WKMG News 6 ClickOrlando
“The Naked Cowboy” is singing free after getting arrested last weekend.
According to Florida’s Local10, police arrested Robert Burck, a.k.a. “The Naked Cowboy,” on March 6. Burck was arrested for panhandling and resisting arrest. Burck, 50, is most known for wearing underwear, cowboy boots, and a hat as he plays the guitar in New York City’s Times Square. That said, Burck doesn’t just appear in New York, he often makes his way to Florida. It’s there, specifically in Daytona Beach, and during the popular motorcycle event called Bike Week that Burck was arrested.
As WKMG News 6 ClickOrlando reports, two officers approached Burck to get him away from the front of a commercially zoned property. A city ordinance “prohibits panhandling within 20 feet in any direction from any entrance or exit of a commercially zoned property.”
“As we walked by earlier we said, ‘Stop panhandling,’ we told you to stop panhandling,” an officer can be heard saying in footage from the Daytona Beach Police Department.
When pressed further, Burck stated that he could stop accepting cash whenever he wanted as he’s “already successful.” Burck then claimed to have been appearing at Bike Week for 20 years and wasn’t aware that the rules had changed. Burck was then placed in handcuffs and then that his comments became… uncensored.
“So the Blacks can walk around and take tips all day long but I don’t want anything about that,” Burck said in the video.
“Excuse me? Excuse me?” one officer asks in shock.
“I don’t care. You heard me, yeah, you heard me. I don’t want money from them. I’m already rich. I don’t give a f*** about the money. You can break the guitar and give it to all the Black people,” Burck replied.
The situation escalated when Burck tried to get his phone out of his boot. The police then got physical with him by pushing him back against the police car. This caused Burck’s guitar strap to snap. This infuriated Burck.
“F**k you, f**king d*ke!” he says. “F*cking d*ke!”
Burck then quickly apologized.
Again, Burck was arrested on charges of panhandling and resisting arrest without violence. But later, a judge removed the panhandling charge and Burck plead no contest on the resisting arrest charge. He was then sentenced to time served and ordered to pay court fees.
But what happened to Robert Burck after that? Well, he went right back into posing and panhandling. According to the Herald-Tribune, Burck has already been spotting at Siesta Beach. He was sighted there posing for pictures and receiving money from beach goers on Tuesday. Burck then noted that he’s been arrested at least 30 times over his time as the “Naked Cowboy” and is unfazed by his recent arrest.
“It was the greatest experience of my life,” Burck said of his work. “All I do is go out and work and draw attention to what I do. It could be construed as something negative, but I’ve seen the 10,000 comments. I do exactly what you are seeing here, and if anybody gives me a problem, I walk away from it.
“They (the police) are shining light on what I’m doing.”
Source: Local10, ClickOrlando, Herald-Tribune,
