Virginia Cops Bitchslap Abercrombie and Fitch

Virginia Beach is one of the most progressive cities in Southern Virginia, but they also strictly enforce family values.  You can’t curse in public.  Seriously, there are street signs lining the sidewalks downtown, and if the cops hear you swearing, you get a fine. 

You also can’t display provocative billboards in business where kids hang out.  And the manager of the Abercrombie and Fitch store at Lynnhaven mall found that out the hard way.

From HamptonRoads.com via Drudge here:

Police, saying they were responding to citizen complaints, carted away two large promotional photographs from the Abercrombie & Fitch store in Lynnhaven Mall on Saturday and cited the manager on obscenity charges.

The seizure and the issuance of the summons came only after store management had not heeded warnings to remove the images.

The citation was issued under City Code Section 22.31 which makes it a crime to display “obscene materials in a business that is open to juveniles.”

One depicts three shirtless young men from the back, walking through a field. The man in the lead appears to be about to pull up his jeans, which have slipped down enough to reveal his upper buttocks.

The other image is of a woman who is topless and whose “breast is displayed with her hand covering just the nipple portion.”

The manager was not arrested but faces a fine of up to $2,000 and as much as a year in jail, if convicted.

In 2003, the company halted publication of its 7-year-old A&F Quarterly catalog because of complaints about sexually suggestive photographs by award-winning photographer Bruce Weber.

In 2002, Abercrombie & Fitch pulled a line of thongs from its shelves that were aimed at girls age 10 and under.

The Supreme Court ruled that obscenity is defined by community standards, so I don’t think there is a challenge here.  When I told my wife about this she laughed and thought A&F had it coming.  She hates the store because of its hype, the prices and the trollops that stand outside local stores wearing nothing but a stupid coat.  And she thinks the stores are deliberately dark inside so no one can see the upskirt cameras hidden beneath the clothing racks and in the changing rooms.

Update! The VA Beach DA is going to drop the charges. As one person on FARK said:

I’m conflicted: on the one hand, the Virginia Beach police (and DA’s office?) were way out of line here. On the other hand, I hate those damned A&F ads for being so blatantly soft-core porn as opposed to advertising actual clothes.