Congratulations, Justin Bieber (and anyone else with an inclination toward pulled-down trousers)! Looks like you can finally stop avoiding that trip to Ocala, Florida. This week, the city overturned a law it had passed in July banning “sagging” or “low-riding” pants.
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The ordinance prohibited anyone on city property from wearing their pants “two inches below their natural waist in a way that exposes underwear or bare buttocks.” Violators caught sagging were subject to fines up to $500 and possible jail time.
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The predominant champion of the ban was councilwoman Mary Rich, a retired probation senior supervisor for the Florida Department of Corrections, who went on record stating that she believes that the law’s passage would “make [individuals who wear sagging pants] respect themselves.” Unsurprisingly, Rich and the ordinance came under fire by the NAACP for racial profiling. Spokesperson Dale Landry, of the Florida chapter, points out the obvious: “I’m sorry, it’s going to be black males that are the subject of this.”
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Kent Guinn, Ocala’s mayor, changed his stance after the criticism from the NAACP, but the law was only repealed after the organization threatened legal action. “I think you get into really dangerous territory when you start legislating what type of clothes people wear or how they put together their ensemble,” Guinn told WKMG.
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While there have been advocates and activists trying to debunk these draconian laws—for example, in 2008, a judge in Palm Beach, Florida ruled a similar city law as unconstitutional after a 17-year old was forced to spend the night in jail—Ocala isn’t the only city attempting to institutionalize “public decency.” Within the last year, cities in Tennessee, Louisiana and New Jersey have all attempted the same. Which is all to say that, unfortunately, the right to sag just might continue to be a hot topic issue for a while.
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