The Link Between Sagging Pants Laws and the Drug War
Radley Balko points out that police in Flint, MI have started going after people whose pants sag below their boxer shorts:
Leaving aside the absurdity of telling people how to wear their pants, just contemplate the ironic path that brought us here. The style itself is an artifact of prison culture, where inmates' belts and shoelaces are confiscated and the standard-issue clothes never fit right. The style made its way back onto the streets where it entered popular culture. Now, in 2008, you can go to jail for 93 days to a year just for dressing like an inmate.
In an urban landscape already ravaged by decades of racial profiling and drug war demolition tactics, police have codified their own authority to stop and frisk people whose style of dress is already stigmatized by presumed criminality. The number of things young people in America can't get arrested for approaches zero at an exponential rate.
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Comment posted by sicntired on Sun, 07/13/2008 - 10:53amsicntired@mac.com,Vancouver,B.C.Canada This is a group set up to make life as difficult as possible for the homeless and disadvantaged in town.Millions have been spent on differing departments all with the same goal.They claim it's to reduce aggressive panhandling and to connect people with resources.They've written a lot of tickets for loitering and sleeping outdoors,no helmet,urinating in public.Thing's these people can never pay for.They have recently added the fashion police to their list of no-no's.These people live outdoors.Memos have been released that display their true intent,like moving people along if they are in one spot for 15 mins.and lately the sanitation people have been taking everything they own.Similar to the low rider pants thing.You bet,it's petty nit picking of a specific group by the existing power structure.