Someone in Opinion Line, which is always on the cutting edge of public policy debates, wondered Wednesday when Sedgwick County is going to crack down on “sagging pants.” The city councils in Shreveport and Alexandria joined at least four other Louisiana towns Tuesday in voting to make the wearers of droopy drawers subject to fines and community service. Atlanta and other communities have considered such measures, which some argue are unconstitutional and racist.
In Sedgwick County or anywhere, though, it should be difficult to justify turning police into fashion police. As one man told the Shreveport leaders: “Are you going to have a ’sagging’ court? The police have more important things to do than chase young boys and girls and say ‘pull your pants up.’”
Posted by Rhonda Holman
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27 Comments
Them darn kids are wearing their hair long and got those darn bell bottoms. We gotta do something about that and that crazy music I don’t understand. Elvis all shakin’ those hips, outrageous.
Hey, just be glad they’re wearing pants! Amazing how many people think they’ve got the right to enforce their particular aesthetic on their neighbors. Mao tried that.Early in our country’s history, a man was arrested for wearing a top hat- the sheriff claimed it was frightening to women, children and horses.The women, children and horses seem to have gotten used to it; apparently the self-appointed sheriffs still can’t face the fact that fashion changes and before long they’ll have to give up their favorite leisure suit.When I met one of my now-best friends, he was wearing a WWI aviator’s outfit, complete with jodhpurs, silk blouse and a fifteen-foot scarf. He bcame one of my best friends because I admired his imagination. If you don’t like sombody else’s imagination, maybe you should start your own fashion trend for pants with an armpit-high Empire waist.
No need for a law against stupidity. I don’t care if they want to wear their pants like that. Dumb asses will do whatever the rappers do. Too bad the rappers don’t make a video and do a fake jump off a high building. The dumbasses would follow the rapper and the IQ of America would go up 100%!
Who buys the clothes for most of these kids? If parents would be parents this wouldn’t be an issue. Buy your kids pants that fit their waist and they won’t be able to have their crotches at their ankles.
Has anyone told these kids that wearing your pants like this is a prison sign that you are seeking gay sex?
I’ve heard that rumor Sol, but I don’t believe it.
I think it originally started when younger boys in a gang wore their older siblings clothes and they just didn’t fit properly, thus drooping drawers.
It later became fashionable when even the grudge rock crowd started to wear shorts.
The other version I heard is when break dancing was in vogue and short pants were found to be less restrictive for all those wild moves. Of course, after a few floor spins and scoots, the pants came down lower on their “anatomies.”
Personally, I find this style of fashion more humorous than dangerous. It makes the wearer look like some sort of “street gnome” complete with the gnomish attitude.
I wonder it gangs of the old style would tolerate such clothing wear? Al Capone with sagging shorts and boxer shorts exposed out of the top for some reason does not fit in my mind’s eye of ‘gangster’ apparel.
Plumber’s crack is not appealing in any case and the wearer of said drooping shorts should look elsewhere if they are seeking female companionship.
Having the crotch of one’s short pants almost dragging the floor could be hazardous and disadvantageous when making those emergency runs to the male urinal.
Anyway, that’s my “short” take on the matter.
http://www.snopes.com/risque/homosex/sagging.asp
Got the homo thing wrong, the rest is true.
The “style” (if you can call it that) began because loose, sagging pants make it much easier to hide an illegal weapon. It’s the gang-banger look. Even so, no, we don’t need any fashion police.
Personally, I like it when they wear their pants so that they are about to fall off. It tells me instantly who the idiots and thug wanna-be’s are, and there’s a bonus feature: when the little thugs run from the police, their pants fall around their ankles. It makes capture much easier.
“The “style” (if you can call it that) began because loose, sagging pants make it much easier to hide an illegal weapon. ”
That’s false too. Check the snopes link.
Two friends are cops. One cop – 6′7” and around (a SOLID) 350 lbs… When one of these kids walk by, he grabs their waist band and yanks up. The kid usually –grabs- about 2 feet of air. He then lets go. When the kid whips around to –start something – there stands a 6′7” MOUNTAIN… with a smile and a badge.
The other cop whips their pants down around their ankles. The long, oversized shirts cover anything that might be exposed. When the kid whips around, a smile, a badge, and a “You’re welcome”.
I agree with GMC on this as well; no, we don’t need any fashion police, even though the form of dress does indeed make it easier to conceal weapons. And, the point that he makes in his final paragraph is also valid, IMHO. Ever seen a “safety drill” at a school where the little darlings are wearing their sagging britches? Hilarious.
What absolutely KILLS me is that these kids wear their clothes like this, fashioned after thugs, then are bewildered that they are treated like thugs. When they walk into convenience stores and are followed around by clerks, they get offended. When police follow them, they are offended.
