I loathe that look!
Posted on 08/30/2007 2:51:58 PM PDT by Lucky9teen
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 street showing their underwear either," he said.
"Dressing like that -- it's just not right or decent."
Councillors in another Louisiana city, Shreveport, passed similar legislation, although not unanimously.
"I introduced the bill because I was concerned to see our young folk walking around showing their underwear, or worse," councillor Calvin Lester told AFP by phone.
"This fashion is unsightly, unseemly and disrespectful," he added.
"Some people are saying this is a ban on freedom of expression but our concern was with behavior."
In Alexandria, where the new law was passed unanimously by the council, it cannot be vetoed by the mayor and passes into law immediately, Marshall said.
In Shreveport, where the proposal passed with four members of the council voting in favor and three against, the law needs to be approved by the mayor, who has "said he will definitely sign," said Lester.
Councillors in Atlanta, Georgia, are also debating whether to ban saggy pants, and the very low-slung fashion statement is already against city law in Delcambre, Louisiana, where offenders' cheek can earn them a fine of 500 dollars (350 euros) or up to six months in jail.
In Alexandria, the punishment would be "a fine starting at 25 dollars, that goes up every time the pants go down," Marshall told AFP.
The trend of wearing oversized trousers that fall down and expose one's smalls derives from the US prison system, where inmates' belts were taken away, causing their trousers to descend far below their waists.
Opponents of saggy pants laws say they are a form of racial discrimination, as the fashion is closely linked to the hip hop culture and is hugely popular among young blacks.
Yeah. I won't argue that. But I seem to recall my parents saying the same thing about long hair on boys in the 70s. As far as I know, noone passed a law to restrict it. As long as it doesn't run to obscene, I say let kids be kids.
Since when is it OK to ban types of clothing in a free country?
Who is this "we" crap? Speak for yourself!
Not to mention you do all the time. The majority of women’s jeans are cut to ride so low they have no chance of staying over their underwear.
. . .
the fashion is closely linked to the hip hop culture and is hugely popular among young blacks.
And I think this is the real issue. People feel threatened. Not so much by the clothes as much as by the "thug/gangsta/criminal" lifestyle that the people who dress this way seem to want to emulate. If you have a group of 4 or 5 white "Goth" kids hanging out in the mall wearing black lipstick and eyeliner with blue hair, nobody feels threatened by them. Put 4 or 5 young black males in the mall with their sagging pants, gold "grills" and menacing scowls on their faces, and people are uncomfortable. I see this all the time in our local Florida mall. These guys swagger through the malls being loud and disruptive and the other shoppers make an effort to avoid making eye contact and generally get out of the way. Of course, everybody puts up with this behavior because nobody wants to instigate anything that could turn violent.
Call me what you want but I think this is a valid perception.
“Call me what you want...”
How does “perceptive” sound?
But look at the positive side. They can’t run very fast in the commission of a crime where footspeed is a must.
Just say NO to crack!
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