Louisiana parish introduces $50 saggy pants fine for first-time offenders and $100 for repeat offenders
The Louisiana parish of Jefferson Davis is the latest place in the country to introduce a ban on people wearing their pants too low.
Local police jurors unanimously passed an ordinance on Wednesday making it illegal for any person to appear in a public place wearing pants below the waist and exposing their skin or undergarments.
Police Juror Steve Eastman said saggy pants have been a long-running problem in the parish.
‘I had complaints from security guards around the courthouse that there was issues with people not being respectfully dressed in the courtroom area,’ he told KPLC.
‘So initially I was going to be for on the courthouse grounds, and the other jurors felt that it was important parish-wide.’
It was Juror Bryon Buller who took the suggestion a step further and asked the panel to consider making it illegal for anyone to show their undergarments in public to limit indecent and lewd behavior.
Those violating the law face a $50 fine for the first offense and a $100 fine for each subsequent violation, reports the American Press.
The trend originated in prisons, where inmates were not allowed to have belts, and hip hop artists began copying the look in the 1990s.
Barack Obama spoke out against the look in 2008, saying: ‘Brothers should pull up their pants.
‘You are walking by your mother, your grandmother, your underwear is showing. What’s wrong with that? Come on. Some people might not want to see your underwear. I’m one of them.’
Similar laws have been enacted in communities around the country, including Wildwood, New Jersey, and Cocoa, Florida.
Civil Liberties groups have in the past argued that such bans are ‘unconstitutional’ under the 14th Amendment, which says no citizen should be deprived of ‘life, liberty or property’ and no person should be denied equal protection of the law.
A number of other Louisiana municipalities, including Merryville, Kinder, Elton, Welsh and Opelousas, have already passed similar measures.
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