Today, July 8th, is the 24th anniversary of the infamous "Paddleboro" raid, in which Attleboro, Mass. police broke up a BDSM play party of consenting adults, and charged one attendee with "assault with a dangerous weapon" for paddling the other with a wooden spoon.
To this day if you Google "Paddleboro" you'll find links to news stories about it, like this one from the Attleboro Sun-Chronicle which details rather drily some of what went on, but (of course) doesn't tell the whole story. www.thesunchronicle....
They don't talk about the Paddleboro Defense League, formed by members of the local BDSM community with a few DC-based advocates from the NCSF (National Coalition for Sexual Freedom). The PDL coordinated both the PR campaign and local fundraising efforts to cover legal expenses.
The PDL had people writing letters to the Attleboro police, and the assistant district attorney who was prosecuting the case, and mailing them their wooden spoons stating they were surrendering their dangerous weapons. Letters to the editor of MA newspapers. Etc.
The Attleboro police were made into laughingstocks all throughout New England for their overreach. "What, you found a bunch of middle-aged suburban couples spanking each other? You don't have something better to do?" Technically spanking IS assault, but... really??
So the cops lost in the court of public opinion: from the op eds ridiculing them to the radio talk show hosts roasting them. I myself was a guest on the WEEI morning drive show, where they usually talk about sports but they had a field day talking about consensual kink!
And of course they tried to charge the host of the party with prostitution. But no one was paying for sex. (In fact there was never any evidence that sex took place on the premises, just the aforementioned paddling, which is technically not sex in the eyes of the law.)
Where the cops really lost in the courtroom, though, was that in the end none of their "evidence" was admissible. They had treated it like raiding a gay bar in the 1950s. They took everyone's drivers licenses so no one could leave. Then they separated and interviewed each person.
They didn't obtain a search warrant until AFTER they had busted in. They were so dang certain that crimes were being committed and that the ends would justify the means! Local gov't was feeling the heat, though. The mayor, the ADA, they were hearing it LOUD from the community.
The ADA began to stall, to ask for more time. Each time the court was convened, he begged off and said they needed more time to prepare their case. The judge kept giving them extensions. Each time we had to raise more funds for lawyers. But the judge finally got fed up.
