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
They need to slap the fine on them the first offense
All states should have this law
you know where your waist is dont want to see what once was private what about red shirt ?
Needs to be a national Law.!!!! Use your pen Obummer
ABOUT TIME FOR SOME DECENCY
GOOD
Husain Ali
I agree with joshua we are supposed to live in a free country where our choices our are own and we don’t need the government to tell us how to dress. Whats next people being arrested for not having a shirt at the beach because obese people gross you out. This is America if you have a problem the way people dress then just deal with it nobody has the right to harass you for what you wear. what if people start saying cowboy hats are offensive are we gonna make a law where if you where a cowboy hat you’ll get a fine and jail time. $#%&!@* all the sensitive people.. here is a tip if you have a problem with sagging then look away there is no need to get offended unless you have nothing to do then that just sounds like a personal issue 🙂
the stupid thing I heard in the 40s.50,s and so on in prison if you wore your pants like that youd be telling other inmates that your open for jail sex and that’s what I heard it is true though do the research does a world of good for the youth and the jeans are 3 to 400$ insanity just please people wear them the right way the way they were made if you wana ncut ,dye , rip tear shred etc etc ok but not this in public it should be fined …
I dont like this so called “style” either and find it absolutely ridiculous with saying that i however believe its ones right to wear clothing how they deem fit as long as they ass’s are covered by something boxers under roos whatever and i dont have to be subjected to seeing ass crack. Really ive seen more disturbing things worn on woman in summer time a hell if a lot more revealing and what do i do after making sure my lunch dont come up and i shiver i simply use my neck and turn my head thats what its for dont like it dont look at it they are the ones looking absolutely ridiculous. Where will it stop what will you be fined for wearing?? The bigger picture isnt being seen by many. Secondly so many other bigger problems need to be looked at look past the smoke an mirrors on what they want you to see and see what they dont want to be seen.