Fla. town gives up on sagging pants ban

COCOA, Fla., Sept. 29 (UPI) -- A Florida town has abandoned plans to bar young people from wearing low-slung pants that expose their underwear.

Members of the Cocoa City Council decided Tuesday against taking a vote on a proposed ordinance after City Attorney Anthony Garganese advised them defending it would probably mean fighting a lawsuit, Florida Today reported. He also warned them Cocoa might lose.

"It would be an expensive ordinance to defend, with an outcome you wouldn't find acceptable," Garganese said.

Pants worn with the waistband well below the waistline have been an on-and-off fad in the United States for years. Several generations of teenage boys have ignored calls from their elders to pull their pants up.

No one spoke in favor of the fashion at Tuesday night's meeting. Mayor Michael Blake and others urged parents to start enforcing a dress code.

James McCarthy, who owns a business in Cocoa Beach, said teens need to remember they might someday be asking for a job from those they meet on the street. But he conceded he told his 11-year-old son a teen they encountered in sagging pants was exercising his free speech rights.