Disturbed Naked Man Apprehended Outside Polling Station
John Del Signore
Modified Nov 3, 2009
This tweet from Laura Holder just caught our eye: "Seen at polling station (e.g. grade school): 1 man, over-6-foot tall, towering, 100% naked. Number of police: 12. Number of police cars: 4." The Local also heard about the naked man, and a volunteer for Bill Thompson says he saw the unidentified man near PS 56 in Clinton Hill, which was closed for Election Day. The volunteer says the man approached "talking all kinds of crazy stuff — he said he was a direct pure-blood descendant of Jesus." (Sounds like a Rev. Billy voter?)
Several witnesses said that before he got naked, he beat a woman and chased her from a parked car, but police say no assault occurred. Another campaign worker tells The Local, "We tried to tell him to get his thoughts together. I told him put your clothes back on, or they're gonna take you down to Bellevue." Which is essentially what happened when police arrived and handcuffed him as he threatened to kill them and "bragged of drug-dealing exploits." The man was not arrested, but taken to Long Island College Hospital for treatment.
naked man
polling center
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.