A controversial ban on saggy pants in Ocala City, Florida, has been pulled up after a threatened lawsuit from the civil rights group NAACP.
The NAACP had criticized the law, which came into effect in July
2014, and said it would take action against the city for unfairly
profiling African-American men, according to WKMG radio.
Shortly after the NAACP criticism about the law, Ocala’s mayor
declined support for the law and urged the council to reconsider.
In a majority vote on Tuesday, September 16, Ocala City Council
members repealed the law, which banned anyone on city property
from wearing their pants two inches below the natural waist in a
way that exposed their underwear or buttocks. Offenders were to
be fined up to $500 and spend time in jail.
READ MORE: Florida town: Get your pants off the ground or face 6 months in jail
The saggy pants ban was introduced by Councilwoman Deborah Rich.
“It’s not true that I did this to profile black men. As you
can see, I’ve been black a long time,” said Rich. “I
have a black son, I have two black grandsons and two black
great-grandsons. So why would I want an ordinance that would hurt
them or any other young black person?”reported WUFT.FM
WUFT said Rich went on to tell the Council Chamber the types of
people who wear saggy pants also don’t have jobs.
“And when you don’t have money to feed your family, what do
you do? Steal,” Rich said. “I don’t think we’re violating their
First Amendment rights.”
The majority of city council members agreed to repeal the law as
it wasn’t terribly important to the city.
Everyone’s weighed in on saggy pants legislation, from President
Obama to the curator of the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan
Museum of Art in New York, when the fashion style began appearing
on city streets six years ago, and states and cities started
considering bans.
READ MORE: Sagging Pants: Trend or Trouble?
“I think passing a law about people wearing sagging pants is
a waste of time,” then-presidential candidate Barack Obama told MTV News in 2008. “We
should be focused on creating jobs, improving our schools,
getting healthcare, dealing with the war in Iraq. Any public
official who is worrying about sagging pants probably needs to
spend some time focusing on real problems out
there,” he said.
Andrew Bolton, the curator at the Costume Institute of the
Metropolitan Museum of Art, told the New York Times“fashions tend to be
decried when they challenge the conservative morality of a
society.”