It used to happene every spring, but if the New Orleans Police have anything to say about it, girls showing their tits at Mardi Gras stand a good chance of being fined $1,000 and doing some jail time. People will no longer be allowed to flash body parts for strings of colored beads. The ban was prompted by a recent article in Playboy that encouraged women to expose their bodies at the event. Police warn that the acts may lead to jail time.
"It is unlawful for any person to engage in, participate in, manage, produce, sponsor, present or exhibit obscene live conduct," reads a New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) Web site. "These illegal acts include exposure of the male/female genitals or female breasts in a public place. Uniform and plainclothes officers will be vigilant in the French Quarter and will take the appropriate action if the law is violated."
The NOPD plans to post fliers and send letters to local hotels and businesses reminding them about the lewdness statute, said Joe Narcisse, an NOPD spokesman.
"The locals know that this is illegal, but most of the tourists don't," Narcisse said. "We just want to be fair in our enforcement."
Police will enforce the law if it is broken in their presence, he added. "Whether it's an arrest or a summons to appear -- that's going to depend on the officer's discretion," Narcisse said.
"Mardi Gras is a family event, but with some of this behavior, there are places where you can't take your children," said Rafael Goyeneche, president of the Metropolitan Crime Commission, a local law enforcement watchdog group. "This law's been on the books for a while, and it's good to see the NOPD enforcing it." Goyeneche also said the lewd behavior leads to more disturbances. "You have a lot of fights and disturbances because someone makes a rude remark after a woman exposes herself, and her boyfriend gets mad and takes action," he said. "It's great for the tourists to see all of this, but a lot of the problems feed off this type of lewd behavior."
Last year police made 360 arrests for lewd behavior, and this year offenders could face up to a year in jail and up to a $1,000 fine, according to Louisiana law. This year, the Louisiana State Police, which provides extra troopers to assist the NOPD, has cut their usual deployment in half.
George Martin of GM Video which releases Mardi Gras tapes every year depicting the public nudity says he's been through all of this before on Lake Havasu. Nevertheless, Martin says his camera crew is going down there March 1 to March 8 to cover the event which would be silly to ignore since it attracts so many people worldwide. Martin, however, did not rule out subtrefuge or any other means possible deployed to get women to shuck their tops or bottoms.
Meanwhile, David Schlessinger Vivid's director of New Media, said Vivid which is planning a simulcast of the event over the Internet is working very closely with the NOPD's guidelines and will have a better idea later Friday exactly what those are. Schessinger, however said there would be ample private parties to cover that would offer the kind of goings-on that has made the event world famous.
