Here’s the feature story from the Union Leader’s Michael Cousineau:
Expect local officials across the state to review state and local nudity laws following weekly protests by topless women in Keene, according to the head of a police association.
“It will cause people to look and review their policies … and make sure they are protected about this issue,” said David Cahill, president of the New Hampshire Association of Chiefs of Police.
“Sometimes, the worst thing you could do is create a knee-jerk reaction,” said Cahill, Sunapee’s police chief.
More than a half-dozen people were either ticketed or arrested last Sunday after police received reports of people drinking alcohol and taking off their clothes in Central Square.
Keene police Lt. Jay Duguay said no women were charged for being topless because it wasn’t deemed lewd behavior. The city prosecutor concluded a man painting a woman’s breast didn’t violate the state’s public decency law either, he said, adding the city has no local nudity law.
The topless women sparked discussions involving public morality, free speech and the political Free State Project, whose members were involved in last Sunday’s incident.
“These openly brazen protests I think do speak to a larger problem in our culture in which the current generation is being flooded with messages, like MTV’s spring break shows, where they are told to have no inhibitions,” said Kevin Smith, executive director of Cornerstone Action, a Manchester-based group dedicated to the preservation of strong families, limited government and free enterprise.
But Smith said the best protection for children “starts with good parenting, not with government.
“While government can pass laws or ordinances that protect the public from having to put up with these kind of lewd displays, talks to children about public decency and what is and what isn’t appropriate should start at home. And hopefully, local officials and law enforcement will complement sound parental advice by holding those who break the law accountable,” Smith said.
Claire Ebel, executive director of the New Hampshire Civil Liberties Union, said she thinks the police acted properly in not arresting the topless protestors, but wondered whether state leaders might look to change the law.
“I can just imagine an interesting session of the Legislature next session when some legislator is offended by the fact that breasts are not covered by the public nudity statute,” Ebel said.
The state’s public decency law doesn’t specifically reference breasts.
“A person is guilty of a misdemeanor if such person fornicates, exposes his or her genitals, or performs any other act of gross lewdness under circumstances which he or she should know will likely cause affront or alarm,” the law reads.
Duguay said people can interpret the law differently.
“It’s one of those things: Does it cause an alarm of a person of a normal sensibility? Some people may feel an exposure of breasts in the Central Square area is gross lewdness,” Duguay said. “If someone is groping their breasts in a certain way, that could be considered gross or lewd. It’s kind of a case-by-case basis.”
Manchester police Lt. Peter Favreau said there are several city ordinances addressing nudity in public, including a ban on nude dancing in clubs serving alcohol.
“All of our ordinances fall back on disorderly conduct, where you’re causing an alarm in a public place,” Favreau said. “It’s debatable” whether topless women protesting would be violating a city ordinance.
Hampton Police Chief James Sullivan reported few problems.
“We have not had a significant concern with public nudity, complaints or incidents, at the beach,” Sullivan said.
Sunapee Chief Cahill said skinny dippers are his biggest problem when it comes to nudity complaints. Whether someone is arrested often depends on whether others observed the behavior and were offended, he said.
Last Sunday’s gathering in Keene was part of an event called “night cap,” with people gathering to drink openly to protest laws banning such activity.
Members of the Free State Project were among those who have gathered for the Keene protests, according to Duguay and Calvin Pratt, a spokesman for the Free State Project.
Pratt said Free Staters are guided by many philosophies toward the goal of gaining more personal choice.
Some Free Staters want to “live according to the code of choice they want to have and they just don’t want other people to impose an outside code on them,” Pratt said.
Asked whether it helped or hurt the Free State movement to be linked to such protests, Pratt said. “That’s a tough question. There is a dividing line between people who are involved in the local communities who are involved in politics. They look at this as ‘Ow, ouch, it doesn’t make us look good.’ ”
Duguay said protestors also have cut hair without a license and played penny poker in the park, telling the lieutenant that police selectively enforce the laws.
“In a way, they are right because there’s only so many police officers to go around,” Duguay said. “The solution to every incident is not an arrest.”
Pratt said he think a majority of Free Staters support the Keene protests. “A minority think when you disrespect the community’s mores in that way, you’re actually doing a disservice,” he said.
“People who are engaged in consensual activities are not being victimized. I think most Free State members would say victimless crimes should not be criminal offenses or violations,” Pratt said. “Who’s the victim?”
Rick Kardos, executive director of the New England office of the National Coalition for the Protection of Children & Families in Bedford, said children are being exposed to nudity at younger ages.
“There has been a desensitization of community morals and standards,” Kardos said. “Our society has been desensitized by TV, by the rise of the Internet, the availability of Internet pornography.”
In years past, Kardos said he would “get flooded with e-mails” after a news story chronicled public nudity, but that wasn’t the case with the Keene protests.
Mary Bonser, co-owner of Cedar Waters Village, a nudist park in Nottingham, said “society as a whole is pretty sophomoric” these days.
“It doesn’t matter if they have clothes on or don’t have clothes on. It’s what is in the heart.” Bonser said. “The thong bathing suits? That’s more risque than being nude. Is next to nothing any better than being topless? That’s the question Keene has to decide.”
