Opa-locka to repeal ‘saggy pants’ ban in city buildings, parks
It was one of South Florida’s most unusual, constitutionally questionable laws: a ban on the wearing of “saggy pants” at city buildings and parks throughout Opa-locka, later expanded to include all public spaces.
Now, after 13 years, the law will soon be no more.
The Opa-locka City Commission voted Wednesday evening, 4-1, to repeal both the original 2007 legislation and a 2013 ordinance that said women, not just men, could receive civil citations for wearing pants that exposed their undergarments.
Wednesday’s vote was a first reading of the repeal, meaning it will need to be approved again at a subsequent commission meeting before it’s official. But the item was cosponsored by four of the five commissioners.
“I was never in support of it, even as a resident,” Vice Mayor Chris
Davis, who sponsored the repeal, told the Miami Herald. “I felt it disproportionately affected a certain segment of our population, which is young, African-American men.”
Around the city, signs still warn residents of the ordinance, showing an image of two young men wearing pants below their waists and featuring the words: “No ifs, ands or butts ... It’s the city law!”
“The signs should get taken down,” Mayor Matthew Pigatt said during Wednesday’s virtual meeting. “It’s long overdue and they need to go. They’re an eyesore in the city.”
The lone opponent of the repeal Wednesday was Commissioner Alvin Burke, who argued that the law was not intended “to target our young black men, but to uplift our young black men.”
“As of today, we still have our young men walking around with saggy, baggy pants,” said Burke, 66, who was one of four new city officials elected in 2018. “If y’all see fit
to do away with it and just continue to let our young black men walk around into our buildings like that ... then so be it.”
All five commissioners seemed to agree that city officials should still seek to discourage their constituents from dressing certain ways. Pigatt said that, although he was once a young man who “drank the Kool-Aid” and sagged his pants, he sees “the tackiness of it now.”
“I do support the [education] and making sure that we take care of that decorum,” he said.
Not everyone thought the law was necessary, or even legal, in the first place. The ACLU of Florida called the legislation in 2007 a “ridiculous waste of public resources,” saying it would “impose overly harsh penalties for victimless behavior” and disproportionately affect African Americans.
After Wednesday’s vote, the ACLU of Florida applauded the repeal.
“Criminalizing the way someone wears their clothing serves no one. Similar ordinances have been pursued across the country and have only yielded heightened racial profiling by police and increased racial disparities in the criminal justice system,” the group told the Herald in a statement.
“It is an affront to the constitutional principles of fairness, free expression, and due process of law,” the statement says. “We’re glad the commissioners voted to repeal this ordinance. Our local leaders should be looking at ways to end discriminatory practices, not embolden them.”
About 58% of residents in the North Miami-Dade city are Black, according to U.S. Census data. Opa-locka is also one of the poorest cities in Florida with an estimated 47% of people living in poverty.
It’s not clear how often the ordinance was enforced, how much money the city collected in fines, or how often the ticketed offenders were Black during its 13 years on the books. City officials said Wednesday that they could not immediately provide enforcement data in response to a request from the Herald.
At the time of the expansion to include women in November 2013, city officials said they had issued 72 tickets for lowhanging pants so far that year.
The city also doubled fines to $500 in 2013 and said violators could alternatively face 25 hours of community service. The punishment was decided at hearings by the city’s code enforcement department and city magistrate.
Davis, the vice mayor, said he doesn’t believe the city has done much to collect in recent years. “I don’t think we have the infrastructure to be able to collect on the citations,” he said.
Commissioner Joseph Kelley agreed that there has lately been “no real enforcement” of the law.
“I think its usefulness has run its course,” he said.
Opa-locka isn’t the only city in Florida that has banned saggy pants. Ocala in Central Florida passed a similar ordinance in 2014, but repealed it months later after the NAACP threatened legal action.
The repeal in Opa-locka comes at a moment of national reckoning on policing and criminal justice after the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis in May.
“What better climate to do it in than the one that’s going on around the country centered on police reform,” said Davis, “and just looking at ways that we can make our public services more equitable.”
Locally, Opa-locka’s finances have been monitored by the state since then-Gov. Rick Scott declared a state of emergency in 2016. Under the new slate of officials elected in 2018, including Pigatt and Davis — and following a wave of federal indictments for corruption — the city has now been trying to catch up on its audits and address 99 findings of government mismanagement in a report by the state’s auditor general last year.
The city’s police department has also been under fire. A recent report by Miami-Dade police found low morale, limited training and legally questionable standard operating procedures. City Manager John Pate fired Police
Chief James Dobson last month.
As city officials try to look forward, a familiar face is attempting a return to local politics. Timothy Holmes, the ex-commissioner who sponsored the saggy pants legislation in 2007, is running for city commission in November after previously serving from 1994 to 2018.
Holmes was a proud proponent of the ordinance, boasting in 2013 that people “can try to stop it if they want to, but I don’t think it would ever happen.” He said at the time: “I never wanted to try to put somebody’s child in jail ... even though, in my opinion, some of them need to go to jail with their pants down like that.”
But Holmes’ perspective no longer has the same support it once did on the Opa-locka commission.
“This administration is moving in a new direction as far as equity and police in our community,” Davis said.