Posted on 07/08/2006 3:29:00 PM PDT by Graybeard58
TOPEKA, Kan. - Kansas Libertarians were stopped from holding a fundraiser at a nudist camp in southwest Shawnee County, when sheriff's deputies blocked people from entering.
Shawnee County deputies said they were merely enforcing a court order when they stopped people from accessing Lake Edun on Friday. Last year, Shawnee County District Judge Terry Bullock issued a court order banning "commercial or recreational activities" on the property unless the owners get a permit for such events - something the county refuses to provide.
But Rob Hodgkinson, chairman of the Libertarian Party of Kansas, said a political party fundraiser isn't a commercial activity. He also said the deputies suppressed party members' constitutional right to hold such an event on private property.
Gates were to open at 4 p.m. Friday, said Webb Garlinghouse, who owns the property with his wife, Julie, but an employee called him that morning and said deputies were blocking the driveway. By mid-afternoon, six marked sheriff's cars were parked along the road outside the main entrance.
Hodgkinson said the Libertarian Party moved the three-day event to an alternative site.
Shawnee County Undersheriff Don Long said his office learned about the Libertarian gathering at Lake Edun from county counselor Rich Eckert. A sign at the property's entrance said the event was to run Friday through Sunday.
Patrick Wilbur, vice chairman for the Libertarian Party of Kansas, said admission was to be $75 per person and $90 per couple in advance and $80 per person and $100 per couple at the door. Topics for discussion included property rights and freedom of assembly.
Hodgkinson said the Libertarians needed to make money so they can compete and get people elected.
"We've got a chance to actually elect people, so am I frustrated? You bet!" he told the Topeka Capital-Journal.
Lake Edun, which promotes a clothing-free lifestyle and uses the term "naturist" rather than "nudist," has been at odds with county officials since 1996.
The county insisted Lake Edun (nude spelled backward) was being run as a commercial, recreational facility, even though the property was zoned agricultural. Garlinghouse insisted the camp was focusing on harvesting fish and planting native grasses and trees.
In January 2001, the county gave the Garlinghouses a two-year, conditional-use permit, with the stipulation that they could not try to renew it.
In September 2006, Bullock issued a restraining order banning the Garlinghouses from using the camp for recreation or commercial activities without a conditional-use permit. According to court records, the Garlinhouses' appeal is pending.
Webb Garlinghouse, a Libertarian, said the weekend gathering was to be the political party's first at Lake Edun. It was to include free camping, parking and recreational activities at the lake, plus musical and theatrical performances.
Well at least one party is for transparacy in government...
I don't even want to think about it.
LOL! But Doc.......nude libertarians? Oh my!:)
If there's freedom to own a nudist camp, then surely there's freedom to hold a fundraiser on that camp!
How much are they willing to pay? I know a few farmers who wouldn't mind renting out a field if the price is right and they clean up after themselves.
Time to start planting plenty of poison ivy and oak at Lake Edun...sort of as a 'naturist' repellant..ehehehe.
We'll be ok if no-one posts pictures.
Be the last time I ever let some Libertarian on any of these threads try to beat me down when I refer to them as "Libertarian/Libertines".
Don't forget the extra large size African mosquitoes ... :)
I used to consider myself to be libertarian but I couldn't get past the everything goes attitude of some candidates.
I wonder how the judge would feel if it were his own political party.
My wife's uncle and aunt, who had led a fairly sheltered existence in very conservative community their entire lives, took a trip to France in the late 1980s. By and by their tour took them to a beach where nudity was not only tolerated but celebrated. We were teasing her uncle about it and he said, "There wasn't anything pornographic about it at all. I've never seen so many ugly people in my life!"
"We've got a chance to actually elect people, so am I frustrated? You bet!" he told the Topeka Capital-Journal.
The police were probably concerned that people would hurt themselves from laughing too hard.
Aw sh*t... we've got several nudist camps within 30 miles of here, and we don't have a moment's problem with any of them (or their patrons).
We sell lots of mosquito dope tho.....
Come to think of it......men in those tight European speedo thingy's that they call bathing suits are much worse than "au natural", IMHO, of course. :)
I guess the sheriff's action proves exactly the point the Libertarians are trying to make. They were making political speech, the most protected kind, on private property at the invitation of the owner.
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