Cities Cracking Down on Saggy Pants — Some May Face Jail Time

The “Saggy Pants” fashion started in U.S. prisons, where inmates aren’t given belts with their baggy uniform pants to prevent hangings and beatings — a “gangster rap” craze featuring low-slung baggy pants sometimes held by the hands to prevent it from falling down the legs. Sometime the pants are worn so low, that boxer shorts or bare buttocks are in full view.

“For young people, it’s a form of rebellion and identity,” Adrian “Easy A.D.” Harris, 43, a founding member of the Bronx’s legendary rap group Cold Crush Brothers. “The young people think it’s fashionable. They don’t think it’s negative.”

“The reason I don’t wear tight pants is because it’s easier to get money out of my pocket this way,” Wise said. “It’s just more comfortable,” says Mark Wise. My jeans sag for practical reasons.

“Are they going to go after construction workers and plumbers, because their pants sag, too?” Murray asked. “They’re stereotyping us,” says shop owner Mack Murray

The latest city to crack down on “Saggy Pants” is Flint, Michigan. Flint cops are cracking down on sagging pants, and violators of ordinance could face fines — even jail time.

Flint residents now have to watch their butts because Police Chief David Dicks is on the lookout.

Dicks, who took over the department last month on an interim basis, announced that his officers would start arresting people wearing saggy pants that expose skivvies, boxer shorts or bare bottoms.

“Some people call it a fad,” Dicks told the Free Press this week while patrolling the streets of Flint. “But I believe it’s a national nuisance. It is indecent and thus it is indecent exposure, which has been on the books for years.”

On June 27, the chief issued a departmental memorandum telling officers: “This immoral self expression goes beyond freedom of expression.”

The crime, he says, is disorderly conduct or indecent exposure, both misdemeanors punishable by 93 days to a year in jail and/or fines up to $500.

Flint is often called one of the most violent cities in America, however in recent years, it has seen a drop in homicides.

Civil Liberties

Greg Gibbs, a lawyer and chair of the ACLU Flint chapter, said the crackdown sounds like a “vast waste of resources.”

“In Atlanta, we see this as racial profiling,” said Benetta Standly, statewide organizer for the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia. “It’s going to target African-American male youths. There’s a fear with people associating the way you dress with crimes being committed.”

Michigan ACLU Executive Director Kary Moss said race could become an issue if the chief aggressively enforces the law…[MORE >>]