Alabama beach town bans "vile and vulgar" t-shirts

[SuperMillionaire]

Mayor wants 'vile' t-shirt ordinance | Fox10tv.com

Orange Beach council to vote on vulgar t-shirt ban | Fox10tv.com

Orange Beach Approves Tacky T-shirt Ordinance

http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/...S02/303280023/

The beach town of Orange Beach, Alabama has banned the sale of t-shirts that are deemed "vile and vulgar" from the town's stores. Mayor Tony Kennon declared that when he visited a town shop that sells various souvenirs to tourists, especially during spring break, he was disgusted at the various messages that appeared on these t-shirts, including messages about glorifying sex, drugs, alcohol, profanity, greed, and suicide. He told the town's residents not to take his word for it, but to go in there and see for themselves, and when they did, they all agreed with him about the negative messages on these t-shirts. He then decided to put an ordinance on these t-shirts, prohibiting the t-shirts from being sold to people under 21, and have them hidden from view, out of the desire to protect his town's family-friendly image, and the council voted 4-1, in favor of the mayor's view, and with that, those t-shirts, along with various other souvenirs with questionable messages, were effectively outlawed.

Personally, I agree with him on this. I haven't been to that particular beach town, but I've been to many others, and I've seen a bunch of t-shirts with all sorts of nasty slogans and images. For instance, I remember seeing a shirt that said, "I Got [bleep]-faced," and I thought, "why are they selling shirts with these kinds of messages? It's disgusting and offensive." I also hope that other beach-side towns follow suit and start banning these t-shirts from being sold to people under 21.

[Elskidor]

Kinda goes against the first amendment don't you think? I don't see the problem with the shirts though. I mean, if people don't like the shirts then they don't have to look at them, read them or give them power by feeding them so much attention.

[Jinx]

Yeah, because who cares about Freedom of Speech and the rights of the business owner to sell whatever merchandise they want (that aren't illegal)?

[Quindiana Jones]

I find Americans a bit gobby anyway. It's about time someone finally stood up to nip that first amendment malarky in the bud.

[Mirage]

Yeah, because who cares about Freedom of Speech and the rights of the business owner to sell whatever merchandise they want (that aren't illegal)?

Yeah, so all they have to do is to make the merchandise illegal!

[fire_of_avalon]

Kinda goes against the first amendment don't you think?

No.

Yeah, because who cares about Freedom of Speech and the rights of the business owner to sell whatever merchandise they want (that aren't illegal)?

They can still sell them.

I don't have a problem with people selling stupid tshirts but I also don't have a problem with a community deciding to make ordinances since that's pretty much what local government is for.

[Madame Adequate]

I hate the kind of tacky crap that sells in places like that (Blackpool please leave), but I'm preeeeeetty sure this isn't a thing that is, or should be, legal to do. Nor should it be.

[Jessweeee♪]

First you take the sex toys out of Spencer's and now the god awful T-shirts? wtf are they supposed to sell now?

[Calliope]

What a depressing thread. Who are all these people queuing up to buy tasteless t-shirts while on holiday, enough to warrant having an entire shop or shops devoted to such products? Why go the trouble of buying and wearing a shirt proclaiming to everyone that you just got smashed, when it's probably evident in your other appearance and demeanor anyway?

Oh well, here is a NSFW link. I suppose there will always be a lowest common denominator of culture, in which I sometimes revel. All of this merchandise will be available for purchase online, which should curb anyone's disappointment at not being able to spend twenty dollars on a novelty t-shirt.

I'd be interested to see if there is going to be any policing of people wearing such shirts, but until then I don't really care because I think souvenirs are usually tacky and wasteful as opposed to meaningful, I consider them tasteless but not offensive or threatening, and people can buy these products elsewhere if they truly want to. I would like to see things taken a step further and simply ban all t-shirts with any slogans or advertising on them. Go on, I dare you.

[Shorty]

All they have left are their tacky posters in the corner of the store now.

I am not in favor of this ordinance because it makes it harder to spot the idiots, who should be able to dress like idiots if they so choose.

[comma]

What's the problem? This isn't the first place in the country that has banned vulgar t-shirts.

It doesn't violate the First Amendment. Where were you when public intoxication was outlawed? Isn't that, like, violating your right to speak your mind and be who you are? Nope. This sums it up pretty well:

The right to free speech is protected under the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. A statute is deemed to be overly broad and violative of the Constitution if it prohibits speech that is merely offensive to certain persons. The prohibited speech must constitute "fighting words," which are defined as words that have a direct tendency to cause acts of violence by the person to whom the words are directed. Fighting words include profane, obscene, and threatening words.

[Psychotic]

I have no intention whatsoever to step foot inside Alabama, so let them make whatever wacky t-shirts or laws they want.

[nik0tine]

The right to free speech is protected under the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. A statute is deemed to be overly broad and violative of the Constitution if it prohibits speech that is merely offensive to certain persons. The prohibited speech must constitute "fighting words," which are defined as words that have a direct tendency to cause acts of violence by the person to whom the words are directed. Fighting words include profane, obscene, and threatening words.

Nothing on any of these T-shirts, or really on any T-shirt period, could ever qualify as "fighting words".

Local governments have no right to implement an ordinance like this, irrespective of what it's own community thinks and wants. The right for one store owner to make a meager profit off of shameless garbage like this completely supersedes the desire of an entire community to project a "family friendly" image.

[The Man]

Nothing on any of these T-shirts, or really on any T-shirt period, could ever qualify as "fighting words".

I dunno about that. If someone wore a t-shirt that said "Kill all niggers" I'm pretty sure that would qualify as fighting words.

Regardless, banning shirts like this is ridiculous.

[nik0tine]

At what point do we draw the line, then? Can we tell Neo-Nazis that they can't wear their stupid band shirts or SS shirts? Could we sell a shirt with a picture of Mohammad on it? Surely that would constitute "fighting" speech for some people.

If you literally get in a fight over a racist T-shirt, you have some serious self control issues.