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
Man says:
“Maybe I am wrong, but my view is this:
Laws like this are just sad. Seriously, in America we brag about being free and doing/living however we want. Something else that is just as “disgraceful” will take place of saggy pants. Instead of realizing that true change is from the inside and that character and life change are more important than behavior modification, dress code, and blind robotic conformity. But with stuff like this we are literally taking away the constitution and the whole reason we rebelled against England in the first place (to get freedom from a country that was over restricting.) And then we turn and brag out how this nation is so great and free and no other nation in the world has freedom as well. It is pitiful, it is sad that our government/culture is to a point where we value trying to put our citizens into a nice little “good-boy/girl” box instead of focusing on trying to solve major problems (BUDGET DEFICIT, solving our abortion/homosexual marriage debates, schools in poor areas, the list goes on and on of things we are letting slip by.) My main point is that if the attitudes (maybe drugs, gangs, violence, theft, rebelling, etc…) of the people who are sagging is what is bothering people then wouldn’t it be better to come around those people who are struggling and help them change from the inside with genuine relationships, maybe education, maybe mentoring, or anything else that may help instead of push them down, discriminate their culture, and try to put them into a box that satisfies our own selfish desires for what a “good-boy/girl” looks like?”
From: http://www.truthandaction.org/florida-town-get-pants-off-ground-get-6-months-jail/comment-page-15/#comment-376220
Absolutely love this. Texas needs too do the same thing.
I find cowboy hats offensive, how would you feel if I had them banned? You would be pissed, and cry freedom! Get over yourselves and read a history book, this is not what America is (was) all about. You ignorant $#%&!@*s depress me.
I MAY NOT LIKE IT BUT HE IS DOING NOTHING WRONG HE ISN’T SHOWING HIS ASS HE IS COVERED JUST FINE THIS LAW IS BULL$#%&!@* , ,,PROFILING HE HAS EVERY RIGHT TO TRIP OVER HIS OWN PANTS IF HE WISHES , WOMEN IN THIS COUNTRY CAN WALK AROUND WITH THERE ASS HANGING OUT & THERE SHIRTS HALF OPEN HE HAPPENDS TO HAVE TWO PAIR OF PANTS ON LIKE ANYONE WOULD WEAR TWO SHIRTS WHAT IS HE DOING THAT IS WRONG WHAT LAW IS HE BREAKING , NONE , YOU DON’T LIKE IT ,,DON’T WEAR IT , NO ONE CARES IF YOU DON’T LIKE IT OR NOT , IT IS HIS RIGHT
WELL PAUL JAMES DID YOU KNOW THE LOW RIDER STYLE WAS A COME ON FOR GUYS IN PRISON THAT THEY WERE OPEN FOR BEHIND BUISNESS ?? IF YOU DO THEN GO TO PRISON AND ADVERTIZE TO THEM WE AREN’T INTERESTED
finally damn
Good for them. I’m sick of seeing it!
$#%&!@* all you bootlickers who approve of this. And the rumor that it is to show availability is null, it started as a way to show that they had done time without a belt. Nanny state horse $#%&!@*. MAny of these guys are wearing shorts under their pants.
If children were taught respect for themselves and others we wouldn’t be seeing this !
Truth And Action removes valid comments from is comment section…….classic.