By Nate Hipple
Photo by Nate Hipple
At 2:30 PM a naked man waded into the ocean in the ‘surfing only’ section next to the pier in Ocean Beach. This immediately caused a reaction from people who were hanging out on the boardwalk as well as those standing in the tide pools. Some were cheering. One man shouted, “Put your clothes back on!”
Photo by Nate Hipple
When the skinny dipper returned to the beach, moments later, lifeguards and police were waiting to detain him. One eyewitness saw the naked man struggle with authorities and was forcibly brought to the ground. Onlookers on the boardwalk reacted with obscenities, shouting, “F- the police!” and “Pigs!”
Within minutes, at least a dozen more police cars arrived at the intersection of Abbot and Newport. “This is the stuff that can start a riot,” said a man, who was watching from the pier. A taser was used on a man standing on the seawall.
In addition to the skinny dipper’s arrest, one female was detained for reasons unknown. The crowd had dispersed by 3pm.
Photo by Jim Grant
Photo by Jim Grant
Nude swimmer arrested after struggle with police. Photo by Jim Grant
Photo by Jim Grant
Photo by Jim Grant
{ 73 comments… read them below or add one }
Well that solves the mystery. I was eating with family at shades and we saw all the commotion but couldn’t figure out wha happen’. Silly hippie….skinny dipping is for after dark.
Hippies and Straights-Nothing else in OB holds fashion! But if you really want to get mad, see whats being built on the 5k block of W.Pt.Loma as a solution to the suspicion of WMD in the hands of the “animal like” criminal element of OB…and all this after alcohol ban, killing the Walking Man, the OBMA trailer harassing Food Not Bombs and so on and so forth. Some people won’t be happy till OB is wall to wall yuppie scum! BUT LET’S DO IT FOR THE CHILDREN-see Pink Floyd on “what the fighting’s all about.”
Forcibly putting an obviously unarmed, naked man on the ground and tazing onlookers SHOULD cause riots. It is time to cast aside the 9/11 induced, “Never question authority,” mentality and hold the police and all other officials responsible for their actions. I applaud you Ocean Beach.
The man was fighting with police and was not going to be detained. You just cant do that in public its against the law. They did what they had to do.
Jim Grant? Is that you in the photo???
The taser was a little much It wasn’t a warm day even in the sun, He would have put his cloths on pretty quick. The cops handled it very poorly Maybe 2 PD. I don’t know the details but the show of force by the PD can trouble especially in OB.
Not smart on the naked guy’s but you have to admire his huevos.
How about this, yesterday, a ‘local’ troll was tweaking out along the cliff, as two women walked by, he dropped his pants to his ankles, shook his d**k at them, let it all hang out for about five minutes…the day before, also along the cliff, around 3:00, as children splashed in the tide-pools, two men tagged-teamed a random woman, Straight up threesome-nasty XXX porn, broad daylight. Awesome..so yeah, glad the cops tasered whichever idiot it was…people need to get real about whats going on in OB….
Agreed. Some of us locals want to live in a civil, peaceful environment. Daily assaults, robberies, vandalism, etc. is the norm around here. Let’s work to keep O.B. safe and sane.
I agree that the civility issues like Linda mentioned need to be addressed.
I’m not at all convinced this kind of overwhelming police response to one addled goofball is necessarily the answer – it turns a small problem into a big one.
I heard the 5000 sirens screaming all around here, and I looked out my window to see if a plane had gone down off the beach or something. I couldn’t believe it when I found out it was all over one silly tripped-out streaker.
Chris-
As mentioned, the previous two days were a madhouse for the cops, if anyone wants to see some footage or photos of the on-going, daily, out of control, lawlessness happening along the cliffs, I’d be happy to share. This one “silly” tripped out tweaker was just the icing on the cake and all these ‘small problems’ (LOL) are not as small as you might think.
If all this is true and I have no reason to doubt it We need some PD to put the squash on it. As turko says “It ain’t right”
One guy getting naked o big deal but a 3someon the beach “Get a room” and only consenting adults
Again, what was it about this one idiot that required a massed demonstration of force? How did it help? How does it help with the other clowns you mention?
I’m not arguing against him being arrested, he certainly earned it, but “security theater” is not security.
What other crimes happened when the cops were making a show of sending 12 cars after this one moron?
I mean it was a stoned streaker, not a spree-killer…
I don’t want to live in Liberia, but I don’t want to live in East Germany either.
I wasn’t there for this one, but again, dude was on PCP? Right? Ever confront someone on PCP? I’m not saying 12 cops cars speeding down Newport is right, but I do agree 100% with the use of force. No more trolls in OB.
After seeing a lifeguard truck and about 6 cop cars (there ended up being over 2 dozen total) all lit up and racing down Sunset Cliffs and Voltaire I asked a Firefighter if he knew what was going on and he said he didn’t, but that 9 times out of 10, when you see that many cops it’s because a fellow officer is in trouble.
