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RIVIERA BEACH — A judge says Riviera Beach's "saggy pants" law is unconstitutional in the case of a 17-year-old who spent a night in jail for having his underwear showing. And a public defender said her office wants to get the law tossed altogether. Saggy pants File photo In Riviera Beach, a first offense carries a $150 fine or a requirement of community service. Julius Hart was charged Wednesday when an officer spotted him riding his bicycle in the 2800 block of Lakeshore Drive with 4 to 5 inches of blue and black boxer shorts sticking out of his black...

LYNWOOD, Ill. - Be careful if you have saggy pants in the south Chicago suburb of Lynwood. Village leaders have passed an ordinance that would levy $25 fines against anyone showing three inches or more of their underwear in public. Eugene Williams is the mayor of Lynwood. He says young men walk around town half-dressed, keeping major retailers and economic development away. He calls the new law a hot topic. The American Civil Liberties Union says the ordinance targets young men of color.

FLINT, Mich., June 27 (UPI) -- The new police chief in Flint, Mich., has a new policy on low-riding pants -- those that ride low enough to expose the rear end can lead to arrest. Interim Police Chief David Dicks said that he has been getting a lot of complaints from Flint citizens sick of looking at buttocks, Newhouse News Service reported. "This immoral self-expression goes beyond free speech," Dicks said. "It rises to the crime of indecent exposure/disorderly persons." Dicks said that any police officer who spots someone with pants that hang too low and show too much can...

'Droopy Drawers' May Result In Suspension Senator Wants Focus 'On Blackboard, Not Backboard'   POSTED: 5:32 pm EST January 9, 2008 UPDATED: 6:30 pm EST January 9, 2008   TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Youth who let their drawers droop to expose underwear, G-strings or worse at school would be get a verbal warning after a first offense but face suspension if they keep doing it under a measure that cleared a Senate committee Wednesday. The Prekindergarten-12th Grade Education Committee unanimously approved Sen. Gary Siplin's "pull up your britches" bill (SB 302). It next will go to the Senate floor after...

Song Links Saggy Pants to Being Gay The Bryant Park Project, October 26, 2007 · A new campaign by the city of Dallas targets the hip-hop style of wearing your pants low enough that your boxers are showin — and part of your posterior, too. The campaign has a signature song, "Pull Your Pants Up," by Dooney Da' Priest, that links so-called saggin' with being gay. After the BPP blogged NPR's original report on the public service announcement, listeners objected to lyrics they consider homophobic. Andrew Jones commented on a line about living "on the down low" — common slang...

Dear brothers (do you mind if I call you brothers?), Have you heard about the movement to ticket and fine people - meaning, people like you - for wearing sagging, underwear-revealing pants? It started in a small Louisiana town, where you can now get up to six months in jail and a $500 fine for exposing your undergarments. Proposals have since popped up from Atlanta to Baltimore to Trenton, and last week even in Yonkers. It's only a matter of time before some enterprising City Council member puts it on the table here in New York. And in every city,...

It's a fashion that started in prison, and now the saggy pants craze has come full circle - low-slung street strutting in some cities may soon mean run-ins with the law, including a stint in jail. Proposals to ban saggy pants are starting to ride up in several places. At the extreme end, wearing pants low enough to show boxers or bare buttocks in one small Louisiana town means six months in jail and a $500 fine. A crackdown also is being pushed in Atlanta. And in Trenton, getting caught with your pants down may soon result in not only...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Trousers that dangle way below the belt and expose what the wearer has on -- or just has -- underneath have been banned in two cities in the southern state of Louisiana, city officials said Wednesday. "We unanimously passed the legislation because we have had so many complaints from citizens who don't want to see young men with pants hanging so low, showing their underwear and, in some cases, their posterior," Louis Marshall, a city councillor in Alexandria, told AFP by phone. "The legislation is gender neutral: we wouldn't want to see young ladies walking down the...

Cops Say Loose, Baggy Jeans Trip Up Many a Thief; 'Hey, Dude, Buy a Belt' One sunny afternoon in January, Vicki Chandler, a 55-year-old underwriting associate at Cigna HealthCare in Chattanooga, Tenn., was walking to her car when a teenager in loose khaki pants approached her, pointed to her pocketbook and said, "I need that." As she recounts the incident, he snatched the purse and took off. But then he ran into trouble. As he ran, his loose trousers slipped down below his hips. As he reached down to hold them up, the teen was forced to throw the purse...

A church has asked for a citywide ban on low-hanging pants and gold-capped teeth, saying they promote a thuggish image. Changing the image of young people could help Jacksonville cut unemployment, racial profiling and a rising per-capita murder rate now the highest in the state, said Richard Burton, deacon of Epiphany Baptist Church. The 250 member independent Baptist church approved the resolution last month. "They were tired of seeing kids' underwear," said Burton, who serves on the NAACP's national board. Jacksonville city officials have yet to take up the measure, although Councilwoman Elaine Brown said she was willing to discuss...

Memo to Britney: Lose the low-slungs La. lawmakers weigh banning belly-baring, bottom-peeking pants By Bethany Thomas Reporter NBC News Updated: 8:22 a.m. ET May 13, 2004 DALLAS - Memo to Britney Spears: Make sure to forget those low-rise jeans next time you fly home to Louisiana. And Ludacris, why don’t you pull up your pants and cinch them with a belt before you take the stage in Baton Rouge. Otherwise, you might both get a ticket. That’s what the Louisiana House Criminal Justice Committee approved last week. The new proposed bill would crack down on anyone who wears low-slinging, pants-sagging,...

PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- Beanie Sigel's clothing line boasts hidden pockets and gun holsters designed, he says, to withstand a police chase. ``You know how you put your gun in your waistline and you gotta worry about it slipping? With these clothes, you don't got to worry about that,'' the rapper told allhiphop.com last year. ``Don't worry about having to run from the police neither, because State Property (clothing) can stand the search.'' But run he did, authorities say, ditching his 2002 Cadillac Escalade when police tried to make a traffic stop on April 20. Sigel also opted against the hidden-pocket...