Streakers, Child Molesters, Whatever

Jacob Sullum | November 7, 2008

Twelve participants in Boulder, Colorado's 10th annual Naked Pumpkin Run, in which the runners wear nothing but carved pumpkins (on their heads) while jogging through Pearl Street Mall, face charges of indecent exposure. If convicted, the Boulder Daily Camera reports, they will have to register as sex offenders, "a scarlet letter that could mark their professional and personal lives for years." On the bright side, they may save on Halloween candy.

[Thanks to the innominate one for the tip.]

Comments

gmatts|11.7.08 @ 11:19AM|#

The best laid plans of mice and men...

|11.7.08 @ 11:23AM|#

If it keeps these idiots from reproducing, it might not be all bad. Of course, TFA seems to make it clear they'll most likely end up facing a lesser charge.

|11.7.08 @ 11:33AM|#

One of these days, they'll arrest us all for running around naked under our clothes.

-jcr

|11.7.08 @ 11:34AM|#

I can't understand how nudity is assumed to be related to sex (and hence a registerable offense)

|11.7.08 @ 11:47AM|#

I can't understand how nudity is assumed to be related to sex

Well, nudity and sex both require exposed genitalia. Just a guess though.

|11.7.08 @ 11:49AM|#

domo, it's obviously because their intent of streaking was to gain sexual fulfillment from the thought that impressionable young children would see them naked. Duh.

Ah, the People's Republic of Boulder strikes again...

Dormouse|11.7.08 @ 12:02PM|#

Well, nudity and sex both require exposed genitalia.

Not necessarily.

|11.7.08 @ 12:04PM|#

This is so stupid. They're streakers which has mothing to do with sex but rather with tweaking society's nose over it's preoccupation with nudity.

Full disclosure in 1974, on Halloween, I, with a few others, streaked here.

Stupid and immature? Yep.
A sex crime? Get real.

curious|11.7.08 @ 12:10PM|#

So if you go to a nude beach you can be charged as a sex offeender? What if there aren't any chilren at the beach? If you unknowingly go to a nude beach with your own children, who gets charged? The parents? The beach goers? The children?

|11.7.08 @ 12:20PM|#

I don't know about the rest of the country, but in Washington state, we have three levels of "sex offenders". For a crime like streaking, you would be labelled a level 1 offender, probably for just a few years. You can also be labelled a level 1 offender for public urination, for example.

Everyone in Washington knows that a Level 1 Sex Offender isn't really a rapist, so no one cares about that designation.

So, the lesson is: government = stupid, people = smart

Kaiser|11.7.08 @ 2:32PM|#

This is a sad day for streakers everywhere....

But seriously....sex offenders list....for running naked? Americas obsession with nudity is very strange. Nudity in itself is not sexual by nature, it is how you perceive it. Maybe Americans who can't stand to look at nudity are the real sex offenders.

|11.7.08 @ 3:08PM|#

In many jurisdictions you can get on the sex offender list if convicted of public urination -- which for the vast majority of people has nothing to do with sex.

And if anything that anyone associates with sex is grounds to get on the sex offender list, then we may as well switch to having a non-sex offender list that you get removed from when you commit sex crimes, to save storage space.

|11.7.08 @ 3:32PM|#

You can also be labelled a level 1 offender for public urination, for example.

To be a sex crime, wouldn't you have to urinating on somebody?

Xeones|11.7.08 @ 4:03PM|#

Only if they're enjoying it, R C.

economist|11.7.08 @ 4:49PM|#

"nudity is not sexual in nature"
Well, if an attractive is nude, it always seems sexual in nature to me.

economist|11.7.08 @ 4:50PM|#

Public urination makes you a sex offender! Crap! Now I can never live near a school again.

mortified and maybe in trouble|11.7.08 @ 8:40PM|#

J sub D, you really should label your links NSFW.

Metal Messiah|11.7.08 @ 9:07PM|#

This is the problem with the government registering "sex offenders." (Remember when it used to be "sex predators?" I guess there weren't enough of those out there to satisfy the law and order crowd.)

While the initial intent might have been honorable... to identify child molesters and rapists, as with most things government, the mandate expands to ridiculous degrees.

Before long, someone will the get the bright idea that homosexuals, people who have premaritial sex, people who commit adultery, and clerks at porn stores need to be put on sex offender registries. Actually, I think the Adam Walsh act requires people convicted of "pandering obscenity" (ie, people busted for running the cash register during a transaction where an obscene video or device is sold, must register).

Because, after all, the more laws we have and the more people we punish, the safer we'll all be.

yingge|11.9.08 @ 8:27PM|#

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jtuf|11.10.08 @ 6:59AM|#

I don't think I would convict these streakers if I was on their jury. It's tough to prove an intent to shock people when if the accused was at the 10th annual anything. It's like saying, "News flash: Madonna wears skimpy outfit."