Hippie Hollow Clothing Optional Nudist: News

Oregon Town Passes Public Nudity Ban; ACLU Threatens Legal Action

The Ashland City Council has adopted a citywide ban on public nudity.

The city had already banned the display of genitals in parks and in downtown. Tuesday night's decision to expand the ban brought a threat of legal action from the American Civil Liberties Union, which says it violates the Oregon Constitution's protection of free expression.

The nudity issue arose in 2008, when a woman dubbed "the naked lady" started bicycling around Ashland wearing only a G-string. More complaints came last summer, when a retired computer programmer visiting the city took nude strolls near an elementary school. A vacationer from Minnesota exposed himself in October.

In a 1985 decision, the Oregon Court of Appeals upheld Portland's ban on public nudity. But the court also ruled that public nudity can be a protected form of expression, such as during a protest.

AP

Tue Dec 29, 2009

Naked cyclists escape charges

Two men who were stopped for cycling in the nude in New Zealand were let off by police on the condition they wear bicycle helmets.

The officer who stopped the pair said "they were wanting to experience total freedom."

But she said when she told them they might "experience total confinement" if they didn't go home and get helmets and the men complied.

The officer said she thought the pair were more shocked than her and she explained why she let them go free with a warning.

"It was dark and there was no-one else around. They were jovial young men who had not intended to cause offense."

It's not clear if the men actually went home to get helmets but the officer said she didn't see them again during her shift.

Bartlesville Live

Sun Dec 27, 2009

Security Considers Making People Fly Naked

Britain's anti-terror forces have foiled a plot by terrorists to use ordinary clothing as explosives. Troops, armed police and private security guards - in an operation described by one spokesman as being of "huge self-importance" - swooped on airports to prevent the so-called 'shell-suit bombs' from being used in a devastating attack on airlines.

The unprecented security clampdown saw passengers embarking at several major UK airports, including Birmingham, Liverpool and Little Snoring, being forced to travel naked.

"We have strong evidence that terrorists were planning to use unstable man-made fabrics to bring down aeroplanes on long-haul international flights," said a spokesman for the security forces. "In particular, our intelligence pointed to flights terminating at Disney World, Florida and Malaga."

The spokesman said that the operation was the culmination of several months of monitoring internet chatrooms in which a number of people had been discussing the electrical properties of nylon. "This operation has prevented a fashion catastrophe of unprecented horror," said the spokesman.

Experts wheeled out by Britain's Home Office claimed that certain artificial fibres, when combined in the right way, are capable of unleashing energy capable of wreaking incalculable carnage.

"These fibres are easily obtainable in any high street," said Dr Felicity Crippen of the Government Agenda Support Institute. "When they are brought together, they generate an explosive force equivalent to several molecules of TNT. Get enough items of clothing in one place and you have a bomb of unimaginable horror."

The intelligence operation apparently centred on certain branches of Asda, C&A and Milletts. A sudden increase in sales of shell suits prompted the authorities to take action. "Milletts had a sale," said one unnamed anti-terror officer who can only be identified by his silhouette. "I mean, the prices were really amazingly low. And they sold out of shell suits in two days. That's when we knew we had to strike."

When asked about the timing of the operation, Chief Inspector Willy Woantee, head of the Special Branch Public Awareness Diversion Squad, pointed to a recent lack of terror alerts and some very disturbing stories coming out of the Middle East. "It was the right time, without a doubt," he said.

Asked whether arrests of terror suspects were expected in the near future, Chief Inspector Woantee said, "We are expecting a large number of arrests in Liverpool." When pushed as to whether any of these would be related to the terror plot he added, "It's too soon to tell".

Several airlines have released statements pointing out that they don't fly from these airports, but that in response to government pressure they would be considering banning clothes on all budget flights.

World Inquisitor

Wed Dec 23, 2009

Naked Homeowner Fights Off Masked Gunmen

SANDY SPRINGS, Ga. -- Frank Alioto said he fought off two masked bandits with pistols and laser sights when they busted into his Sandy Springs home firing off shots.

It happened along Stables Drive in the Spalding Stables Estates subdivision.

Alioto and his girlfriend were awakened by the commotion. Two other friends were also inside the home. Alioto said the armed men fired at least seven shots. Alioto, completely naked, decided to fight back.

