Nude Bicycle Riding Becomes a Civil Right in Portland, Oregon

You Have Have the Right to Ride Naked, but Anything You Say Can Be Used Against You

Lex Loeb
Lex Loeb, Yahoo! Contributor Network
Nov 14, 2008 "Share your voice on Yahoo! websites. Start Here."
Michael Hammond was cleared by a Multnomah County court of charges of indecent exposures and specifically of "exposure of ,,(his) genitalia in a public place in view of members of the opposite sex." possibly setting a new legal precedent,. The strange thing about the case is that nude bike riding is nothing new in Portland. In separate incidents in the last two years large numbers of bike riders were riding in the nude as a pack. The last time witnesses saw that police cars were employed in protecting the bike riders by leading and following what was essentially a nude bike riding parade down city streets. It is not known if any Portland Bike Police were riding nude with the group. Up to 1200 nude bike riders join in the local annual world naked bike ride that last occurred on June, 14, 2008. It is interesting in spite of this that Portland Police and prosecutors would attempt to make a test case out of just one guy. He was not the only naked bike rider when and where he got arrested. The good thing is that it is now perfectly legal. The body is now accepted as an instrument of free speech. What other things can be done naked in public? Portland also has naked bus riding.

Here is what I would like to see. A citizen goes down to city hall and finds everyone working there is naked. You get a summons to go to court and everyone at the court house is naked. What is a controlled climate system for if not to save people from having to wear clothing? It would then become instantly possible to spot a judge or a public official in public because the more naked they were the more likely it is that they work for the government. The police should be naked except for the gun holster and radio? Once that happens when people are arrested the police will undress them and say "you have the right to be naked but anything you say will be used against you." That would put us way ahead of San Francisco.

Published by Lex Loeb

Lex Loeb writes about the curious because he is curious. I own a sort of curiosity shop these are my curiosity thoughts.   View profile

The body is an instrument of free speech. (Careful what you say)

6 Comments

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  • Lex Loeb 12/5/2008

    I was being poetic calling it a civil right. Then again it is heading in that direction. Cases in San Francisco do more to argue that it is a sort of civil right. Isn't being naked as natural as any natural right? Inappropriate nudity in public in San Francisco? Are you kidding? The police arrest people on the streets of San Francisco for not being naked. What is not appropriate about being naked on a bicycle then?

    The civil right seems to be that nudity in public is a form of free speech. One then has to be careful of what one's body is saying in public. That is where the issue of what is and is not appropriate comes in. Of course ugly naked people probably should be banned for vile speech. That is a whole different issue . Ugly people need to fight for their own civil rights because they don't belong out in public even when not naked.

    We probably need to have a constitutional congress or wait for the 9th circuit court of appeals takes over the US supreme court to c

  • GoingSomewhere 12/5/2008

    Being cleared of criminal charges and potentially setting a legal precedent does NOT mean that nude bike riding is a CIVIL RIGHT in Portland, or anywhere else for that matter. It only means if someone else is arrested for it they will have his case to bolster their defense.

    And indeed he WAS the only nude bike rider when he was arrested. Just because he had participated in the World Ride two weeks prior doesn't mean he didn't know that what he was doing was inappropriate.

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