I'm hearing from some allegedly naked bathers that cops began raiding Denny Blaine Park this afternoon around 2:30 pm.
Skinny dipping at Denny Blaine is a well known Seattle summer tradition. Public nudity remains legal in Seattle, though the cops are increasing arresting people anyways for arbitrary "public lewdness" claims.
Updates:
This is breaking news so details may shift as info comes out:
It seems a single cop showed up and tried to tell people they could not be naked at all in Denny Blaine Park.
This sparked MANY beach goers to argue with the cop about his request.
Comrades listening to scanners indicate more cops were enroute to Denny Blaine.
There seems to be a grassroots consensus growing encouraging people to drop everything and GO GET NAKED at Denny Blaine right now.
Which honestly it's otherwise a nice day for it.
Scanner listeners posted this audio clip of a supervisor being requested at Denny Blaine Park just moments ago.
According to eye witnesses there are now three SPD squad cars on the scene and at least one person is being forced by the cops to get dressed.
Ok more updates.
It seems -everyone- at the park were told to get dressed and a small number of people refused.
The person who refused the most was threatened with arrest and eventually was given a trespass and is barred from entering the park for a week.
SPD says they had to do it because this homeowner(or their security guard) complained.
People on the ground posted these pictures showing cops menacing over beach goers, ensuring that they are dressed at Seattle's longest running nude beach.
Cops cleared out a bit ago.
Reporters and LGBTQ community organizers showed up and tried to interview the cops about the legality of today's nudity patrol and seems like the cops didn't want to stick around to answer many questions.
Former The Stranger reporter, Ashely Nerbovig, has posted coverage of Seattle cops forcing nude swimmers to wear clothes at the nude beach.
https://www.theburnerseattle.com/post/seattle-police-targets-denny-blaine-beachgoers
The enforcement action Sunday marked an escalation in the ongoing fight between the wealthy homeowners who live around Denny Blaine (known as Denny Blaine for All) and the LGBTQ+ community members and nude beachgoers who use it (organized under the name Friends of Denny Blaine). Denny Blaine for All, filed a lawsuit earlier this year against the City for its failure to curb nudity at the beach, as well as other alleged indecent behavior.
The Karen neighborhood who've been having cops shutdown legal nudity at the nude beach will have a community meeting with Seattle's new police chief tonight, Wednesday May 7th.
Reporters have indicated high level direction has been given from city hall to increase these sweeps.
It's important that the community is heard tomorrow night.
Major update in the Denny Blaine nude beach saga. A king county judge has sided with wealthy land owners and labelled the park "public nuisance".
Judge Samuel Chung ruled that the city of Seattle must stop nudity at the park, green lighting the use of police force to stop the scourge of nude sunbathers.
#Seattle #LGBTQ #DennyBlaine #Nudity #PNW #JudgeSamuelChung #SPD #ACAB
@nullagent This assault came from wealthy landowners, meaning it has a return address. Put pressure on the landowners and some of them will throw in the towel.
Here's one that worked for me in the 1989-1999 defense of DC's Gay woods:
If the nude sunbathing here/sex in P st Beach/etc goes away, all condos and mansions that have a line of sight to the disputed area go up in value. This is because bigots will pay more for them.
Therefore, if the park is defeated the city should be pressured to redo property tax assessments on every residential and commercial property from which the park can be seen.
If that's not enough the doxxing and home demos can start. That too was done in the fight over P st Beach.
Give 'em a simple choice: we can fuck in the woods, or we can fuck you over, your choice....
Tbf the stranger did write a decent article which did a good job of talking about the history of the beach as a topless beach popular with feminist in the 80s. The feminist also got raided by SPD:
Comments on On Sunday afternoon, three Seattle Police officers showed up to the queer hangout and nude beach Denny Blaine and told the naked people there that being naked outside, which is legal in Seattle, was actually illegal and that everyone had to put their clothes on.
Omg this comes up again it needs to be answered by an overwhelming NUDE HORDE.
It would be SO GLORIOUS.
nullagent
frozenfoxx
LukefromDC
Lady Errant
Violet Madder
Ben Rosengart
Crystal Huff (they/them)
The Little Wars
Demian