By PHILLIP BANTZ
Sentinel Staff
The Keene Sentinel: August 24, 2009
A topless teenage girl with a handgun holstered on her hip was arrested Sunday afternoon near a busy intersection in downtown Keene.
Cassidy Nicosia, 18, was arrested on a charge of indecent exposure at about 1:30 p.m. near the Main-Marlboro-Winchester streets roundabout.
Nicosia was arrested after police answered multiple complaint calls about a topless girl walking through downtown Keene with a group of armed protesters affiliated with the Free State Project, Keene police Sgt. James A. Cemorelis said.
The Free State Project is an effort to convince 20,000 people to move to New Hampshire and participate in activism and run for local and state office.
Only 743 people have made the move and another 9,585 have committed to moving since a majority of project members voted on the Live Free or Die state as a home base nearly six years ago, according to the project’s Web site.
Nicosia lists Manchester as her current residence and Houston, Texas, as her hometown on the social networking Web site MySpace.
In an online video of Nicosia’s protest and arrest, she explains why she decided to go topless in public.
“I chose to do it because this is one of the most important issues to me is equality … men can walk down the street … and, you know, not get harassed at all but yet somehow this is dirty,” she says.
Shirtless men, some holding video cameras, are standing around Nicosia during the protest. Women who are wearing tops are also standing with her.
“She (Nicosia) was the only woman there who did not have her breasts covered,” Cemorelis said.
When the police arrive, the video shows Nicosia and others in her group arguing with them and requesting to be left alone.
“In an effort to be reasonable, we asked her many times to put her shirt on and be on her way,” Cemorelis said. “She absolutely refused to do so.”
Nicosia eventually agrees to put on a top, but only after she is arrested. She gives the gun she was carrying to another member of her group before the arrest. State law does not require residents to have permits to openly carry firearms.
While going through the booking process at the Keene Police Department, Nicosia refused to provide identification, Cemorelis said.
Other members of the Free State Project have also refused to identify themselves for police and government officials. One member, Samuel Miller, who also left Texas for the Granite State, spent nearly 60 days in jail because he would not provide his name to police or a judge.
Nicosia, though, decided to provide identification after speaking with police.
“We explained to her that the crime didn’t warrant her being held on bail,” Cemorelis said. “But if she didn’t provide us with identifying information, we’d more likely than not have to hold her until she could see the judge (Monday) morning.”
Nicosia was released with a summons to appear Sept. 9 at Keene District Court for arraignment.
Good for Cassidy. Laws that force women to wear shirts while men can go shirtless are discriminatory. Many state and provinces in Canada have declared women going topfree as legal or constitutional. Keene and the state of NH should follow suit.
645:1 Indecent Exposure and Lewdness. –
I. A person is guilty of a misdemeanor if such person fornicates, exposes his or her genitals, or performs any other act of gross lewdness under circumstances which he or she should know will likely cause affront or alarm.
Going topless doesn’t expose genitals, nor would merely exposing breasts constitute “Gross Lewdness under circumstances…which will likely cause affront or alarm.”
Looks like the cops are way outta line on this one–and opening themselves up to false arrest, harrassment under color of law, discrimination based on one of the federally protected categories under the Civil Rights Act, as well as violating Ms. Nicosia’s rights as protected under the First, Fourth, Fourteenth, and possibly a few other amendments.
“Houston, Texas, as her hometown” Big surprise there.
Nope! She was born there, but grew up in Oklahoma City.
That’s where she learned to stand up for herself and you
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=501364729&ref=search&sid=9109007.1101777354..1
Facebook page if anyone is interested. She’s a nutter.
She should replace the headphones with a hockey helmet
They are earmuffs to protect her hearing while shooting genius.
Ah calling people names that shows your character.
Mrs. Nicosia is clearly nuts if she thinks that men and women should be treated equally in the eyes of the law.
Maybe Derh you think that women should not have the right to vote, or maybe women should should be forced to wear a burkha. How much of a sexist are you?
[...] open carry sorts decided to, well, open carry. This time, the catch was that some women were also going topless to protest topless equality. You [...]
[...] a woman’s right to go topless (link probably NSFW). So what happens when those two things collide in one protest? “A topless teenage girl with a handgun holstered on her hip was arrested Sunday afternoon [...]
While I totally support women’s right to be topless, I wish women would support men’s right to use women’s toilet too.