Archive for August 2010
August 22 GoTopless Celebration and KTVU News
On Sunday, August 22 about 7 North American cities celebrated GoTopless Day, which is a call for equal breast freedom for men and women. The San Francisco venue was by the Vallaincourt Fountain in Justin Herman Plaza. SaraKay, the hostess of the tv show http://www.freebodyculture.blip.tv, was the primary organizer of the event. There were acoustic musicians. At the event, women went topfree and men wore bras. George Davis wore pasties because no one should wear a bra. Bras constrict the intercoastal muscles which are used for breathing.
It was a nice warm sunny day and we had a good time.
After the event; Gypsy Taub, who is the hostess for a tv show http://www.mynakedtruth.tv, Matt, Lloyd, Bare, and George Davis went on a campaign walk along the Embarcadero. During the walk, a KTVU news truck pulled up and asked if they could interview us. Because of the hot weather that day and an even hotter forcast for Monday, they said that they were doing a story on “Spare the Air Day” to decrease enrgy consuption and lower pollutants in the air on hot days. Bare suggested to the crew that they do a “Spare the Clothes Day” feature which they happily did. The feature was the opening news item on the 10 O’Clock news show on KTVU (channel 2, a Fox affiliate). A clip of this newsbroadcast is posted at http://www.funkytv.com/video/view/1497.
City Hall Protest August 20
Lloyd Fishback and George Davis protested in front of City Hall on a Friday afternoon over the 4 citations issued by the SFPD the previous Wednesday.
New nudist guidelines were issued by the police department shortly after this protest that conform to the California State court cases. The new nude guidelines should eliminate unjust SFPD harassment.
The protesters held a sign saying something like:
PROTEST!!!
SFPD harassment of George Davis campaign for San Francisco District Six Supervisor.
California Supreme Court has ruled in Re Smith (1973) that “Nude is not Lewd.”
That is the law.
That is the truth.
That is reality.
New SFPD Nudity Guidelines
To everyone’s expectation the nudity citations were dismissed before entering the courtroom.
Possiblely, as a result of George and Lloyd’s one afternoon protest in front of City Hall on the previous Friday to protest SFPD harassment, new nudity law guidelines have been issued by the Police Department Legal department. This is my understanding from a conversation with Captain Joe Garrity on Monday afternoon August 23.
1. The police will no longer cite for Indecent Exposure PC 314 unless there is obvious lewd and obscene conduct.
2. The police may cite for Public Nuisance (PC 372) with a citizen’s complaint. The police are to exercise their reasonable discretion on the issue. In practice, Public Nuisance is behavior like loud, abusive talk or uncontrolled behavior. In theory, it would be edgy behavior that would be judged the same clothed or nude.
The bottom line is that it appears the Supervisor Campaign should continue unhindered by police issues.
To other nudists in San Francisco, our advise is that in the unlikely event that if you are approached by a police officer who may not be aware of this new bullitin, that you do not argue with them, but request that they call into the station for an update on nudity law.
Supervisor Candidate to be transported to police station
Freedom of Expression. Freedom from Censorship. campaign planks
Campaign turns into Police Harassment Campaign
On Wed., August 18, George Davis was arrested and cited in front of Macys on O’Farrell Street. His 3 companions Lloyd, Woody, and Bare were cited.
As a reminder, the police have cited George Davis 22 times in the past. The results have been 22 discharged cases and zero trials and zero convictions. In 15 different letters, the Office of Citizens Complaints (OCC) have found and specifically called these SFPD actions “harassment.”
These harassments make campaigning for Freedom of Expression and Freedom from Censorship very difficult, but also prove the necessity and value of the campaign. The harassments of the campaign volunteers makes it difficult to find people to work on the campaign.
On Friday, 1pm, August 20, George and a companion will begin daily protests against Censorship in front of City Hall. That’s where we will continue the Supervisor campaign too.
On Monday, August 23, the arraignment hearing will be at the Tenderloin Community Court, 575 Polk, at 1pm. We have no familiarity with that court which the arresting officer nicknamed “The Mayor’s Court.” Depending on the outcome of the hearing, weather, and time; we will continue the City Hall protests and campaign immediately thereafter.
If tourists could vote, George Davis would be elected President.
It’s August 16. We have had 4 walks since the last citation with no police issues at all. We missed a few walk days because of cold windy weather. For those unfamiliar with San Francisco weather, because of coastal weather patterns, July and August have many cold, overcast, windy days. There is an old saying, frequently inaccurately attributed to Mark Twain that goes, “The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco.”
Of all the people that appreciate what we are doing, the tourists are on top of the list. For many of them, it’s the first time they have seen nudists in public. For many of them, we suspect that we are one of their biggest talking points on their trip and most prized photograph.
We do occasionally get a negative comment, but the people that love us outnumber our critics by 20 or 30 to one, at least in almost all areas of the City. We do have social/cultural problems in some inner City areas with Street People and a future entry will be made on that subject.
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