've had my fair share of altercations with the law regarding my desire to promote nudism. They will never stop me http://oakhurstonline.com/icon/happy.gif

[Stu2630]

Prison time is well worth the cost if it involves promoting nudism.

Mr Gough despises nudism. He is trying to force the non-nudist majority to accept something they clearly don't want to accept - the sight of nakedness in public. As a result of this, he is being incarcerated and rather than enjoying his preferred lifestyle, he is presently wasting his life behind bars and fading from the public memory. He is now viewed not as a pioneer, but as a nutcase.


I've had my fair share of altercations with the law regarding my desire to promote nudism.

Why should anyone think it's OK to "promote" a recreational preference by confronting the criminal justice system? Nudism is a passtime just as playing golf is. If you were a golf enthusiast and were asked not to play golf in the street by a police officer, would you think it right to have an "altercation" with him about the issue? Or would you accept that there were proper places where you could enjoy your particular kind of recreation?

Rather than promoting their chosen lifestyle, fundamentalists (be they religious, political or nudist) do a disservice to it when they try to impose it on others by giving rise to a resistance against it.

Stu

[Pete Knight]

Originally posted by Stu2630:
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Prison time is well worth the cost if it involves promoting nudism.

Mr Gough despises nudism. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
No he does not, he merely states that he does not see himself as being a naturist, his campaign is 'The Freedom to be Yourself' so please don't mis-quote him Stu, you do yourself no favors.

He is trying to force the non-nudist majority to accept something they clearly don't want to accept - the sight of nakedness in public. As a result of this, he is being incarcerated and rather than enjoying his preferred lifestyle, he is presently wasting his life behind bars and fading from the public memory. He is now viewed not as a pioneer, but as a nutcase.
I would use the term 'eccentric' but you obviously wish to portray him as something different, and you base that on your personal experience of him, and I base my statements on MY personal experience of walking with him and breaking bread with him, he believes more in what he is doing than you do in what you are doing, he is suffering for his cause, what suffering are you enduring?

Stu, it is only you and your small minority who are unable to tolerate nudity, the overwhelming majority don't care at all or are amused by Steve's antic's.

Pete Knight

[Stu2630]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content"> Mr Gough despises nudism .
No he does not, he merely states that he does not see himself as being a naturist, his campaign is 'The Freedom to be Yourself' so please don't mis-quote him Stu, you do yourself no favors. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

He made a quite disparaging remark about nudism a couple of years ago which I'm sure I could find, if I dig deep enough. It was to do with the fact that nudists hide themselves away, thus reinforcing the predominating public perception that nakedness is something to be concealed.


I would use the term 'eccentric' but you obviously wish to portray him as something different,

I haven't actually portrayed him or his state of mind as anything, Pete, although I will later on in this post. In my last post, I merely described how the public are now perceiving him.


I base my statements on MY personal experience of walking with him and breaking bread with him, he believes more in what he is doing than you do in what you are doing, he is suffering for his cause, what suffering are you enduring?

Mr Gough is in prison, and has been for some considerable time and looks like remaining there. He has no job, no family and a public image few people would envy. His suffering is self-inflicted. He has to learn that banging your head against a wall hurts and it's better not to do it.


Stu, it is only you and your small minority who are unable to tolerate nudity, the overwhelming majority don't care at all or are amused by Steve's antic's.

A small minority of people have my level of aversion to nudity - yes, I agree - but it's not people like me who are arresting him, prosecuting him or sentencing him to imprisonment. Any psychiatrist will tell you about the herd mentality of human beings. Steve Gough did achieve some degree of celebrity status, and when doing his so-called "naked walks" people knew who he was and what he was doing and behaved as members of a herd either by staying away, or leaving the area, or by reacting in some way. Because people avoid confrontation, even where others are behaving in a way they disapprove of, they tend not to react negatively. Drop a large piece of litter in any town centre and very few people will challenge you for your behaviour even though they disapprove of what you did - now imagine you are a 6'4" bearded, ex-marine celebrity - how many people are going to confront you now? Because nobody confronts you, and because a few enthusiasts actually turn up to support and applaud you, you can deceive yourself into thinking what you are doing is acceptable - people actually approve of you. Well, they may not.

