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
LOL.. funny
Also funny how ppl go on about communism too LOL .. lemme ask you, how’s your precious democracy going for ya?? Militarized police, bankrupt cities, rigged elections, corporate/oligarch dominance in a wall street government.. seems like fascism is well and truly incorporated into ‘murican “democracy” already
Can’t Dress Themselves, can’t Get a Job, Vote Democrat!
It’s annoying but illegal? Really? Next they’re gonna tell you you can’t wear hats a certain way. Annoying or not its still just another civil right taken away.
Patrick Rodriguez, great way of looking at this issue. It drives me crazy seeing the underwear of some idiot with his pants down, however that’s his right. It’s our right to dress as we please, that’s one awesome thing about America. I would rather be able to dress how I wanted and see things like black dudes underwear than not have that right. I’m shocked at myself for not seeing it this way before. I’ll not bitch about this anymore.
Welcome to East Germany 1942!
I agree with Dave. With that logic ban swim suits no one want to see under wear. Or am I wrong. And no I dnt sag my pants.
Idk it actually could be considered indecent exposure. Its illegal to run around in your underwear (has been for a very long time). So it just seems like they are just adding to that as far as I csn see.
i think ajail term is too much for this
I’m gonna go out on a limb and say it probably a majority while town. Im also gonna go out on a limb and say there mostly likely racist as well. I dont like seeing it either, but when government steps in and starts telling us how we can and can’t wear our clothes what’s next? There is such a thing as governing too much! Perfect example…