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 $250. In Colinsville, Illinois, wearing saggy pants on any public property is banned. And in New York, State Senator Eric Adams used his own money to put up billboards that read, “Stop the Sag.”
Source: rt.com
Photo: Reuters / Mohamad Torokman
What is this nazi America. Yeh its stupid looking but this is bull$#%&!@*.
I think sagging your pants makes you look like a PUNK, however its your right and free will to do so. POWER TO THE PEOPLE.
Bull$#%&!@*. Next week it will. Be you were a red shirt on thursday if can legally goto jail for how you dress you can go for anything. You wore flip flops in february… really people actually think its ok ..honestley if you want. To look like a complete. Moron with. Pants. That don’t.fit. or better yet letting all the. Gay men out. There know you are looking for some but sex. (Becase that what it actually means )is goin to work the. Same. If. A.women wears a skirt too short and her underware show… .wake up people
it looks stupid but it is their right to look like they $#%&!@* their pants..
Personally I am tired of seeing boxers, I think it is tacky and I would not want a small daughter to see this. It may be a so called right but it mighty close to indecent exposure. What if women did this?? Do you think for one iota she would not get arrested?
I’m so glad they are made to keep their pants up!
more trash off the streets good job
Funny, when I saw this “Shazam!” came out of mouth. and then……..I found this. lol.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/dwayne-the-rock-johnson-set-to-play-shazam-in-dc-superhero-movie-9620198.html
I see more racist people here complaining n they can’t change their life from that, but they want others prosecuted for something that’s less negative then being a racist!
Ya need to get a life for real people buy their own clothes so they wear it how the $#%&!@* they want, why don’t u keep ur eyes up out of places u should not be staring at, it’s like telling people how to live they life, u have no right to judge no one or proclaim how they should dress when u not spending a dime on they shirt,socks, jeans. Focus on your life cause there r better n more worst $#%&!@* going on in this $#%&!@* up world then a sagging pants!