What A Police State Can Do For You

[dgriffin]

The Wall Street Journal



Boulder's Naked Halloween Streak May Be Coming to an End

Runners Are Out of Their Gourds, Wearing Just a Pumpkin; Police Chief Calls It a Crime


By STEPHANIE SIMON

BOULDER, Colo. -- This city has always taken pride in its liberal-to-the-point-of-loony reputation. But this Halloween, one of its wackiest traditions is under siege: the Naked Pumpkin Run.

The event is exactly what its name implies. Scores of men and women pour into downtown streets for a late-night jog, wearing not a stitch between the jack-o'-lanterns on their heads and the sneakers on their feet.

For nearly a decade, naked pumpkin runners did their thing unmolested, stampeding through the frigid dark past crowds of admirers who hooted, hollered and tossed candy. But last year the run attracted more than 150 participants, and Police Chief Mark Beckner fears things are getting out of hand. "It's a free-for-all," he says.

So he intends to stop it.

He will station more than 40 officers on the traditional four-block route tonight, with two SWAT teams patrolling nearby. All have orders to arrest gourd-topped streakers as sex offenders.

Runners and their fans are outraged. This is not the free-spirited Boulder they know and love. "It kind of reminds me of what's happening in Tehran," says Andy Schmidt, a lawyer. "They're pre-emptively outlawing a gathering."

The American Civil Liberties Union has fired off a letter accusing the police of violating citizens' constitutional rights to express whatever it is they're expressing when they slip hollowed-out pumpkins over their heads and race buck naked down the Pearl Street pedestrian mall.

The annual rite "seems somewhat quixotic," concedes Judd Golden, chairman of the ACLU's Boulder County chapter, "but our Bill of Rights does not judge the content of free expression."

At a recent forum for city council candidates, all 10 participants said they disapproved of the threatened crackdown.

Even Mayor Matt Appelbaum, who supports the police, admits to a tinge of worry that arresting Halloween streakers will tarnish Boulder's reputation as, well, Boulder.

"I'm a little old for it, but it could be pretty cool to be running around with a pumpkin on your head and not much else," says the 57-year-old mayor.

CONTINUED AT:

online.wsj.com/article/SB125693458626119361.html


I think it would be exhilarating! And idea for next year's Summerfest!

[bobbbiez]

Well, the Mayor of Boulder had it half right when he said, "I'm a little old for it, but it could be pretty cool to be running around with a pumpkin on your head and not much else."

Yep, too damn cold for me! I'll pass on any ideas. ;D

[Clipper]

"A little too old?" Darn Sunshine, let's face it, we are WAY too old to do that sort of foolishness. LOL. I remember years ago, I had the MVCC athletes on the bus and we were eating in a Ponderosa in Ithaca when some college kids from Cornell streaked the place, and ran out into the snow in their birthday suits with their clothes under their arms.

Maybe in Florida or Georgia, but not in the Rockies or upstate NY in winter and fall, haha.

[bobbbiez]

Now Clipper, this is one topic I won't argue with you on.

This time of the year just give me my insulated underwear, my blankie, my couch, the heat turned up, my fireplace on to, and my little Phyllis and that's about all she wrote for me. You'd have to drag me out of the house once that white sh*t starts to fall. ;D

I HATE THE DAMN COLD WEATHER!