Should "sagging pants" be illegal?

The NY Times has an article about how some jurisdictions are outlawing "sagging pants."

Since June 11, sagging pants have been against the law in Delcambre, La., a town of 2,231 that is 80 miles southwest of Baton Rouge. The style carries a fine of as much as $500 or up to a six-month sentence. “We used to wear long hair, but I don’t think our trends were ever as bad as sagging,” said Mayor Carol Broussard.

I hate sagging pants and other ghetto-inspired fashion trends as much as the next guy. Even more so because I'm somewhat nerdy.

But is outlawing the practice the way to go? You can make the pants illegal, but underneath non-sagging pants will still be an obnoxious punk who will find some other way to annoy respectable people. There's also the danger that someone will wander into town wearing sagging pants, not knowing about the ordinance, and wind up in jail. That result doesn't seem fair.

Comments

[State is right]

This is why I love the United States, and the idea of federalism as it was originally established. If a town or state wants to impose sartorial restrictions, the town or state bordering them isn't required to do the same, and we get a crock (not melting) pot of various legal codes (bounded by the guarantees in the Constitution, of course, of which baggy pants isn't one). People can then vote with their feet (much easier than leaving a country). Let the hicks in LA ban baggy pants; who knows, maybe it will raise their education ranking out of the gutter (but I doubt it).

http://www.morganquitno.com/edrank.htm

[JewishAtheist]

Preposterous.

[Turambar]

Benjamin Chavis of the NAACP weighs in:
“The focus should be on cleaning up the social conditions that the sagging pants comes out of,” he said. “That they wear their pants the way they do is a statement of the reality that they’re struggling with on a day-to-day basis.”

Sometimes you just wish everyone could lose in an argument.

[JewishAtheist]

Sometimes you just wish everyone could lose in an argument.

It's important not to mistake bad arguments for wrong conclusions. There are always bad arguments on both sides of any issue. HS is generally satisfied to point to bad arguments on the liberal side and consider the case closed, but that's a ridiculous way of making decisions. What's right is right no matter which idiots agree with it.

[Spungen]

They often favor Greco-Latinate words over Germanic ones (“it’s my observation” instead of “I think”),

Uh-oh. I missed this the first read. I've been saying this a lot lately. I think I picked it up hanging around here.

[Spungen]

I've always wondered how those guys expect to run from the cops without tripping over their pantlegs.

[Perplexed]

How long has it been? 10 years? 15 years? Saggy-pants have been remarkably persistent. Bell-bottoms never had it so good, not even in revival. When will it stop?

"That they wear their pants the way they do is a statement of the reality that they’re struggling with on a day-to-day basis.”

It didn't take to long to blame "social conditions," The Man, or whatever. Chavis should really be telling young black men to stop dressing like clowns and criminals, but then he would forgo his street cred. I'm sorry, but the black community is simply beyond help or hope.

[Steven]

"I've always wondered how those guys expect to run from the cops without tripping over their pantlegs."

See http://abcnews.go.com/US/LegalCenter/story?id=2099027
I love it--ghetto kids getting caught because of their impractical taste in fashion. At least now these idiots will get to wear the real thing.

[Perplexed]

"At least now these idiots will get to wear the real thing."

So the trend will only end when prisons change their uniforms?

[JewishAtheist]

Chavis should really be telling young black men to stop dressing like clowns and criminals, but then he would forgo his street cred. I'm sorry, but the black community is simply beyond help or hope.

LOL. I guess nobody has to point out the racist component in banning sagging pants.

"So the trend will only end when prisons change their uniforms?"

Doubtful. Many prisons today use jumpsuits in orange or white. Not too many brothers pimp-limping around in that type of stuff on Martin Luther King Blvd. The denim look (especially the dark denim) was an "old school" prison garb in many locations. "Busting the sag", or wearing pants loose, low and with no belt, stems from you get processed, they take your belt so that you don't use it to hang yourself.

[David Alexander]

But is outlawing the practice the way to go? You can make the pants illegal, but underneath non-sagging pants will still be an obnoxious punk who will find some other way to annoy respectable people.

That's the problem. Even if the kid is wearing his pants at a "normal" levels, the problem is that if he is the type to cause trouble, commit crime, and simply harass anyone he meets, he'll simply continue to do so, and laws like this only make outlaws out of these kids which in turn fuels their popularity. The only people this will bother are the kids who wear their pants in such a fashion, but aren't "punks", and much too afraid to pay a fine or go to jail.

