Lose an argument, lose your clothes

Officers responded to a call in Millville, New Jersey, when a naked man was seen going from house to house and knocking on doors. Upon arrival, police found twenty-one-year-old Edwin Rodriguez sitting nude on the porch of a house in the neighborhood of Sunset Drive and Canal Street.

According to published reports, the naked man asked a resident for a blanket to stay warm but had no explanation for his nudity.

But when police asked why he was naked, Rodriguez answered that, following an argument, "his boys" had taken his clothes and left him at the Union Lake boat ramps, not far from the neighborhood where police found him.

Rodriguez himself lives on the other side of town and didn't know the resident whose home he approached.

Millville police Sgt. Ross Hoffman told news sources that gangs sometimes punish rivals or initiate members by stripping them naked and then abandoning them in some public place.

Such speculation aside, Rodriguez was not charged with any public indecency charges. Police did discover, however, that he initially gave a false name and learned that he had four outstanding warrants. The officers charged him with those as well as hindering apprehension and obstruction of justice. He was committed to the Cumberland County Jail.

Here at Nakedism, we think the use of forced nudity to resolve differences is an option that needs to be explored. Even if the stripping was gang behavior, it certainly is more laudable than the violence for which gangs are so notorious.

Not only does forced stripping provide a nonviolent way to resolve differences, but the sight of naked people walking around might help desensitize fears of public nudity. And it might make you think carefully about your position before you get involved in an argument.

In this case, it even resulted in the capture of a wanted fugitive.

(Editor's note: The accompanying photo, found online, is for illustration purposes only and does not depict the incident described here.)