I also heard that initially the dude was fighting the Lifeguards because he wouldn’t cooperate and put some clothes on, and that’s what prompted the call for back-up.
On a side note that dude must have had a lot of confidence or ripped on something because I have to think that the water must’ve been pretty cold…yep, “shrinkage”…and it’s gotta be hard to impress the ladies that way! ;)
was the dude high on PCP? sez who? have any thing to back that up? or this just another he said/she said deal?
the dude was obviously not right: i haven’t seen anything about proving what was not right about him. did the cops say that? are any of you a (mental) health professional?
C’mon Doug, you can’t honestly believe that kid wasn’t high on something. Normal folks don’t smile like that and stick out their tounge after getting tazered and pummeled like that. Hey, I have authority issues as much as the next OBcean, but when you start fighting Lifeguards, you’ve thrown down the gauntlet. This isn’t 1972 folks, if you treat a peace officer with respect you’re going to get it in return. However, if you want to fight, 10 times out of 10 you’re going to get a fight and you’re going to lose.
hey, i didn’t say he wasn’t high. i just questioned the “fact” that he was high on “PCP”. have you ever seen what happens when a doc mistakenly writes a script for zoloft for a manic-depressive? add a couple of beers (don’t do this at home!) and you’ve got a raving manic on your hands.
You are not allowed to speak out against the govt or law enforcement.
You are not allowed to do anything that some one else may disagree with.
You are not allowed free speech or the right to protest.
You must do as your told with out question.
You will obey.
You do not get to make the laws you only have to obey them.
You have to rights if the govt doesnt like what you say they have the right to use force.
You are not allowed to gather togthers to speak against an act you see is wrong.
You must only do what makes no waves and makes everyone happy and feel safe.
You must not oppose you must only obey.
Those twelve superfluous cop cars were endangering many more people by speeding down Newport st at what seemed like about 50 mph than the one poor little naked man!
He had just left a costume party where he had gone dressed as a pull-toy.
So which is the bigger crime…public nudity or violation of surfing zone etiquette?
nice.
Violation of the surf zone, of course. That guy actually ruined one of the waves I caught. Ruined the tube completely!
well that is me…i have some good shots one might even be in the ut sunday who knows………..they guy was on something for sure…..
well now the ut didn’t run them….(they don’t like to run pics of the natives getting restless, it only encourages them)
We almost got run over by one of the cop cars speeding into the lot…My friend and I were heading back to our cars after lunch when all the commotion started. We didn’t stick around to see what was happening — but counted 12 police cars before we left. I can’t believe that many police cars responded to this type of disturbance! Seems like a waste of resources; I’m sure there were people in the city who needed the police more than this situation did.
Thanks for posting this story!
It was kind of “Blues Brothersish” if you ask me. I did not think that 20 cop cars were even in OB at any given time!
Now how many cops does it take to get a naked man out of the water? Not as many as when there was an anti-Starbucks rally … the whole police force used to show up for those. Sometimes you just gotta wonder who is making the decisions and why?????? I was on my way back to OB and at least 3 cop cars were in the way into town…I bet southeast San Diego wishes they could get this much manpower when there is a shooting in their neighborhood.
hah! i live in southeast san diego. yeh. it’d be nice. but i grew up hanging out in OB in the 90s. i’m grown now, so my escapades there, now… involve the bars, and the black bead.
i spent a lot of teen nights there. newport was my stomping ground for years. and i lived here, in the hood. but, you can’t hang out at night in the hood. you could in OB. so we did. now? not so sure.
i understand the want for it not to be so heavy handed in police force, but, the reality is, OB is not full of peaceful people anymore. not everyone is looking to commit a violent crime. and there’s still a lot of that hippie vibe there. but, it’s not going the way of yuppie scum. it’s turning into a crime infested war zone.
you don’t want OB to turn into my hood. i live on a pretty peaceful street, but there’s crime around me, constantly. the ghetto bird never shuts up.
i used to adore OB… so much. now, if i do go there, i don’t stay too long. and that’s just sad. i have the fondest of all my memories there.
The dude was high on PCP.
The dude was naked in public.
He put his boxers back on, but started to run and wrestle with the lifeguards who were forced to call for police backup.
Three tasings later and the dude is still up.
It took five officers to bring him down safely.
Then there was the other dude getting in the officers faces, looking like he was going to throw a punch. Hey if you don’t like the police, that is fine, but there are proper channels and times to voice your discontent. During something like this is neither of them.
The PCP dude was a potential danger to himself and others, and was clearly not all there at the time. I think the officers responded appropriately.
Well said..
do you know this for a fact? i know the kid and i doubt he would do pcp, nor is he an OB hippie.
