Wednesday, January 24, 2018

The Return Of Sumptuary Laws: "Dutch police to ‘undress’ youths wearing clothes deemed too expensive for them"

When I think of regulating clothing it's usually the medieval laws but apparently there is a longer history.
In ancient Greece:

"A free-born woman may not be accompanied by more than one female slave, unless she is drunk; she may not leave the city during the night, unless she is planning to commit adultery; she may not wear gold jewelry or a garment with a purple border, unless she is a courtesan; and a husband may not wear a gold-studded ring or a cloak of Milesian fashion unless he is bent upon prostitution or adultery."—Wikipedia

From the Independent:
Officers will target young men wearing designer clothes and watches they seemingly cannot afford
Police in the Dutch city of Rotterdam have launched a new pilot programme which will see them confiscating expensive clothing and jewellery from young people if they look too poor to own them.
Officers say the scheme will see them target younger men in designer clothes they seem unlikely to be able to afford legally – if it is not clear how the person paid for it, it will be confiscated. 
The idea is to deter criminality by sending a signal that the men will not be able to hang onto their ill-gotten gains.

Rotterdam police chief Frank Paauw told Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf: “They are often young guests who consider themselves untouchable. We're going to undress them on the street.

“We regularly take a Rolex from a suspect. Clothes rarely. And that is especially a status symbol for young people. Some young people now walk with jackets of €1800. They do not have any income, so the question is how they get there.”

He said the young men targeted often have no income and are already in debt from fines for previous convictions but wearing expensive clothing.

This “undermines the rule of law” which sends “a completely false signal to local residents”, he explained.

The trial is due to start in the Rotterdam West section of the city and police say they will target one gang in particular....MORE
 Time to put the Sun King outfit away for a while I 'spose.

https://i2.wp.com/upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5f/Louis_XIV_of_France.jpg