If you like wearing hoodies and hats and you like to shop in Topeka, you just might be out of luck if Mayor Bill Bunten has his way.
According to the [AP][1]:
> Mayor Bill Bunten says he’s suggesting
> that the city allow a retail store to
> ask people who come in wearing a
> hooded sweat shirt or ball cap to take
> it off their head so surveillance
> camera can see them. Police Chief Ron
> Miller also recommended a similar
> measure to discourage robberies.
Topekans say the proposal is both “socialist” and “communist,” and one local business owner said she’d lose customers. Bunten said the problem is kids these days.
http://www.lawrence.com/users/AlexParker/photos/2012/feb/8/229685/
“I wouldn’t have a quarrel with it,” he told [KSNT][2]. “Now, I don’t have a hoodie and I don’t have a ball cap, but if I did I’d take it off. Most people take their hats off when they go into a store anyway. Well, they used to.”
Bunten [told][3] the Topeka Capital-Journal he’s not proposing an outright ban of hoodies and hats, but wants to give stores the option to require customers to take off the items.
Brisbane, Australia, [banned][4] hoodies after a number of crimes jolted the area. Public schools in Allentown, Pa., briefly banned hoodies, and skinny jeans (“too snug for school”). Some folks in Colorado Springs, Colo., [believe][5] they’ve been unfairly targeted for wearing hoodies in stories. Stores in the Los Angeles area are [requiring][6] people to take off their hats upon entering establishments.
And 16-year-old Dale Carroll, of Manchester in England, was [barred][7] from donning a hoodie after he was found guilty of anti-social behavior.
Apparently, he and other local kids (hoods?) caused “mayhem,” which is a tall order for a young teen.
> Manchester magistrates heard that
> Carroll was part of a gang who caused
> mayhem to residents of Collyhurst
> village in the city for almost three
> years.
>
> The court heard he had attacked locals
> and once attempted to cut down a CCTV
> lamppost with a chainsaw.
>
> The teenager threw fireworks at
> cyclists and at one stage pulled a
> person from their bike and threatened
> them with an axe. He also drove a car
> on to a pavement and down steps close
> to the Sparrow pub in Collyhurst.
>
> Carroll of Cheetham, Manchester, was
> found guilty of anti social behaviour
> and was banned from wearing a hoodie
> or cap in public and from entering a
> large part of Collyhurst, including
> the home he shares with his mother in
> Manordale Walk.
>
> He was also prevented from
> congregating with more than two
> people, except family members, and
> banned from possessing fireworks, axes
> or chainsaws.
The proposal wasn’t discussed at the Topeka city council’s Tuesday meeting, but Councilman Andrew Gray wore a hoodie to meeting. He said it was comfortable.
[1]: http://salinapost.com/2012/02/04/topeka-group-aims-at-proposed-ball-cap-hoodie-ban/
[2]: http://www.ksnt.com/news/local/story/Mayor-proposes-ban-on-caps-and-hoodies/q8mp1g8JwUS7QCa3LUcHxg.cspx
[3]: http://cjonline.com/news/local/2012-02-04/protest-mayors-hoodie-request-planned
[4]: http://www.news.com.au/national/brisbane-stores-to-ban-hoodies-in-crime-crackdown/story-e6frfkvr-1226083800110
[5]: http://www.kktv.com/home/headlines/Springs_Mom_Upset_Over_Hoodie_Ban_135224953.html
[6]: http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2011/10/13/hats-off-or-get-out-valley-stores-lapd-to-ban-headgear-in-anti-crime-effort/
[7]: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2005/may/26/youthjustice.law
