The mayor of a Chicago suburb proposed an ordinance Monday night that would prohibit individuals from wearing “sagging pants” in the town.
Mayor Anthony Calderone of Forest Park, Ill., introduced the ordinance at a Village Board meeting, but village commissioners voted to table the issue to discuss it in more depth.
The law would amend the “indecent conduct ordinance,” prohibiting wearing pants or shorts falling more than three inches below a person’s hips and exposing that portion of the person’s undergarments, buttocks, pubic area and/or genitals, according to documents.
Calderone told a reporter after the meeting that “when a majority of journalists, particularly weather newscasters on TV – when I see them with their pants halfway down, then I will believe that it’s generally acceptable.”
Nick Ardinger, an audience member, told the village board he fears prohibiting sagging pants may impact a particular subculture, such as young people and minorities.
“My fear is that this can become a (reason) to stop-and-frisk (by police),” Ardinger said. “Is this really that much of a threat to our village?”
Ardinger also jokingly asked commissioners if the village should ban the miniskirt and cleavage.
Calderone told commissioners that he will form a “diversity committee” within the next two months to discuss the issue.
“There are people on both sides of the issue,” Calderone said. “This doesn’t have to do with any sort of racial profiling what so ever. In our town, it’s not been any one specific color (race), it’s been whites and blacks.”
Calderone said the nearby suburb of Maywood has a similar law that was enacted several years ago.
Commissioner Chris Harris called the proposed law ridiculous.
“(I can’t believe) that it’s actually happening in a municipality where I am sitting on a council.it’s disturbing,” Harris said.
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