Channel 6, 10 oclock a story with photos on the incident…
I was riding my bike on Cable when a cop car passed me going about 65, I turned around went back looked west saw another cop car speeding down Abbot when I got to the Vets memorial 5 cop cars came speeding down Abbot skidded to a stop on the sidewalk. I counted 17 cop cars. Talked with a few people and then said, yes there is a comedy god. This has to be the worst over reaction ever. I thank the SD’s finest gang for a great comedy bit that will be up on you-tube.
I’m glad OB is a tolerant place for street kids, as many of them are coming from some bad family situations, but anyone else think the local seawall crowd might be getting a little rougher around the edges lately? When I first moved here a few years ago, I thought they were pretty harmless compared to what I used to see living by Golden Gate Park in the Haight, but maybe not so much anymore.
Yeah it’s getting kinda rough! There’s probably gonna be many more young “Kerouacians” this summer, judging by their density here in the off-season.
My admittedly unrepresentative sample from talking to a few of these guys is that a lot of them winter here for the milder weather compared to their normal haunts to the North, and will head back there come spring.
I am confident the bikini babe/dreadlocked camper ratio will return to normal as the weather warms up.
Most of those kids seem pretty harmless to me anyway, the occasional doofus like this notwithstanding. It’s the middle aged tweakers I’m worried about getting stabbed by (one tried to pick a fight with my autistic neighbor the other day, apparently just drunk, bored, and belligerent) not the hippie kids.
Pretty harmless? Indeed, these poor hippie kids…they spend all day begging for change, spend it on weed or booze, plant themselves along the cliffs were they: litter like animals, heckle passer-bys, discard their butts wherever they happen to be when they finish smoking-usually along the cliffs, urinate profusely in public, defecate in public, bathe in the tidepools, douche in the tidepools..I even saw one of these harmless ‘kids’ remove a tampon and flick it into the ocean. Occasional dufus? LMAO. These idiots are ruining OB and single handedly contributing to the Pacific garbage-patch, where I’d personally like to send them all away too.
Like I said, I’ve run into more problems with the older tweakers than the young kids, by far. The worst they’ve done to me is try to bum change. Not exactly traumatic.
OB is not exactly Dodge City anyway – speaking as an ex-Philadelphian, I assure you there are far worse things in the world than sloppy hippies.
What is it that cops say to a crowd? Move on, it’s all over, nothing to see. Anyone know if Americas finest have radios in their cars? After the first 10 cars zoomed into OB at a high rate of speed, the naked guy, in one patrol car in handcuffs, why didn’t one of the cops in the first ten cars, get on the radio and tell the other 7 to slow down and calmly return to the donuts shop.
The guy is lucky to be alive, he could have been shot.
No they wouldn’t have shot him… He isn’t a dog…
ZING!
:-)
From what I hear, that water must have been pretty cold. Hey-ooooh!
Some new info from the street, this was not a street guy, he is a college student. Just keep in mind this is street info. so take it for what it is worth.
for everyone who is concerned about the ballooning”street kid” population: maybe if there were some kind of social service program in OB, they would be less likely to spend day and night on the cliffs getting into trouble. if I was on my own at 16 or 17, I’d be getting into all kinds of trouble too.
You want these “kids” to get out of OB? Its a tolerant place – and despite all the complaints about the crimes being committed, also one of the safest neighborhoods in San Diego. Where would you like these people to go? DEMAND more access to services for these folks….don’t just toss them out like they aren’t human. So they ask for money, and spend it on booze and weed. This is OB. Half the neighborhood does that on a regular basis.
The whole NIMBY attitude that Kevin Faulconer and others represent has led to this. You dont think that the lack of shelters and psychiatric/medical resources for runaways and “street” kids is contributing to this? Get a clue: San Diego doesn’t care about the down and outs or the have nots; only haves and power brokers.
“don’t just toss them out like they aren’t human”…IF they acted like human beings instead of animals this would be easy.
guess there’s no reasoning with you. Apparently, OB is only for the priveleged these days.
You don’t have to be “privileged” you only need be polite, decent and contribute something other than trash, feces, and empty vodka bottles to society. You can reason with me, however, if you did your homework and spoke to some of these trolls-then maybe when one of them tells you its their “choice to live like this and NOT contribute anything to society” then maybe you’ll understand my position..they are self proclaimed social parasites….and sure, I have sympathy for those kids who want help, there is plenty available (dont say there isn’t because I work in this field).
hahahahah i know this kid!
Congratulations!
Hilarious! I was in Newbreak when this was going down – there were so many cop cars, and one of the employees ran out to see what was going on. He came back and reported that “some homeless guy” was backstroking naked. This kid was not what I pictured!
Lots of cops, which is probably a good sign for our community – means they had nothing more pressing to attend to.
