Seattle Press on Line - Police Backpedal on Nude Bicyclists

Police Backpedal on Nude Bicyclists

May 29, 2001 -- After weeks of public bullying and threats to withhold the Fremont Solstice Parade permit, on May 21 Seattle Police backed off on demands that the Fremont Arts Council [FAC] post 14 huge signs along the parade route, printed with the text of the city statute on indecent exposure.

Every year a few nude bicyclists shock and/or thrill parade watchers with unauthorized two-wheel streaking. Not content to just arrest streakers, police had threatened to withhold the parade's permit this year unless parade organizers met their demands. A few minutes before the FAC's May 21 meeting, President Laura Baumwall was notified that the police were backing down.

The parade sponsors are no friends of the streakers, Baumwall notes. "This parade is a huge outpouring of creativity and community activism," she says. "To put all this focus on a few nude bike riders detracts from the purpose of the parade. I just wish they'd go away. We have bigger fish to fry. It detracts from our message.

"If the police want to arrest them," Baumwall added, "that's their business. They shouldn't be threatening us and holding up our permit."

American Civil Liberties Union attorney Doug Honig agrees. "It's forced speech. Its unconstitutional. It's absolutely wrong for the police to try to force the FAC to say something by threatening to withhold their permit.

"Legally, the purpose of a permit is not for the police to approve the content of an activity, but simply to plan on how to accommodate the event," Honig said. The ACLU had offered to handle the case if the police and the city withheld the permit.

The FAC will have a sign at their parade registration table saying, "Police have asked us to remind everyone that public nudity is illegal," according to Baumwall. She adds, "And we won't let any people without clothes on register for the parade."

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