I was at lake Temescal with my 3 children. 3 cops (officers T. Walsh, S. McCaughin and J.Silveria) showed up in 2 police cars and gave me a citation for nudity even though I was wearing 2 sweaters and a bikini bottom. When I asked them how they could possiby site me for nudity when I was dressed I was told that i was showing buttocks and shown the manual of rules of the East Bay Parks:
Ordinance 38/Section 405.
NUDITY. No person shall appear, swim, bathe, sunbathe, walk or be in any of the parks, lands, beaches, waters or any place owned, managed, controlled or otherwise under the jurisdiction of the East Bay Regional Park District, in such a manner that the genitals, vulva, pubis, symphysis, pubic hair, buttocks, and cleft, perineum, anus, anal region, or pubic hair region of any person, or any portion of the breast at or below the upper edge of the areola thereof of any female person, is exposed to public view or is not covered by an opaque covering. This subdivision shall not apply to children under the age of 5 years.
While most women on the beach show buttocks on any given day I was singled out.
Why me? Because a ranger decided to take revenge. I pissed him off twice. He asked me out and I turned him down, that was the first sin I committed against him. And the second thing I did was complain to his management about him driving on a pedestrian path in his personal vehicle.
Next time I came to the beach I was in for a surprise. Vern decided to teach me a lesson. He decided to show me what happens when a woman refuses to have sex with him and compains about his misconduct.
In this episode I go into great detail about that incident and previous incidents at the beach.
Please make comments here on the blog and please send emails to the board members of the East Bay Regioanal Park. Please express your opinion about the incident and about the park’s nudity rules. If enough people express the desire to change the rules they will be changed.
Here are the email addresses of the board members. Please email your comments here:
wdotson@ebparks.org, jsutter@ebparks.org, cseverin@ebparks.org, dsiden@ebparks.org, awieskamp@ebparks.org, blane@ebparks.org, tradke@ebparks.org, pobrien@ebparks.org, gypsytaub@gmail.com
We are going to the East Bay Parks Board Meeting on November 16th, 2010. If you live in the Bay Area of California please join us! Please email me at gypsytaub@gmail.com if you want to come with us.
Your support is greatly appreciated!
Here is what it’s like in Europe:
SEXUAL HARASSMENT LEADS TO A NUDITY CITATION – article I wrote for Indybay:
I went to the beach (lake Temescal in Oakland, CA) with my 3 children and got a citation for being naked even though I was wearing 2 sweaters and a bikini bottom (not even a thong but a regular bikini bottom).
It was a weekday and it wasn’t very hot, the beach was almost completely empty,it was just us and another man at the opposite end of the beach. 3 policemen showed up in 2 police cars and told me that they were giving me a citation. I couldn’t believe it. I asked them for what and they said “for nudity”. I said: “But I am not naked, I have 2 sweaters on and obviously I am wearing a bikini bottom.” I aksed them how they could possibly give me a citation for nudity when I wasn’t nude. They told me that I wasn’t allowed to show buttocks. They showed me the rules of the park that state:
Ordinance 38/Section 405.
NUDITY. No person shall appear, swim, bathe, sunbathe, walk or be in any of the parks, lands, beaches, waters or any place owned, managed, controlled or otherwise under the jurisdiction of the East Bay Regional Park District, in such a manner that the genitals, vulva, pubis, symphysis, pubic hair, buttocks, and cleft, perineum, anus, anal region, or pubic hair region of any person, or any portion of the breast at or below the upper edge of the areola thereof of any female person, is exposed to public view or is not covered by an opaque covering. This subdivision shall not apply to children under the age of 5 years.
(By the way, notice that not a word is said about male genitalia – these rules are 100% sexist and hostile to women)
According to their rules I was “in violation” because they could see my buttocks.
If the park police were to enforce this regulation without discrimination they would be giving out citations to most women on the beach every day of the swimming season. If you want to know why I was singled out like that keep on reading.
There is this ranger at the beach named Vernon Jones who really doesn’t like me. At one point he asked me out and I turned him down. Ever since then I get nothing but dirty looks from him. 2 days before I was cited for “nudity” while dressed Vernon was driving his personal vehicle on a pedestrian path by the beach. I didn’t know who it was and assuming it was a regular person I yelled out: “You are not supposed to drive there.” Vern flew off the handle. How dare I question his actions? He just yelled at me and took off. Since my daughter almost got run over by an East Bay parks ranger at a different park, I don’t take it lightly when rangers drive fast ( Vern was driving at least 2 to 3 times faster than he was supposed to). I was also getting fed up with the rudeness and inappropriateness of rangers’ behavior at East Bay parks. When I got home that night I wrote an email to Vern’s management about what had happened.
The next time I was at the beach I got the cops called on me and cited for nudity while dressed. You guessed it right – it was Vern who called the police, it was obvious. Vern and a female ranger stood there conspiring for a long time, then they were hiding in the bushes and staring at me. I saw Vern using his cell phone and then they sat in the ranger vehicle for at least 30 minutes waiting. Then the cops arrived. The cops told me that it was a member of the public and not a ranger who had called them. What a strange coincidence! I have been going to beaches in East Bay parks for 5 years, and not once have I been cited for anything. But as soon as I got Vern in trouble, “the public” all of a sudden became outraged at the site of my buttocks on the beach.
It’s funny that Doug Cantwell, Vern’s supervisor, continued to defend Vern and the park’s rules. He was trying to convince me that Vern was not the one who called the police. Doug also told me that he had received “numerous complaints” about me being “dressed inappropriately”. Those complaints were supposedly made by members of the public. When I asked Doug to provide me with dates, times and locations of those complaints I never heard from him again.
To the contrary of what the East Bay Parks management might imagine, members of the public were very much on my side. The man who was on the other side of the beach and who witnessed the police harassing me came up to me when they were gone and expressed support and utmost disgust with the police. A woman came up to me shortly after and expressed the same feelings. She was so angry at the police and the park management that she said she was going to write to them as soon as she gets home. Both the man and the woman felt it was especially ugly to see the police intimidate and humiliate a woman who was alone at the beach with 3 young children.
I called the general manager of East Bay parks asking to meet with him. I told the staff that I was dealing with sexual harassment and discrimination and was going to get the media involved. In response I got an email telling me not to talk to anybody about what had happened, I was told it was “confidential”.
I filmed a naked discussion about this issue with Cara Judea, a beautiful nudist activist from New York whom I met at lake Temescal shortly after the incident as she was sunbathing topless.
http://www.mynakedtruth.tv/2010/10/sexual-harassment-leads-to-nudity.html
Please support our right to be free by emailing your comments to the board members of the East Bay Regional Parks District:
wdotson [at] ebparks.org, jsutter [at] ebparks.org, cseverin [at] ebparks.org, dsiden [at] ebparks.org, awieskamp [at] ebparks.org, blane [at] ebparks.org, tradke [at] ebparks.org, pobrien [at] ebparks.org, gypsytaub [at] gmail.com
Your support is greatly appreciated!