Topless Act on Bus Is Arresting
he topless women riding around Manhattan yesterday in a big-windowed bus were trying to make a constitutional point, the bus's owners said. They were standing up — in a shower — for free speech and freedom of expression.
Not too surprisingly, given the city's recent history, this argument did not play well in the vicinity of Times Square.
The "Voyeurbus," owned by a Florida company that runs sex-related Web sites, was pulled over at 40th Street and Avenue of the Americas at 6:30 p.m. after stopping traffic and creating what the police called a "public alarm."
Fifteen people on the bus were arrested, said Sgt. William Stiles, a police spokesman. The suspects' names were not released, but they presumably included Tisha and Aquilla, the bus's two topless models, said Mark Guarino, one of the bus's owners.
Charges are pending, Sergeant Stiles said.
Mr. Guarino said he and his partners in MTC Online got the idea for the bus after legal setbacks and confrontations with the authorities in Florida.
So MTC bought a bus, retrofitted it with floor-to-ceiling windows, a shower and a bathroom, and sent Tisha and Aquilla out across America to raise public consciousness.
The bus took a four-hour trip around Manhattan yesterday with two afternoon radio disc jockeys, Opie and Anthony of WNEW-FM, who are known for their crudeness.
Mr. Guarino said he understood that New York State law allows women to bare their breasts in public. But the court decision that allows toplessness makes an exception when it is done for commercial purposes or in a "lewd manner."
Mr. Guarino said he had been told that the bus got too close to President Clinton's motorcade route (he was in town to raise money for cancer research), and the Secret Service had the bus pulled over. Sergeant Stiles and the New York City office of the Secret Service were unable to confirm Mr. Guarino's account.
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