The “Naked Cowboy” Was Arrested For Panhandling In Florida
50-year-old Robert Burck, AKA the “Naked Cowboy” of NYC’s Times Square, got arrested very far from home. Homeboy was out and about doing his important work, AKA being out in the streets taking pictures with people and singing along to his lone guitar. You’d think during a pandemic he’d give it a rest, but even back when coronavirus lockdowns started, a mask-wearing Naked Cowboy was out in NYC singing to nobody. Since the NYC pigeons can’t slide dollar bills into his performin’ panties (and they wouldn’t if they could!), the Naked Cowboy took his act to Florida since there are a lot more people in Florida who don’t mind him yodeling out a stream of germs. But unfortunately for him, some new panhandling laws got him arrested and now he’s all up in arms because it’s a law that negatively impacts “impoverished” people like himself.
People says that on Saturday at 4:00 pm, the Naked Cowboy got arrested in Daytona Beach, FL. He’d been performing at the city’s annual Bike Week event:
But that’s not why Naked Cowboy had problems with the police. The police observed people slipping money into the hole of his guitar (phew! Imagine they slipped it in another hole?) and that’s panhandling, which is a no-no in Daytona Beach. In 2019 a new ordinance was put in place about panhandling after “an increase in aggressive panhandling and begging” in Daytona became “disturbing and disruptive to residents and businesses.” So Naked Cowboy got charged with “resisting an officer without violence and aggressive panhandling.”
“The defendant was only observed wearing a white in color underwear, and a multi-color straw hat during this incident, which caused crowds to form a circle around him while panhandling,” the arrest report says.
The report also says that Burck “refused” to follow an officer’s orders “by pulling away” during the arrest.
ABC News adds that body-cam footage revealed what went down during the scuffle:
In body-camera video from one of the officers, Burck repeatedly questioned why he was being detained after an officer put handcuffs on him. The officers told him to sit against the front of a squad car as his guitar hung by a shoulder strap around his neck.
“We told you to stop panhandling and you still accepted money from people,” a male officer told him.
A female officer told him that he was blocking businesses by drawing a crowd around him. Burck kept standing up instead of leaning against the squad car as he had been instructed. Passersby yelled out, “Free the cowboy!”
“What did I do again?” Burck said. “I don’t want money from anybody… It’s not what I’m doing here.”
When Burck tried to get a female companion standing nearby on a sidewalk to take his cellphone from his boot, the female officer grabbed him and pushed him to the back of the car. During the scuffle, the headstock on his guitar broke. The headstock is the part of the guitar at the end that houses the pegs used for tuning the instrument.
Burck repeatedly cursed at the female officer.
LOL. Girl, I love when someone says “I didn’t do this!” when they are observed doing the thing and there’s footage. The 50-year-old Naked Cowboy gave a statement to People to explain what went down:
“I’ve enjoyed Daytona Beach Bike Week yearly for over two decades. It’s the perfect environment for a good old Americana Style Naked Cowboy performance.”
“The new ordinance to curtail “panhandling” exists now to keep impoverished people from begging people for money in front of their business establishments. When the Daytona Police included myself, Naked Cowboy, in that group of offenders, they grossly erred in their judgment. When they assaulted and treated me like a criminal with zero respect, they initiated damages.”
Oh yes, the Naked Cowboy is truly the face of the impoverished because impoverished people definitely travel around the country, terrorizing people with their nipples and song. Like, the Naked Cowboy made an appearance at the Capitol on January 6 and talked about “Antifa plants in Trump garb.”
https://www.facebook.com/NkdCowboy/videos/vb.115607436290/5134226819950658/?type=2&theater
There’s no footage of Naked Cowboy actually storming the Capitol. But maybe he should have. I’m sure there would have been no violence if he was calming the MAGA rioters with his guitar tunes. Maybe Purple Rain would have worked?
Pic: Instagram/Volusia County Jail