Alabama Police Arrest 61-Year-Old Woman in Penis Costume at No Kings Protest

October 18 saw numerous “No Kings” protests across the country, reportedly encompassing 2,700 events and 7 million demonstrators. Reason‘s own Nick Gillespie observed the demonstration in New York City, where he found “fully peaceful protesters who hate President Donald Trump with intensity but not much specificity.”

Media coverage noted how smoothly the proceedings went. One place that did see police action was the town of Fairhope, Alabama, where multiple officers arrested 61-year-old Jeana Gamble for wearing an inflatable penis costume and holding a sign that said “No Dick-Tator.” While the situation sounds funny, the arrest is a violation of the First Amendment by prudish police and public officials.

“An officer observed an individual in a phallic costume near the Baldwin Square Shopping Center,” the Fairhope Police Department posted on Facebook. “The officer approached the woman and requested that she remove the costume, which is deemed obscene in a public setting; however, she refused to comply.” As a result, Gamble was arrested and “charged with Disorderly Conduct and Resisting Arrest, both of which are misdemeanor charges.”

That statement puts it mildly. As video posted to social media demonstrates, officers took Gamble to the ground by a busy road, handcuffed her, and dragged her to her feet. As onlookers protested the arrest, one officer shouted back, “I’m not gonna have somebody out here dressed like this!”

#NoKings event in Fairhope, Al.
A woman was arrested for “lewd conduct” because she was dressed in penis suit with a sign that said “No dick-tator”
3 cops on a 53 yo woman.

[image or embed]

— thekoolaidmom.bsky.social (@thekoolaidmom.bsky.social) October 18, 2025 at 5:01 PM

“This type of behavior or display is not acceptable and will not be tolerated in Fairhope,” Mayor Sherry Sullivan told 1819 News, a conservative Alabama news site. “Protests should remain peaceful and free of profanity and obscene displays.” The site added that Sullivan “confirmed [Gamble] was first asked to leave the parade and was ultimately arrested.”

“She crossed the line from freedom of expression to obscenity,” Fairhope Police Lieutenant Shane Nolte told the local NBC affiliate.

Sullivan and Nolte are completely wrong, as was the arresting officer who told onlookers he wouldn’t allow someone to be “dressed like this” in public.

Wearing a costume, whether or not the mayor likes it, is a peaceful act, and police haven’t indicated that Gamble was doing anything while protesting to justify police attention.

As to Sullivan’s argument that protests should be “free of profanity and obscene displays,” that is also wrong. Regardless of whether anyone took issue with Gamble’s costume or the word dick on her sign, both are within her First Amendment rights.

In Cohen v. California (1971), the U.S. Supreme Court heard the case of Paul Cohen, who was arrested after wearing a jacket that said “Fuck the Draft” into a Los Angeles courthouse, protesting conscription and the Vietnam War. He was convicted of disturbing the peace and sentenced to 30 days in jail. The Supreme Court overturned Cohen’s conviction, finding that absent some other offense, the state cannot “make the simple public display here involved of this single four-letter expletive a criminal offense.”

“The constitutional right of free expression is powerful medicine in a society as diverse and populous as ours,” Justice John Harlan wrote for the 5–4 majority, adding that “while the particular four-letter word being litigated here is perhaps more distasteful than most others of its genre, it is nevertheless often true that one man’s vulgarity is another’s lyric.”

The same applies to the costume itself. “If you have a police officer going around telling people to remove costumes he thinks are offensive, you have speech police,” Adam Steinbaugh, an attorney with the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, posted on Bluesky. “And the department and city officials are defending it!”

“Alabamians have the right to protest peacefully and to expect their government, including law enforcement, to respect those rights,” Indivisible Baldwin County, the protest’s organizers, said in a statement. “People should not be subject to violent overreach by police just because they exercise their right to free speech in ways that are controversial or impolite. Speech, but only in ways the opponents of a message approve, is not free speech at all.”