Tampabay: Daring to bare at public parade

Maybe it's the beads, that bright and shiny booty, arcing through the air to some lucky spectator standing curbside, arms outstretched and face hopeful.

Like its bawdier cousin in New Orleans, Mardi Gras, Tampa's Gasparilla parade is developing something of a blushing reputation for the baring of breasts for beads.

Some female parade-goers have beeen willing to flash what's under their T-shirts in hopes of being rewarded with colorful strings of beads from passing floats.

"That's not my cup of tea, but you can't be in the parade and not see it," said Anthony Arena, member of the Krewe of the Knights of Sant' Yago. "The people that'll tell you they don't see that who are in the parade, they're either blind or they don't care to share that information with you."

It's hard enough to figure out how a parade can inspire otherwise normal people to scream, beg and dance in the streets for cheap plastic jewelry -- much less bare their private parts.

"Beads have an amazing impact on people," said Tampa City Council member Bob Buckhorn. "I wish I had as much charisma as those beads seem to generate."

Sometimes it's a young woman on her boyfriend's shoulders, sometimes its a group of women. Warmer weather seems to make it easier, minus the bother of coats and sweaters.

Given the postcard-perfect weather expected Saturday, plus the super hype of Super Bowl, this could be a record year for breast baring. But the uninhibited should take heed: it is illegal.

Technically, anyway.

Under the county's public nudity ordinance, a parade flasher could be subject to a fine of up to $500 or even jail time. But that's after she's been warned once by police.

Perhaps predictably, police get few complaints. Tampa police might get one or two per Gasparilla parade, said spokesman Joe Durkin. A Hillsborough sheriff's spokeswoman noted this is a busy, high-energy event attended by thousands.

"It's not one of our priorities, that's for sure," said Hillsborough Sheriff Cal Henderson. (The sheriff, by the way, said he has not witnessed the phenomenon from his perch at the parade's beginning, but knows his deputies farther back on the route have issued warnings. "I guess they don't flash to the front," he said.)

Even Buckhorn, well-known for his stance against lap dancing at strip clubs, seems to have a milder take.

"I think it would be awfully hard to regulate," he said. "We probably would be foolish to make a big deal about it. The people who are going to do it are going to do it."

Much baring of breasts takes place on the open sea, from the flotilla of boats that accompany the Jose Gasparilla pirate invasion ship. But don't expect officers from the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission, whose boats will be working the waters, to be hauling hordes to jail.

"There are so many boats jammed up against each other, it's not always practical to make an arrest," said Lt. Ken Thompson of the FWC. "It would be more dangerous to stop a boat in that mess than deal with it."

Last year came newspaper reports of a crackdown on such behavior in the city that made it famous, New Orleans. Not so, a police spokesman said Wednesday.

"If we have a complaint, certainly the police will come out and take action," said New Orleans Police Officer Joe Narcisse. "Do we have police out on looking posts with binoculars all through the French Quarter? Certainly not."

Fliers telling folks that flashing is an illegal lewd act were posted and distributed to hotels at last year's Mardi Gras, but that was largely educational.

"People thought it was absolutely legal here, particularly visitors," Narcisse said. ". . . you still have to kind of abide by the law here." Nearly all their lewdness arrests were for public urination, he said.

Officially, flashing is frowned upon in Tampa. Krewes say they instruct members to ignore it. The city, busy defending its lap-dance ban, certainly doesn't want to encourage it.

"We would like this to be a family event," said Julie Harris, spokeswoman for Mayor Dick Greco.

But the size and scope of this year's Gasparilla could mean more, not less.

"We don't know what kind of effect that will have," said Thompson. "We have a boat coming from Mississippi, 180 feet long, carrying 400 to 600 people. We have some coming from Miami. Hugh Hefner is supposed to be bringing two boats."

-- Sue Carlton can be reached at (813) 226-3346 or carlton@sptimes. Linda Gibson can be reached at (813) 226-3382 or gibson@sptimes.

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