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Boulder Cops Nix Naked Halloween Streak

Wacky local tradition draws big crowds, annoys authorities

By Caroline Miller,  Newser Staff

Posted Oct 31, 2009 8:50 AM CDT
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(Newser) – Killjoy cops in Boulder, Colo., plan to shut down the town's annual naked Halloween run tonight, dispatching 40 police officers to the four-block course, backed up, believe it or not, by SWAT teams. Tolerated for nearly a decade, the run aroused police ire last year when the ranks of streakers, who wear nothing but sneakers and pumpkins on their heads, swelled to 150. So this year the police chief plans to have runners arrested as sex offenders.

Supporters of the annual rite are outraged, and even the ACLU jumped into the fray, firing off a letter claiming citizens have the constitutional right to express, as Stephanie Simon puts it in the Wall Street Journal, "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."

LONDON - OCTOBER 31: A child enjoys traditional candle-lit Halloween pumpkins on October 31, 2007 in London.
LONDON - OCTOBER 31: A child enjoys traditional candle-lit Halloween pumpkins on October 31, 2007 in London.   (Getty Images)
BURBANK, CA - OCTOBER 21: A Halloween Adventure store, located in a defunct Circuit City consumer electronics store building, sells costumes, props and accessories for Halloween revelers on October 21, 2009 in Burbank, California. Shoppers are predicted to spend an average of $56.31 on holiday merchandise, down from $66....
BURBANK, CA - OCTOBER 21: A Halloween Adventure store, located in a defunct Circuit City consumer electronics store building, sells costumes, props and accessories for Halloween revelers on October 21,...   (Getty Images)
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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 16 comments
JoeQ
Nov 1, 2009 12:27 PM CST
Cat-Lover. Having lived in Boulder for a while I can say IMHO its a very interesting mixed bag, a cross section of the whole USA. The context is a university town in a state with not a whole lot of built-in cultural commitment to higher education. Its very pretty and a party place if you are a skier but its got a few heavy weights hiding there as well. Its midway between east and west, north and south. Take the best qualities of folk from the west (inventiveness?), the east (industriousness?) the south (solid family values?), and the north (friendliness?). Stir them together and you get all sort of nice folk. Now take the worst qualities of folk from the west (decadence?), the east (classism?), the south (ignorance?) amd the north (dullness?), and you get all sort of unsavory kinds of folk. In short its a cross section of the whole country.
riffran
Nov 1, 2009 8:26 AM CST
*singing* "Well they call it the streak"......ETHEL.....YOU GET YOU'RE CLOTHES ON!....:)
freethemall
Nov 1, 2009 1:31 AM CST
Besides being anorexic, Ann Coulter has an adams apple. Who wants to see her nude? There's no telling what might be discovered about "her".
US

 
nudity • ACLU • Halloween • public nudity • Boulder, Colo.

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