@john65pennington Most stores have a dress code; No shirt, no shoes, no service. One would think that the addition of the word “pants” would be unnecessary.
I contest your use of the phrase “public on television”. The public on television are not in their underwear. The highly paid Victoria’s Secret models are in their underwear. (more or less)
You don’t really give us all the information here, and I suspect that there is more to the story. I can well imagine that some stupid man got a belligerent attitude and did something like this just to make a point, and when asked to leave by the store got even more belligerent and it was at this point that the police were called in.
I honestly don’t know which would be worse in this situation; wearing brown socks and a pair of lace up shoes or being barefoot. Either way, the store is at liberty to set standards of acceptable dress, such as not allowing people to wear “hoodies” with the hoods up, or anything else that would obscure features and make identification difficult. They are also under an obligation to the health department and from a liability standpoint to require shoes to be worn and outer covering.
Another thing is that public exposure may be indicative that he has some mental issues going on, and the police may have ended up having him assessed by a professional in order for him to get some help. At the very least, he should be considered a potential danger to others.
There is a time and a place for everything, and the grocery store is not the place for a man to be wandering around in his underwear. Where would he carry his wallet?