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Atlanta considers banning baggy pants!

Xstatic1

Xstatic1

Diamond Member
ATLANTA --Baggy pants that show boxer shorts or thongs would be illegal under a proposed amendment to Atlanta's indecency laws. The amendment, sponsored by city councilman C.T. Martin, states that sagging pants are an "epidemic" that is becoming a "major concern" around the country.

"Little children see it and want to adopt it, thinking it's the in thing," Martin said Wednesday. "I don't want young people thinking that half-dressing is the way to go. I want them to think about their future."

The proposed ordinance would also bar women from showing the strap of a thong beneath their pants. They would also be prohibited from wearing jogging bras in public or show a bra strap, said Debbie Seagraves, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia.

The proposed ordinance states that "the indecent exposure of his or her undergarments" would be unlawful in a public place. It would go in the same portion of the city code that outlaws sex in public and the exposure or fondling of genitals.

The penalty would be a fine in an amount to be determined, Martin said.

But Seagraves said any legislation that creates a dress code would not survive a court challenge. She said the law could not be enforced in a nondiscriminatory way because it targets something that came out of the black youth culture.

"This is a racial profiling bill that promotes and establishes a framework for an additional type of racial profiling," Seagraves said.

Martin, who is black, said he plans to hold public hearings and vet the proposal through churches, civil rights groups and neighborhood organizations. The proposal will get its first public airing next Tuesday in the City Council's Public Safety Committee.

"The purpose of the paper is to generate some conversation to see if we can find a solution," Martin said. "It will be like all the discussions we've had around the value of the hip-hop culture. We know there are First Amendment issues ... and some will say I'm just trying to put young black men in jail, but it's going to be fines."

Makeda Johnson, an Atlanta mother of a 14-year-old girl, said she is glad Martin introduced the proposal. She does not want to see a law against clothing, but said she thinks teenagers are sending a message with a way of dressing that is based in jailhouse behavior.

Atlanta would not be the first city to take on sagging pants.

Earlier this year, the town council in Delcambre, La., passed an ordinance that carries a fine of up to $500 or six months in jail for exposing underwear in public. Several other municipalities and parish governments in Louisiana have enacted similar laws in recent months.

http://www.charlotte.com/weird/story/247736.html
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Shouldn't they be worrying about crime, or traffic, or the economy, or pollution?

Baggy pants are for fvck tards, but it's not the govt's business.
 
As much as I hate people who wear extremely baggy pants, why the fuck are they wasting their time with stupid shit like that? Big WTF.
 
it's a distraction to divert the community from the solid gold Dig'em statue the mayor bought recently.
 
I voted no on both...

But I still think that they are both a very stupid and tacky fashion statement. When I see a pair of pants cinched up below a dudes ass... I think he's a retard.
 
you can't use the law to enforce something that should be culturally enforced...sorry
 
Hell YEAH!!!

12 votes 34.29 (%)
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I hope 12 of you are kidding. I don't like you if you're not, so you should be jailed. Since my opinion's that important and such. And as our president has shown us, the constitution's just a stupid piece of paper barely worthy of wiping our asses with.
 
Originally posted by: chrisg22
Trying to ban baggy pants is stupid...
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This is gonna be one of those threads where once I've said what I have to say, thread dies.

I'm just not gonna say it right now. 😉

 
That god I don't live in Atlanta. That's the most ridiculous thing I've heard all week. And I had someone tell me the iPhone wasn't overpriced yesterday!
 
the baggy pants thing is long over so yes it should be banned
not thongs though. baggy pants can be a gang thing etc but an exposed thong just means bad fashion sense
 
Talk about fscking stupid. I think they look dumb (extremely baggy), but a law against? Dumb as all fsck.
 
Response in the AJC

A city that counts strip clubs with naked woman as one of its tourism draws is trying to tell citizens not to show their underwear in public.

The ordinance claims saggy pants are an "epidemic" and have become a "major concern" in Atlanta and other cities around the country. Martin says he wants children subjected to a higher standard of dress.

"I don't want young people thinking that half-dressing is the way to go," said Martin. "I want them to think about their future."

Some asked for their opinion on the proposed law are amused at the notion of a city telling people how to wear their pants; and others decried it as just another form of racially profiling blacks.

"That's [crazy]," said Atlanta hip-hop artist Yung Joc, by phone Thursday from Philadelphia.

"That's attacking people's freedom of expression. When Woodstock was around did they tell people not to wear their hair long, or hemp clothing? Are they telling the skateboarders they can't wear the jeans so tight? Or those little shirts? This is targeting a certain group: Young black males. And this will only give them more of a reason to pull them over; more of a reason to detain them."

Joc said when he returns to his hometown Sunday for the Screamfest tour, he'll be dressed for civil disobedience ? "sagging, for sure!" ? in droopy pants.

Falcons running back Warrick Dunn said baggy pants to him are more about style and comfort than politics. "It's an expression of choice," he said. "Do I like it? No. There's a time and place for it. I don't wear my pants all the way up. They sag a little bit but not all the way down to my knees."

But the running back ? whose profession calls for pants that don't impede movement ? said he, like Yung Joc, disagrees with a law that forbids baggy britches. "I don't think you can tell people how they should dress unless you're in certain environments and I think people should respect the environments they are in," said Dunn.

"If they're in an environment to where they need to upgrade a little bit ? pull the pants up and be presentable."

Across the city Thursday there was plenty of evidence why Martin and others think Atlantans are seeing too much of other people's underwear as well as resentment among the sagging pants wearers that city would would seek to ban low-riding britches.

On Boulevard near Atlanta Medical Center, Antonio Simmons, 23, had taken great care to coordinate his red boxers, punctuated with black and white plaid, to his oversized black Coogi jeans. The jeans rode precariously across the ridge of his derriere and were gripped by a black leather belt and the grasp of his left hand.

Simmons said he had heard about the proposed ordinance from a family friend, and said he didn't believe anyone had a right to tell him what to wear and how to wear it.

"I don't believe they could do that," he said. "It's freedom of speech. They can't tell nobody how to dress. If you ask me, some of these people wear their pants too tight." He said he grew up wearing baggy pants as a "'hood tradition, a ghetto tradition," and, if the law is passed it will "give police more reason to harass and pull over young black men."

Others said the ordinance would make outlaws of women. "I think that's absurd," said Julia Lane, 31, of Atlanta. " Who's going to enforce this? The police? My car was stolen two weeks ago and you're going to fine me if my bra strap is showing?"

On the street Anthony Johnson concealed his extra-large jeans with an equally large basketball jersey. "It's a society thing," he said of his style. "I feel comfortable when I dress like this. When I go into a professional place, I know how to tuck my shirt in and look professional."

Banning baggy pants, he said, seems a bit much.

"I don't agree with it," he said. "It's a free country, or so they say."

Staff writers Rosalind Bentley, Jennifer Brett, Mark Davis, Nedra Rhone, Steve Wyche and Sonia Murray contributed to this report.
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So, if they are banning the exposure of undergarments, does this mean no one can wear only a t-shirt anymore in Atlanta?
 
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