‘It is illegal to wear a zoot suit in Los Angeles.’ (Unless you’re a performer.) This has been claimed on several ‘weird laws that still exist’ sites.
Question: Is the zoot suit ban still on the books? If not, when was it repealed?
According to LA’s NBC4, it was never a law
the council at the time backed a resolution – never codified as a law --that barred zoot suits in the city.
Of note, there was a resolution in 2023 repeating the condemnation of zoot suits as unpatriotic.
They were never illegal in Los Angeles. The city council passed an ordinance that was never signed into law.
Federal WWII rationing laws made wool clothing with excessive fabric illegal which was ostensibly the reason that people wearing them were attacked but obviously the people were really attacked because it was the fashion amongst Mexican American youth. Military members claimed they were flauting the law while they were dying for their country. Ironically, Mexican Americans were per capita over represented in the military and very over represted in medals for bravery.
Who’s that whispering in the breeze?
It’s two sailors and they’re on leave.
I thought I read that people wearing zoot suits could face 30 days in jail.
Love that song. I like those nouveau Swing bands. (Actually, I like the ones from the '40s too.)
I put this OP in the category of: Stupid laws everyone puts on their website but can never give a cite to in the penal code. I (don’t) wonder why that is.
Either that’s a typo of “repealing” or the MAGA cultists of Los Angeles have suddenly adopted a new fashion sense.
I don’t doubt that people were profiled and spent 30 days in jail for some other bullshit reason but it wasn’t a law. The riots were a major scandal. Eleanor Roosevelt spoke out in support of the victims.
The US needed Mexican labor for agriculture and it was an diplomatic issue as well. The California Governor tapped a Catholic bishop to do a fact finding study and the conclusion was that it was racism.
LA was way smaller and I have no doubt that the police were hicks that didn’t give a shit. That said, zoot suits are not still banned because they never were.
Moderator Note
If you want to pick on a typo that’s fine (it’s an SDMB tradition) but let’s keep the political pot-shots out of FQ, please.
Please note that ‘weird laws that still exist’ sites are usually full of crap. The laws cited are either made up, or obsolete, or misstated. Never believe them.
Snopes examines one such frequently cited law. You would find similar explanations for most items on such lists.
Or there is an underlying reason for it so it actually makes perfect sense. For example it is (or used to be) illegal for women to wear high heels in Chicago. It dates back to when Chicago sidewalks were in crappy condition and women would sue for injuries when their heels got caught in the cracks. Rather than fixing the sidewalks, the city made wearing heels illegal. It was never enforced but it prevented women from suing as their injuries came from committing an illegal act.
Of course. I went out to find evidence that it’s not illegal to wear a zoot suit in L.A., but all I could find was the claim that it is. So I asked here.
Most often these lists take perfectly reasonable laws and create ludicrous examples of how the law could potentially be applied. For instance, a city may have an ordinance that it’s illegal to leave a pet chained up on a public sidewalk. But that will be presented as, “Did you know that in Yahooville it’s illegal to chain your pet alligator to a fire hydrant on a Tuesday?!?!”
I couldn’t find any evidence for this in Chicago, but Carmel, CA, actually requires a permit for heels over 2". Chapter 8.44 PERMITS FOR WEARING CERTAIN SHOES