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When we got there, Alan was
explaining that Butterflys not Bombs had organized a number of events
right after the 2nd Gulf War had started in which people had gotten
naked to make compositions of their bodies for photographs. Pictures of
peace signs with the ink being human flesh and the the background being
mother natures most beautiful spots. They had been surprised to find
out there were First Amendment rulings that came out of these events.
Aparantly nudity in the name of peace now has some sort of hallowed
status.
My recollection is that he
explained that they had decided to make some sort of precedent setting
legal ground, but they needed the right test case.
There were also lots of cops and
reporters.
When Sherry spoke, she explained
that there were many things the government is doing that she finds
indecent. She asked us to speak out about ones that we found indecent.
I said "Fuelish American behavior". Many other people said things like
"War", "deficit spending", "cutting assistance for the poor",
"underpaying teachers", or "deregulating corporate America".
She listened for a minute or so
and then said something that boiled down to "in the name of all of the
above I'm taking my shirt off."
It couldn't have been more than 20
seconds from the time her shirt came off to the time the cuffs went on.
She was followed by one friend who did the same thing and met with the
same fate. After that, people were a bit more cautious about taking off
their shirts.
There were so many cops, reporters, and camera crews buzzing around her
that nobody else could get close.
The words above
the mushroom cloud read "Plutonium being doubled in Livermore is
indecent." For a little while after that the media collected statements
from anybody that wanted to make one. I got my little speech on one
audio tape. When I tried to share it with a TV reporter he cut me off
as soon as I said the word oil. He stopped me by explaining "you are
just representing yourself."
For some reason the Cops didn't
bust people with fig leaves strategically positioned on their mammary
glands. The button on the redhead's right breast reads "behind every
terrorist there is a Bush", and the left one asks questions about what
really happened on 9/11/01.
About twenty minutes after the
action was over, the cops came out of the south entrance leading Sherry
and her friend. Sherry didn't have a happy look on her face at all. She
was not quite holding back huge sobs from what I could see. Violated
and noble and complying with the letter of the law as a prisoner, from
what I could see.
Later in the
evening I saw footage of the event on several different evening TV news
reports. One quoted State Sen. Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles, who
said the Legislature should clarify what constitutes indecent exposure.
"Exactly
what is it that we are dealing with when we talk about the indecency of
the
breast?" she asked. "If a woman were holding a baby here today and
breast-feeding,
would she have been arrested?" Another quoted her saying
something like "we have a real need for this kind of precedent."
Another played a clip of the spokes cop saying "she will probably be
charged with indecent exposure and protesting without a permit." None
of the people in my carpool got any air time that we saw.
A month later the DA dropped the charges. Read
this letter for the details.
