Photograph by Ed Yourdon
A woman from Brooklyn, New York has filed a lawsuit against the New York Police Department (NYPD) for arresting her last summer for sunbathing topless in a park in the city.
In July last year Jessica Krigsman, 24, was sunbathing topless at Brooklyn’s Calverty Vaux Park when she was approached by two police officers, one male and one female, who asked her for some ID and told her to put her shirt back on.
Krigsman refused to comply with the order from the police officers, citing the People v. Santorelli (1992) court case which found that a woman should be able to be topless anywhere a man can go topless and told the policemen to call their supervisor. The police officers then allegedly forcibly put Krigsman’s shirt back on and told her to “stop mouthing off” before arresting her.
The charges were dropped three months later.
Krigsman has theorized that it was the female police officer that had an issue with her lack of clothing, telling the New York Post:
“The female cops hate to see topless women. The guys are always cool with it.”
Krigsman is seeking attorney costs plus unspecified damages over the incident.