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PrintNovember 1, 2009
ACLU defends Boulder's 'nude pumpkin run' as constitutional right
Police in Boulder, Colorado, were reportedly successful last night in stopping yet another annual "nude pumpkin run" -- in which men and woman run down a pedestrian mall naked with carved out pumpkins over their heads.
The local American Civil Liberties Union is outraged over what he claims is the denial of a constitutional right.
Liberal Boulder residents and public officials in the ultraliberal city also are upset, according to a Wall Street Journal article on police efforts to stop the informal annual rite that the local police chief say has gotten totally out of hand. Last year, the event attracted 150 naked pumpkin runners.
Regarding the "constitutional issues" pertaining to the police crackdown, the Journal quoted the chairman of the ACLU's Boulder County chapter, Judd Golden, as saying:
"The late-night rite "seems somewhat quixotic, but our Bill of Rights does not judge the content of free expression."
Complaining about the police crackdown, Boulder lawyer Andy Schmidt told the Journal: "It kind of reminds me of what's happening in Tehran. They're pre-emptively outlawing a gathering."
Oleg Abramov, a 31-year-old planetary scientist, said the probably won't participate in the run, which he called a "liberating and somewhat surreal community arts project." The reason, the Journal reported, is that "being arrested as a sex offender could ruin his career."
Police chief Mark Beckner said last year's nude pumkin run was a "free-for-all." Accordingly, police will be out in force to put a stop to the event, he said.
