Two protesters objecting to a tree-cutting plan who are members of a naked performing troupe here were convicted Jan. 27 in the first convictions under Berkeley's anti-nudity law.
Debbie Moore and Marty Kent of X-plicit Players violated the city's ban on public nudity when they appeared naked during protests on a sidewalk and in a park, the San Francisco Chronicle says. They could be fined as much as $100 each. The paper says they've been arrested several times under the ban but never convicted.
A judge rejected their arguments that their appearances at outdoor events were First Amendment-protected performance art. The Chronicle says Moore was arrested in 1998 while hugging a tree in the buff during a protest against a Berkeley plan to cut down 200 downtown trees. Moore and Kent were arrested a year ago in People's Park while they were sitting naked in a tree, the paper says.
City officials had formerly thought the law wasn't working because violations were classified as misdemeanors and Berkeley juries weren't likely to consider nudity a crime, the Chronicle says. The law was passed in 1993 after a University of California - Berkeley student showed up at a City Council meeting in the buff. The Council ultimately amended the law to make it an infraction, meaning defendants were not entitled to jury trials, the paper says.