Last week, a girl was taken to court for putting her feet on a railway carriage seat. She was given an absolute discharge by the magistrates. Now, nobody would argue that what she did was perfectly OK, yet MPs, newspapers and many commentators have been up in arms about the way she was treated. Steve Gough has served almost the equivalent of 3-years in a Scottish prison for doing something which you claim nobody is bothered about. So where are the "FREE STEVE GOUGH" campaigns? Which civil rights groups, national newspapers, prominent people, politicians etc are shouting about this grave injustice and demanding his immediate release? They're not there, are they? The truth is that nobody cares. He was an "eccentric" as you put it and at first he was a source of amusement, but now he's started to become an irritation.

Right now, I fear he is living in some sort of delusion that the great British public will soon come to their senses and see that public nudity is absolutely fine and, rather like some kind of Nelson Mandela, he'll be hailed as a visionary - a fighter of oppression. Pete, he needs a few trusted friends such as yourself to put him in touch with reality and to tell him that what he is presently doing is futile. If you don't, by the time the Naked Rambler gets out of jail, he'll be the naked nobody - a sad, forgotten man broken by the system and all his earlier ventures will have been in vein.

Stu

[Pete Knight]

Stu

You used the word "despises" a rather strong and emotive word but I haven't heard Steve use that word, he feels pity for those that hide their bodies behind fences which is why he doesn't see himself as a naturist.

It is easy to see where your bias is, at no time do you decry the Scottish judicial system for wasting time and taxpayers money over something so trivial whilst rapists are free to rape again (Scotland has the highest number of rape cases where there is a failure to convict, and many of these un-convicted people are repeat criminals.) whilst a man who tried to walk naked is locked away, this is now a battle of wills.

The REAL stupidity is that Steve is being treated as a criminal whilst criminals are free to commit real crimes.

[Stu2630]

Pete

Yes, the word "despises" is my word - so it was my interpretation of his views from what he said. His words left me in no doubt that he has no time for organised nudism.

I don't decry the Scottish judicial system because Mr Gough is leaving them little choice. He could quite simply make his way home and resume his nudist lifestyle, organise nudist activities and so on, but he doesn't. The moment he is released, he behaves in a fashion that challenges the authorities to arrest him, so they do. I concede that he did make some headway for nudist in his walks - but now he's wasting all that by his present pig-headedness and right now he's achieving absolutely nothing.

You are right to say this is a "battle of wills". Let me extend the metaphor by saying that a good general knows when to advance - and when to retreat.

Stu

[Bob S.]

The only good thing is that Steve is not over here in the US where he would be labeled as a sex offender.

The issue I have with Steve Gough is that he is doing this to the detriment to the relationship with his former wife, kids, and girlfriend. He has chosen this activism over the people that mean the most in his life.

A question, are these convictions also violations of conditions of his release?

Bob S.

[HaroldTheNudist]

Originally posted by Stu2630:
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Prison time is well worth the cost if it involves promoting nudism.

Mr Gough despises nudism. He is trying to force the non-nudist majority to accept something they clearly don't want to accept - the sight of nakedness in public. As a result of this, he is being incarcerated and rather than enjoying his preferred lifestyle, he is presently wasting his life behind bars and fading from the public memory. He is now viewed not as a pioneer, but as a nutcase.


I've had my fair share of altercations with the law regarding my desire to promote nudism.

Why should anyone think it's OK to "promote" a recreational preference by confronting the criminal justice system? Nudism is a passtime just as playing golf is. If you were a golf enthusiast and were asked not to play golf in the street by a police officer, would you think it right to have an "altercation" with him about the issue? Or would you accept that there were proper places where you could enjoy your particular kind of recreation?

Rather than promoting their chosen lifestyle, fundamentalists (be they religious, political or nudist) do a disservice to it when they try to impose it on others by giving rise to a resistance against it.

Stu </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Stu

I do not care if my nakedness is an affront to non nudists. If they don't like it they then deserve it.

where in society would we be if someone did not have the courage to challenge and yes, even break laws? Slavery would still exist. Same as the type of slavery in place now where people are required to wear clothes. I like being naked and don't mind being naked around others.