Girl's Smiley-Face Bandana Ordered Removed

Malls now have clothing cops who keep an eye on what customers wear. It doesn't take much for them to spring into action.

A southwest Missouri mall defended its dress code after a security guard told a 10-year-old girl her bandanna decorated with peace signs, smiley faces and flowers violated the mall's code of conduct. Lydia Smith, who was shopping with her mother at Battlefield Mall for new church clothes when the incident happened Saturday, said she wore the orange and yellow bandanna to give her outfit some color.

Lydia and her mom, Susan Smith, were eating lunch when the girl saw a mall security officer ask a nearby teenager to remove a bandanna. Then the officer approached her. [...] Lydia had violated No. 10 on the list of 17 offenses [on the mall's code of conduct]: "failing to be fully clothed or wearing apparel which is likely to provide a disturbance or embroil other groups or the general public in open conflict." Mall officials won't clarify what clothing and accessories are prohibited. "The code of conduct is pretty clear and, you know, I think common sense should prevail," said Les Morris, spokesman for Simon Property Group Inc., which owns the mall.

Yes, yes, if only common sense would prevail.

Comments

[Angie]

Oh you have got to be joking! And they won't even back up their policy with a listing, so they are free to harass anyone they wish.

[e]

Umm what's your problem with this? It's a private mall right? The mall can enforce any dress code they want. In the future Libertarian utopia, there will be no public places at all. All streets and sidewalks will be privatized and no one in the city limits will be allowed to wear a bandanna outside of the homes.