"He lets one more shot off at me. We tussle all the way to the garage area. I punched him in the face and he drops his gun. We start tussling and he starts calling for his buddy to come help him," Aliota said.

That's when, Aliota said, the intruders gave up and drove away.

Sandy Springs police said a home invasion like this is very unusual for this neighborhood.

Alioto believes he was targeted because he's in the music industry and says he has a lot of expensive equipment in his house.

Police detained him briefly after they found a small amount of marijuana in the house but they let him go shortly after. He said he is proud he was able to fight back and keep the bandits from taking anything.

"I was real lucky on Christmas," Aliota said.

wsbtv

Fri Dec 18, 2009

Va. man convicted of in-home indecent exposure

FAIRFAX, Va. — As Erick Williamson sees it, being naked is liberating, and if passers-by get an eyeful while he's standing in front of a picture window, that's not his problem.

A Fairfax County judge saw it a little differently Friday, convicting Williamson of indecent exposure in a case that has raised questions about what's OK when you're in your own home.

Two women said they saw much more of Williamson than they cared to in October, even though he never left the confines of his home. He received neither jail time nor a fine but is appealing anyway, saying a larger principle is at stake.

"I think that being tried and found guilty of something like this is outrageous," Williamson said after he was convicted and sentenced. "I feel like I'm living in a fishbowl."

Williamson testified that he never intended to expose himself and was simply exercising "personal freedom" as he spent several hours naked in his Springfield home packing up belongings.

Police, prosecutors and two witnesses, though, said Williamson's actions were designed to draw attention to himself.

The first woman, school librarian Joyce Giuliani, said she heard some loud singing as she left her home and drove to work. As she drove by Williamson's home, she saw him naked, standing directly behind a large picture window.

A few hours later, Yvette Dean was walking her 7-year-old son to school along a trail that runs by Williamson's home.

She heard a loud rattle, looked to her left and saw Williamson standing naked, full frontal, in a side doorway.

"He gave me eye contact," Dean said, but otherwise made no gestures toward her or her son.

As she turned the corner, she looked back at the home, in disbelief at what she had just seen. Again, she saw Williamson, naked in the same picture window.

One of Williamson's housemates testified that Williamson had been nude well before dawn. Timothy Baclit testified that he woke up around 5 a.m. to go to work and saw Williamson walking around "naked ... with a hard hat."

He said he warned Williamson that he would be visible to passers-by but that Williamson did not respond.

Williamson, 29, said the conversation with Baclit never occurred and that he never noticed that two women had seen him. He said "it did not occur to me" that people outside the home might see him naked.

Regardless of whether he was seen, Williamson's conduct does not constitute indecent exposure, said his attorney, Dickson Young.

Under Virginia law, the charge requires "an obscene display or exposure" and must occur in "a public place or a place where others are present."

Young argued that neither prong had been met.

"Mere nudity is insufficient to declare conduct obscene," Young said, noting that none of the women testified that Williamson was aroused or that he made any sort of obscene gesture. "Nudity in one's own home is not a crime."

Fairfax County Prosecutor Marc Birnbaum said the witness testimony shows that he intended to expose himself to the women by making himself visible for extended periods of time and drawing attention to himself by making rattling noises and singing.

"No one deserves to see it, certainly not a young child," Birnbaum said.

Birnbaum sought jail time for Williamson, but General District Judge Ian M. O'Flaherty imposed only a suspended sentence, meaning that Williamson will serve no jail time if he keeps out of trouble.

If Williamson follows through on his plans to appeal, though, a circuit court judge could impose a stiffer punishment, technically up to a year in jail.

Williamson's Oct. 24 arrest received national attention and spurred debate about the boundaries of acceptable nudity.

Kent Willis, director of the Virginia chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, said there is no line that defines what is acceptable in these types of cases.

"How you define public and private space depends on the behavior that's taking place," Willis said. He said that if the case is pursued through appellate courts, it could potentially provide more clarity on what constitutes indecent exposure in Virginia.

Williamson, a commercial diver who has since moved out of Fairfax County, said he was shocked by the verdict. He suggested after the hearing that he was the victim of a double standard.

"If I was looking in her window, I think we'd be having a whole different conversation," he said.

AP

Thu Jan 07, 2010