Naked airport guy is a happy mutant and is fighting the bogus charge against him

John Brennan, who calmly took his clothes off at the Portland Airport to show TSA officers he was not carrying a bomb (he tested positive for explosives) told Fox News he is going to court to fight indecent exposure charges. Prosecutors indicated they'd let him off the hook if he wrote a letter of apology, but since is perfectly legal to go naked in Oregon, John is choosing to fight the charges. John told the smirking Fox reporter:

The government has been slowly eroding our rights and this is one way I could stand up and say "in the balance between my right to privacy and other rights that I have under the Constitution the TSA was going a bit too far." We need to have safe skies and I need to have a right to privacy, and as the pendulum is swinging away from my right to privacy I took a stand.

John and I have been exchanging emails and I've learned that he is one of us: a long-time Boing Boing reader and a happy mutant. We are very proud of him. Go John!

Airport stripper chooses court over apology [Image: Dan Carino, Seattle Weekly]

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

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Bink Binkerson

Grade-A hero. Go get ‘em John!
sam1148

If you’re a naked guy at the airport. Pendulum and Swinging might not be the best choice of words.
- Guest
  
  It’s not like he talked about a shrinkage of our rights :P
patthew

“as the pendulum is swinging away from my right to privacy I took a stand”

Heh, pendulum
RightReverendRex

Portland REPRESENT!
franko

+1.
go, sir, GO!
Palomino

I dated a guy in Portland. We packed for a picnic to a local city park, where he stripped down to his full ebony nakedness, and laid out in the sun. Problem was, I didn’t know about the law, even though I was from neighboring Seattle, and felt good & nasty thinking he was a rebel, giving the ultimate finger to The Man. Alas, he was only a sunbather after all.
travispulley

Go John! You are a HERO! Fight the good fight.
Donald Petersen

He certainly displayed some balls.
mikedt

Portland sounds like an interesting town.
Brad H.

Even though the airport is owned by the port, is there any kind of federal jurisdictions placed on the space that could override this local freedom?

I know in Australia even general aviation spaces are controlled by the Commonwealth, to which a rebel spud grower trying to sell illegal potatoes unauthorised by the state potato board can sell on nearby airport land freely. Potatoes for all!!!
Charles C

Naked!!!
ultranaut

100% awesome
Cowicide

John Brennan, the naked Boing Boing mascot, giving the TSA a big, stiff middle finger. I like this. Go, naked man!
amfw

I’m not sure if the airport has any special federal consideration in the instance of this case, but one would think if they did then Mr. Brennan would be facing some type of federal charges. As it stands he has opted to enter into a trial in Multnomah County Court, so it doesn’t look as though he’s up against any charges of that nature. Additionally it seems that there is a good amount of precedent in Portland for protecting public nudity under two independent conditions; lack of intending to arouse oneself or others or in the case of political protest. Way to go Portland and Mr. Brennan!
BombBlastLightingWaltz

The perfect Mole.
http://twitter.com/ethicalcannibal Ethical Cannibal

Way to go. Total hero in my book.
OldBrownSquirrel

I suspect their biggest concern is that if the charges are dropped, others will try this same thing, at least in PDX.

I sincerely hope they do.

If this goes on long enough, either there will be federal pressure on Portland to change local laws, or there will be some sort of federal law (or maybe just an executive order) prohibiting disrobing. The problem with that is that it will be used against people like the confused foreign traveler who misunderstood a TSA directive and innocently dropped his pants.
http://evilbobdayjob.blogspot.com/ Deidzoeb

Is there causality or just correlation here, that a longtime Boingboing reader would protest against TSA? How many more naked terrorists will be created by BB indoctrination? My shorts are feeling looser every minute.
- http://www.nathanhornby.com/ Nathan Hornby
  
  Im naked right now, I hadn’t considered it might be BBs fault…
http://www.kmoser.com kmoser

Would “I apologize to anyone I have unintentionally offended” count as an apology?
- TWX
  
  I’d opt for, “I’m sorry you were offended” or the ilk…
  - https://www.facebook.com/rgovrebo B. Peasant
    
    “I’m sorry you’re so thin-skinned that you took offence”.
    - Jer_00
      
      ”I’m sorry your bosses are such idiots” is always one of my favorite nonpologies.
Guest

Dude’s nuts!
Baldhead

I’ve often wondered why the rights of some people to not be offended is greater than the same rights of other people. In my view we have the TSA who have caused great offense in their inneffectual drive to improve airplane safety. On the other hand we have a small handful of people who ares somehow offended by a naked body. The TSA have caused greater offense and therefore don’t get to complain.
http://twitter.com/anderalert Pat Eisel

He’s going on the offensive…..So, is there any video of this dropping of trou? Can we see for ourselves the shocked look of the TSA as well as the other standers-by? Was there yelling? ‘holy crap he’s takin’ his shirt off…Hey, stop…put those back on…’ Mixed in with…’go for it, dude! Strip! Take it off, take it ALLL OFF!’ Where’s the phonevid when you need it?