Westside : IS NUDE LEWD?
Seeking to cover up a bare spot in its municipal code, Santa Monica officials talked this week about coming up with a law banning nudity at the beach.
The issue arose because police have, at beach residents’ insistence, been detaining nude sunbathers. But the city attorney says there’s no way to prosecute them.
The local law is, to say the least, quirky: It bans changing clothes in a car, but says nothing about baring it all in a beach parking lot.
A state law is no help either, the city’s lawyer said, contradicting an opinion offered earlier this week by the city lawyer for Redondo Beach, who said state law kept his city from being totally exposed on the matter.
“Being nude is not necessarily being lewd,” City Atty. Marsha Jones Moutrie said.
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