A woman was on the beach with her friends when police received a complaint about their swimsuits. The woman demanded to know what law had been broken as they handcuffed her and led her to their patrol car. Do you see anything wrong with the swimsuit?
Sam Panda, a professional aerialist, was in South Carolina enjoying the sun and sand when cops arrived and arrested her. According to Sam, they did this because another woman didn’t like the way she looked in her swimsuit. A shocking video of the incident shows two police officers handcuffing Sam at Myrtle Beach after a caller reported her swimsuit to the authorities.
“A woman called the cops on me because of my bikini,” she wrote on Facebook when she shared a video of the incident. “That’s how this all started. Some Karen decided that my body was offensive to her and showed her child that her body could one day lead to her arrest.”
Sam insisted on seeing the law that indicated she couldn’t wear a bikini on the beach, and one of the cops promised to show her the regulation when they got back to their patrol car. “Why is it illegal to wear a bikini on the beach?” a man asked off camera, as Sam added, “I literally wear this every day.”
But when they arrived at the car, the officer read aloud an ordinance, which said that “it shall be unlawful for anyone to appear in the nude” on public beaches. “I’m not nude!” Sam protested. The officer responded that she was wearing a thong, which Sam insisted isn’t nudity. “You put me in handcuffs for being in a thong!” she said, begging the officer to release her.
The city of Myrtle Beach does, in fact, forbid thongs on the beach, despite the fact that the nudity statute read by the cops doesn’t appear to apply to Sam’s thong bikini. Section 14-83 of the city’s municipal code, passed in 1993, reads:
Public exposure of specified anatomical parts unlawful.
It shall be unlawful for any person to intentionally appear in any public place in such a state of dress or undress so as to expose to the view of others the human male or female genitals, pubic area, pubic hair, buttocks, anus, vulva or any portion of the female breast at or below the areola thereof.
The word “buttocks” specifically disallows wearing thongs. People who broke the ordinance were initially given a warning to cover up before cops would issue a ticket, according to NBC affiliate WMBF. The City Council revised the policy in 2009, removing the need for warnings. “There’s been a law the last 16 years against thongs — period,” then-Mayor John Rhodes said at the time. “Is it a good thing? A bad thing? Well, it’s the law.”
But even so, it seems that the officers should have issued Sam a ticket rather than handcuffing her. The officers criticized Sam’s female acquaintance for wearing a sheer white top in the video. One of the cops changed course after a protracted discussion on whether or not wearing a thong is considered nudity and claimed that she was detained due to “how [she was] acting.”
Some minutes pass before a third cop arrived. Sam gave the third officer a run-down of what had transpired up to that point as she described the scenario to him. “I am not nude. Everything that is a private part is covered,” she said. “You can’t tell me I can’t wear a thong.” Sam’s handcuffs were eventually removed, but the group continued to argue for a while over the reason for their detention.
Sam later posted the video on Facebook, where she expressed her displeasure with the woman who had initially called the police on her. She had nothing bad to say about the policemen themselves. “If you are a woman, and you decide to call the police on other women for their bodies ON A BEACH, IN FRONT OF YOUR TEENAGE DAUGHTER… You have allowed a 105 pound woman to get rushed, aggressively grabbed, manhandled, and cuffed. You allowed two women to be s***-shamed publicly on a beach for their bathing suits,” she wrote.
“And worst of all, you showed your daughter that her body is something she should be ashamed of and could be detained for,” she continued. “You showed her that a man can harm a woman over the way her body is viewed by other people. You have objectified a female body that does not belong to you and have showed your daughter that those actions are acceptable. You should be absolutely ashamed of yourself,” she concluded.
TMZ reports that local police claim the call came from someone who complained about two women “who were wearing thong bikinis and a see-through top that were dancing and soliciting videos on the beach.” The reason Sam was detained, according to the authorities, was because she allegedly tried to walk away from the officers. Sam and her friend were released without any charges.
Law enforcement should have better things to do with their time, considering the number of actual brothels in Myrtle Beach. Sam’s supporters might say that if you do not like what she is wearing, then don’t look. However, her critics may point out that children go to these public beaches and don’t need to be exposed to adults who are two seconds away from a wardrobe malfunction. But in my opinion, she should only have been arrested for those bad tattoos.
