posted November 03, 2009 10:24 AM
I frankly didn't know which folder to start this in.A news story that relates our state of being [society] and for me, relates astrologically.. [Pluto in Capricorn] The incident [and media involvement] covers allot of internal issues projected. imo
The Story:
The Right To Remain Naked?
..Just how funny was that story of the man in Fairfax County, Va., who got up early on Monday morning, Oct. 19, walked naked into his own kitchen to make himself a cup of coffee? The next significant thing that happed to 29-year-old Eric Williamson is the local cops arriving to charge him with indecent exposure. It turns out that while he was brewing the coffee, a mother was taking her 7-year-old son along a path beside Williamson's house, spied the naked Williamson and called the local precinct, or more likely her husband, who turns out to be a cop.
"Yes, I wasn't wearing any clothes," Williamson said later, "but I was alone, in my own home and just got out of bed. It was dark and I had no idea anyone was outside looking in at me."
The story ended up on TV, starting with Fox, and in the opening rounds, the newscasters and network blogs had merciless sport with the Fairfax police for their absurd behavior. Hasn't a man the right to walk around his own home (or in this case, rented accommodations) dressed according to his fancy? Answer, obvious to anyone familiar with relevant case law, absolutely not.
Peeved by public ridicule, the Fairfax cops turned up the heat. The cop's wife started to maintain that first she saw Williamson by a glass kitchen door, then through the kitchen window. Mary Ann Jennings, a Fairfax County Police spokesperson, stirred the pot of innuendo: "We've heard there may have been other people who had a similar incident." The cops are asking anyone who may have seen an unclothed Williamson through his windows to come forward, even if it was at a different time. They've also been papering the neighborhood with fliers, asking for reports on any other questionable activities by anyone resembling Williamson — a white guy who's a former diver, and who has a 5-year-old daughter, not living with him.
I'd say that if the cops keep it up, and some prosecutor scents opportunity, Williamson will be pretty lucky if they don't throw some cobbled-up indictment at him. Toss in a jailhouse snitch making his own plea deal, a faked police lineup, maybe an artist's impression of the Fairfax Flasher, and Williamson could end up losing his visitation rights and, worst comes to worst, getting 10 years plus posted for life on some sex offender site. You think we're living in the 21st century, in the clinical fantasy world of "CSI"? Wrong. So far as forensic evidence is concerned, we remain planted in the 17th century with trial by ordeal such as when they killed women as witches if they floated when thrown into a pond.
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read more at: http://www.creators.com/opinion/alexander-cockburn/the-right-to-remain-naked.html
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Opinions? Comments?