Get a clue. If it walks like a duck, sounds like a duck…
Forgot to add; in addition, the long shirts worn tail out to me would allow easier weapon concealment, perhaps a bigger issue than merely the loose, sagging pants…
Sol:
While Snopes is useful, it’s not gospel. I’ll stand by my statement re: the origins of the style.
And no, I don’t think that most kids who do this are carrying weapons; they’ve just adopted a style. They may well not even know WHY the pants are so baggy, it’s just a style thing, I suspect. Just like us, they’ll look back years later and wonder what they were thinking.
And you’re right. If you dress like a thug, be prepared to be treated like a thug. DUH.
A group of kids were walking around a semi-affluent neighborhood (dressed like thugs). A police cruiser followed them for a time, then –pulled them over. The officer questioned them for a time, and after satisfying himself these were just spoiled rich kids that were NOT up to no good, he went to return to his cruiser.
One of the smart mouthed kids asked why he had been ‘harrased’ . The officer replied “Because of the way you are dressed and the neighborhood you are in.” The kid popped off “So if we were walking around in SUITS you would have left us alone?” The officer replied “Of course!” and pulled off.
were = was
I think they just like the way it looks
There’s a gang of thugs who wear suits and steal billions. We call them Congressmen.
Silly though to wear baggy pants and be a criminal. How are you supposed to outrun a cop if your pants fall to your ankles? My first impression of the clothing style is that these people are idiots for just trying to look intentionally stupid because they couldn’t dress themselves or figure out how a belt functions.
Seems to be a consensus. People who dress like this do so intentionally to look like thugs and idiots. It impedes their flight capability and marks them for who/what they are. So let it be, the cops have enough on their hands…
“There’s a gang of thugs who wear suits and steal billions. We call them Congressmen.”
Well said. Mark Twain would agree.
“It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress.” – Mark Twain
And so it goes . . . some things never change.
What gets me are the girls and their low rise jeans. I mean sometimes they barely rise above “the occasion”.
Then you have the pierced belly button’s and exposed tummies. Then their are the “tramp stamp” tatoo’s on the lower back. Where’s it all going to end, what on earth are these girls going to be doing with their lives once they graduate from jr. high?
It’s scarey! I raised boys, THAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANK GAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWD!
Let’s get real about it, in your leisure life you can wear whatever you want, whatever thrills you.But when it comes to working, (which I have seen grown men do this) you are creating a hazard for yourself and possibly for others by wearing loose fitting clothes.There are plenty of reports of accidents caused by loose fitting articles of clothing, ask any manufacture, professional occupation or OSHA.What children learn, if it is of bad behavior it will not be acceptable in the adult working world.Some might think that it has no significances but it does and they wonder why they do not have a job.It may not be correct to have fashion cops but as responsible citizens if you are a professional in whatever work you do, you should point this out to the ignorance of dress codes.
The cops cant do their regular jobs as it is. Bust the killers not the buns
Remember the days when we had to lay on the bed just to zip up our jeans because they were so tight? I used a pair of plyers to pull up my zipper! Being young means looking stupid to the older generation, we were no exception to that rule. I had to laugh when I saw a guy in the store, his pants were so baggy that he had to hold them up, he was trying to get a cart with a baby in it down the aisle and shop with one hand…just didn’t seem to me that looking cool was worth so much effort!
haha Mary, my sisters did that bed trick, thought it was ridiculous. :)
Then they would smack me for laughing at them. :)
I’ve got to agree with Rhonda. There are lots of more important things for the city and for law enforcement to worry about. At school or at the workplace it’s fine to enforce dress standards, but when people are at leisure we don’t need the fashion police. They have that in some countries, and I’d rather see a few people dressed distastefully than put up with oppressive government-dictated dress codes.
Yeah, the Taliban have fashion police, I don’t think anyone really wants that. As long as someone’s not nekid who cares how they dress? Bad taste and tacky clothes shouldn’t be against the law..this is America, not Iran.However I would like to see noise ordinances enforced. I’m sick and tired of hearing “gangsta rap” when I’m filling up my car or driving around town. There should be a law!
YEAH, SoldevVB! Nice lie! What inspired you to post such garbage? You wnated to have your 15 seconds of shame? Now listen and listen well. No cop is going to risk his shield to do something so stupid! What if that kid is an undercover cop that he doesn’t recognize? Talk about being on the hot seat! And what if that kid happens to be the son of an attorney. Can you spell lawsuit? Next time try something else to grab attention! What you posted was so ridiculus it wasn’t EVEN funny! It was STUPID!!!!!
SolDevVB! You must live in an ice cream world. “If we were walking around in SUITS you would have left us alone!” “Of course!”
Only if you were “WHITE!” Now that’s the real story!