Tired of seeing teens walk around with their pants so low it shows all their underwear? (how do they do that anyway?)
Ocala, FL certainly is. So much so that they have passed an ordinance stating that anyone who wears their pants 2 inches below their ‘natural waist line’ will get a warning or two (complete with pictures), and if they continually violate the law could receive a $500 fine and 6 months in jail.
Plummers beware! This law applies to anyone showing too much of their…backside.
Officials in Ocala, Fla. agree with Platt’s sentiment so much that city council unanimously passed an ordinance that prohibits anyone on city property from wearing pants two inches or more below a person’s natural waist.
“I just think it’s disgraceful to show your underwear,” Councilwoman Mary Rich said to WFTV. “We try to be a nice, clean city. I think it’ll help clean it up some.”
Rich previously tried to pass the rule in 2009, but no one seconded the motion. At the time, Mayor Kent Guinn objected to the ordinance, in part because he thought it would lead to profiling.
Rich said the ordinance applies to both genders and all races.
“It doesn’t matter what color they are,” Rich said, according to the Washington Post blog GovBeat. “They all wear their pants down.”
Guinn, who oversees the Ocala Police Department as part of his mayoral duties, asked Rich at the council meeting how officers were supposed to measure the distance between a suspect’s natural waist and the waistband of the pants. He said it is not like seat belts, which are either being worn or not, the Ocala Star-Banner reported.
“We are not looking to charge people,” City Attorney Patrick Gilligan said. “If they don’t comply, I think the chief will tell police officers to take your phone out and take a picture.”
The sagging pants ordinance is enforceable on city-owned or leased property, including sidewalks, streets, parks, sports, recreation and public transportation facilities and parking lots.
When asked about a service worker, say a plumber, whose buttcrack might show, “He will get a warning like everybody else,” Gilligan said, according to the Star-Banner.
Police are expected to issue warnings to saggy-pantsed offenders at first. After that, those caught with their pants down face a $500 fine or jail time, WFTV reported.
MTV’s Rob Markman condemned the ordinance. “Still, it isn’t the rap stars getting into hot water that’s the most troublesome, it’s the thought that a local government can dictate how young people dress,” the MTV News hip-hop beat writer penned. “First it’s saggy jeans, next it’s the way you tie your shoe laces (sic) or the way you wear your hat.”
Teacher Howard Gunn said he was concerned about enforcement. “Most of these kids you are dealing with are ones that have probably been in jail or are going to jail,” Gunn told the Ocala council. “A lot of times they are going through things. And we slap this on them, they are going to go further.”
“The kids are going to say something to you because they don’t know the law,” Gunn said about the police. “And then, there you go. Escalation. Now you have an assault on a police officer.”
Over the years, lawmakers around the country have proposed and passed laws to try to crack down on the sagging pants trend. In Fort Worth, Texas, you can’t sag and ride the city bus. In Opaocka, Fla., refusing to tighten your trousers will cost you $250. In Colinsville, Illinois, wearing saggy pants on any public property is banned. And in New York, State Senator Eric Adams used his own money to put up billboards that read, “Stop the Sag.”
Source: rt.com
Photo: Reuters / Mohamad Torokman
It’s a message started in prison. Stating available
It will be overturned in no time because it disproportionately impacts negroes
It’s a ridiculous law. Who cares if they want to disgrace themselves? We need more laws for this nonsense? What we need is less government! Any male who wants to parade around with his undies hanging out, let him. He’s the idiot. Now we’ve got lawmakers making stupid laws about this c**p. No they’re the idiots. No man that I know wears his pants hanging so low his underwear hang out. Let it speak for itself. My god. We don’t need legislation wasting our money on this c**p!!!!
I hate this look and I wish they wouldn’t wear their pants like that but the law is ridiculous. That law is not going to solve anything.
It is about time law make wake up
Reminds me of a baby walking around with a poopy diaper that needs to be changed . . . ewe!!! = 0
Wow that will make things ALLLLLLLL better. You cannot legislate good moral behavior. And for you nit wits that do wear you’re jeans in this manor you sure look stupid. So I have chosen not to take sides on any part of this idiocy. People being force to pull their pants does not make them better people. And generally people who do this let me know they may not have all their priority’s straight. But I am not or do I want fashion police. The word fashion alone should warn people that it on it’s own gives merit to Fascist ideology. Hitler did not want to just kill all non Arians he also wanted make a morally perfect German. Man is not perfect, that does not mean can’t try to be morally perfect, but that maybe he should worry about doing so first to him self and then give his better moral standards to the rest of us by first leading by example and self control.
They want to show off their dirty drrawers…. forget the damn pants. Would look as stupid!!!!
I don’t care what they do as long as my precious little girls don’t have to look at it. So can we designate some ass-free zones? Like inside city limits, in stores, shopping malls, schools, parks, libraries, restaurants, theaters, sporting venues, and public facilities? If they want to advertise their “availability” to other men, we can’t stop them by passing silly laws.
Get 60 Years!