Oklahoma lawmaker wants to make wearing hoodies in public against the law

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last updated 10 January 2015

Some people may say wearing a hoodie in public is a fashion crime, but one Oklahoma state senator wants to make it an actual crime, punishable with a $500 fine.

In the 1920s, Oklahoma enacted a law targeting the KKK by making it a crime to wear a hood or a disguise while committing a criminal offense. Now, Sen. Don Barrington (R) wants to amend that law to prohibit people from wearing hoodies while out and about, saying the intent is to "make businesses and public places safer by ensuring that people cannot conceal their identities for the purpose of crime or harassment."

While it wouldn't be a blanket ban of anything that covers a person's face — there are exceptions for religious garments, parades, Halloween celebrations, protection from weather, and other circumstances — attorney James Siderias told KFOR he believes it's too extreme. "This is a violation of an individual's right to choose what they want to wear as long as it doesn't violate the realm of public decency and moral values, and I think this could be very problematic," he said.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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