Man Arrested for Being Naked in His Own Kitchen

This little kerfuffle may seem trivial to many but I find it symptomatic of what ails America today. Read the following and we shall offer our two cents in conclusion:

Radley Balko
October 21, 2009

"Springfield, Virginia resident Eric Williamson was arrested and charged with indecent exposure yesterday for failing to put on any clothes after getting up at 5:30 am to make some coffee. A woman and her 7-year-old daughter had cut across Williamson's front yard and saw him through his kitchen window.

If convicted, Williamson could be fined $2,000 and spend a year in jail.

Fairfax police say Williamson wanted to be seen naked. Which I guess means Williamson's front yard is a pretty popular spot at 5:30 in the morning."

The first question which comes to mind is why the police would accept any charge from an acknowledged lawbreaker? She and her kid readily admit to unlawful trespass to even see the guy in the kitchen. Had he given them permission to cut across his lawn? If not, what were they doing there at 5:30 am?

The larger issue is the allegation that “Williamson wanted to be seen naked.” Do police in Fairfax County have an innate capacity for discernment to reveal the desires in the innermost reaches of the human mind? Did the Amazing Kreskin train them? Does one normally anticipate an audience at that hour for cavorting in the nude? While he was in a lit space, (assumed) the woman and the kid were outside in the dark. How did he know they were there? Oh, that’s right; he had his Captain Midnight “see in the dark” glasses on.

In a free country with a history of inviolate privacy rights the expectation of privacy is assumed in one’s home. In this end of the Ozarks, looking into the windows of other peoples houses is called: window peeking. Here it is against the law. I guess in the more civilized areas of the country it is called “law-enforcement.”

If this was a grudge issue on the part of the trespasser, I would suggest that willingly exposing a female child to a naked man makes the woman complicit in the corruption of a minor. Do we allow people to use children in an act to extract vengeance on a neighbor? Has the Springfield Police Department considered bringing justifiable charges against her?

Allow me to point out that Fairfax County is adjacent to Washington, D.C... This brings “petty” to its penultimate conclusion. There is so much here which denies the possibility of a “righteous” bust that it boggles the mind. I pray that there is more to this than is reported here. God help us if this is the direction we are going in our country.


In His abiding love,

Cecil Moon