Ok, after reading the comments I’m thinking maybe this is not so hilarious? Homelessness, some drug abuse, possibly overly forceful police, etc…
But still, that last pic is priceless.
And again, thank god these are the biggest problems we have right now, and we’re able to talk about them.
Ha! Mary, I could have predicted you’d have the most reasoned response. How true….this is the WORST of our problems?? At least we’re all able to talk openly about it and have wildly differing opinions without fear of being hung. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article7012230.ece
The kid was a moron, you don’t fight with cops. The cops overreacted, you don’t need 12 cars speeding through town for one naked guy. Nobody wins, everybody wins.
We have the technology to deal with this…I’m thinking an industrial version of Silly String. Call it something like Diaper in a Can. Naked dude…no problem. The lifeguards just spray the dude until his offending member can no longer be seen.
When I was kid here in OB, the police would give little round band-aids to women if their nipples showed through a t-shirt or thin dress. No riots, but plenty of onlookers.
I heard a tom of sirens at this time. Wondered what the heck happend! I never thought this would be it! Priceless…. Wonder how long he was @ the big house!
live and work in the palm springs area, if only we had people his age to deal with up here………..i smell old people………..bill
Thanks to Nate Hipple and Jim Grant for these great pics!
Yeah – he definitely doesn’t look like one of the crusty kids either – the buzz seems to be he’s a college student, and more likely under the influence of vodka than PCP.
He was high on drugs. Not saying which one.
Blotter? Just a guess heh.
“Don’ matter… Get High/Ack Stoopid=OBWAY!”- Cheesus Riced
This guy is actually indeed my friend and i know him VERY well. I would just like to inform the people that he was indeed not high on anything, he was completely sober. He is the last person ide feel threated from and is probably the nicest guy ever. he was probably just wanting to play a prank or who know what but he was not a threat and probably frustrated with the way he was being treated.
Not high ,and sober and fought like that ?? hummmm Did he think his conduct on that beach was ok ?? frustrated the way he was being treated …u make no sense whatsoever.
lucky he did not get the crap beat out of him….
Didn’t you see the pictures, apparently he DID get the crap beat out of him. So, let’s just play along with his friend and say ok…he wasn’t high. Just stupid then?
I have several friends with children, if they would have seen this they would not have called police lets just say that. Now thats a beat down he would not like.
The pics are hilarious! Especially the third one down from the top, where the female cop looks like she’s trying to give a guy a fist from behind. I’m sure at one point or another the lady cop was getting a face full of almost naked ASS. It’s a good thing for her that he just got out of the water, otherwise, she would’ve had a face full of stinky ASS! LMAO!!!
It has come to our attention that naked guy may have had totally different motivations than anything anyone has mentioned: namely the guy could be a comedian looking for his 15 minutes of fame – you know, like the people who said their son was up in that weather balloon.
The cops were totally inept at deploying the taser that is why it didn’t work! They want the public to think he must have been high on PCP b/c it justifies their actions.
According to cops.com…In order to get the incapacitating effect of the TASER, you need to have three things: A complete circuit, adequate probe spread and sufficient flowing energy. Otherwise, all you get is pain.
Probe spread needs to be at least four inches. Since the probes spread out farther as they go downrange (at an eight degree angle), as long as your target is more than three or four feet away from you, you’ll get adequate probe spread. If the probes are too close together when they impact the target, there won’t be enough body mass completing the circuit for neuromuscular incapacitation to occur. He was obviously NOT at least 3-4 feet away from them.
Finally, there needs to be sufficient energy moving through the circuit. This is where a lot of people get confused over the whole voltage/amperage thing. TASERs can develop up to 50,000 volts, but that has nothing to do with the energy level moving through the wires. The voltage only serves to “push” the energy, and the 50,000 volts are enough pressure to assure that the electricity can arc across a gap of approximately two inches. This is important, since you can’t always count on your probes sticking in the skin of your target. They might get hung up in his clothing. But as long as they are within two inches of his skin surface, the energy can arc across the gap (pushed by the 50,000 volts) and complete the circuit. You also have to wonder if he was still wet from swimming that would probably alter the current.
ANd it appears that he is wearing green boxers and a sweatshirt that they are pulling off in the struggle.
What justifies the actions is he was fighting lifeguards and police.
Editordude: He could have gotten his 15 minutes of fame by running down the closed pier throwing his board over the rail then jumping in 15 foot surf and surfing in only to get a fat ticket and severe scoulding from life guards…Oh wait that was taken last week. Silly me.
I’m curious. Has anybody looked at what charges our skinny-dipper is facing & how long he was detained?
He actually was convicted of public nudity a San Diego mini code. He received 180 days in jail and is on formal probation.
the skinny dipper is my boyfriend, and to all you idiots out there, no he was not stoned or drunk or on PCP. go get a life.