BTW, these ordinances are a great way for cops to look for new ways to round up "Negros" and search for illegal guns and drugs.

I've always wondered how those guys expect to run from the cops without tripping over their pantlegs.

My nephew wears his pants in such a style, and despite prodding from my mother and I, he continues to wear his pants that way. It's a style, and it despite ample evidence of the pants interfering with running, they continue to wear it for style reasons.

Chavis should really be telling young black men to stop dressing like clowns and criminals, but then he would forgo his street cred.

I'll clue you into a little secret, Chavis and the NAACP have no street cred in the black community.

LOL. I guess nobody has to point out the racist component in banning sagging pants.

Except that in some of the jurisdictions in question, the population is majority black.

[miles]

Sagging pants seem like an unattractive way to present oneself.

In your youth, while youre in great shape, why wouldn't you want you clothes to fit. These youngsters have their fifties, sixties, and seventies to look forward to when they can wear baggy, tourist clothing and hide sagging bellies and thin legs.

Has anyone ever noticed the over-sized sports jersies and baggy pants and sideways hats make a grown man look like a gigantic child? Toddlers look like this in dress. Its kinda sad. If its a statement against "the man", its almost as if "the man" has manipulated inner city black youth of dressing in a parody of themselves for his amusement.

Its also an "identifier behavior" for youngsters who may be trouble for the police to keep an eye on. You'd think if you were up to something bad, you'd want to blend in and not arouse suspicion with your clothing.

If there are local ordinances against clothing vulgarity (no-G-strings on Main Street), I suppose the legal precedent is there for them to not allow sagging pants as they pose the potential for vulgarity.

I understand that there are a couple of competing urban legends that detail when this trend started, as either too-large-hand-me-down clothing of older brothers were worn, or by homosexuals in juvenile lock ups who were "fairies" advertising their sexual availability to other inmates. I wonder if the latter is correct, whether it would have a suppressive effect on baggy pants if it became well-known............

[Peter]

Those saggy bottoms make it look like you've taken a dump in your pants.

[Marc]

No need to cry racism. White kids wear sagging pants too. I suspect that in Louisiana, they wear them alot.

I don't think outlawing sagging pants is going to reform troublemakers, but that's not really the point. The pants are eyesores, and if a town wants to ban them, let 'em.

[Marc]

No need to cry racism. White kids wear sagging pants too. I suspect that in Louisiana, they wear them alot.

I don't think outlawing sagging pants is going to reform troublemakers, but that's not really the point. The pants are eyesores, and if a town wants to ban them, let 'em.

[Marc]

No need to cry racism. White kids wear sagging pants too. I suspect that in Louisiana, they wear them alot.

I don't think outlawing sagging pants is going to reform troublemakers, but that's not really the point. The pants are eyesores, and if a town wants to ban them, let 'em.

[SFG]

OK. There are over twenty posts on this and I guess I have to chime in...no. Sagging pants. Maybe it's my lack of interest in fashion, but I really don't care.

[Jim Beam]

I think the banning of "black women with attitudes" would be a step in the right direction. Clothing styles such as "baggy pants" is merely a reflection of one's moronic tendencies. Banning it won't cure the moron, but it would make it easier on the eyes and blood pressure levels of civilized folk.

[Rob]

Does anyone the origins of the pimp roll/pimp limp?

Why did young healthy men start pretending they were crippled?

"I think the banning of "black women with attitudes" would be a step in the right direction."

I'll settle for "ax" in place of "ask" being illegal.

[mark twain]

there are alot of bias and slightly racist remarks in this blog thats normal, but please stop saying that people that sag (and for the record thats mostly young black people) are ghetto, uneducated, violent thugs. That is just not the case, fads come and go. It use to be that a man wearing two earings was gay now its hard to find someone who only wears one. My point is dont judge me by the way i dress. if they outlaw saggy pants you gotta say whats next.

[brock]

It doesn't matther who wears them whether they are black or black wannabe's cause sagging is super gay and the whole style will start to die along with ghetto sh!t.GROW UP!Walking around like babies with their diapers all the way down and all pooped GROW UP!

[brock]

If there's racist remarks here is probably cause the blacks started the whole gangsta thing which is super gay but even whites or whatever try to be like that and look like extreme dumba'ss.I hope this goes all over the us don't see my comments as racist but as trying to the stop the GHETTO CRAP!