The Law Interferes with College Halloween Fun

Every Halloween, a group of students from the University of Colorado in Boulder strip down and run through the outdoor Pearl Street Mall naked with pumpkins covering their heads. This event is highly anticipated and entertaining among the students and residents of the town. But this year, the police decided to get involved and ruin the fun. The police planned to station over 40 officers throughout the mall and two SWAT teams patrolling nearby. All had orders to arrest the naked runners as sex offenders.

Many people think the police's orders are too strict and out of line. The American Civil Liberties Union accusing the police of violating citizens' constitutional rights to express whatever it is they want. In addition, it is not illegal to be naked in Boulder. Boulder is known as a free-spirited liberal town, so nudity is not a big deal there. Since the police couldn't arrest the students for nudity, they are hitting upon Colorado's indecent exposure statute, which makes it a "Class 1 misdemeanor for anyone to knowingly expose his or her genitals in circumstances likely to cause affront or alarm". However, this isn't that fair because the run begins at 11 p.m., after all children are home and the older fans have come out to watch it, knowing what to expect so there really is no alarm.

If the runners are convicted of indecent exposure, they must register as a sex offender. I think this is really unnecessary. I visited Boulder last year and walked the Pearl Street Mall. On my tour of the college, they talked about the naked Halloween run and how it was a fun tradition. I don't think the police show intervene and ruin an event special to the school because they don't like it. There have been no complaints about it, either, so I think it should be left alone and the law should stay far away from 5 minutes of fun.