Atlanta Pol Seeks Ban On Baggy Pants

City Lawmaker Wants Underwear-Showing Style Banned, Says It Violates Indecency Laws

(AP)  Baggy pants that show boxer shorts or thongs are becoming a "major concern" throughout the United States and should be banned in Atlanta, according to a proposed amendment to the city's indecency laws.

"I don't want young people thinking that half-dressing is the way to go. I want them to think about their future," the amendment's sponsor, city councilman C.T. Martin, said Wednesday.

Debbie Seagraves, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia, 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," she told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution for its Thursday editions.

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, Seagraves said.

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.

Martin, who is black, said he plans to hold public hearings and vet the proposal through churches, civil rights groups and neighborhood organizations.

"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."

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

Any legislation that creates a dress code would not survive a court challenge, Seagraves said.

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.

[bdt5]

Hey how about banning corporate uniforms, how about brooks brother suits, white shirts and ties and cloths that the Enron and Exxon-Mobil employees where not to mention Haliburton, Browwn and Root, MicorSoft, GE , the list goes on ? Yes, what about banning all the Oil company uniforms that they are so proud of while they are scamming America. What about all the religious fanatics and their pretty cloths?

The baggy pants and bra straps are the least of our worries. It''s just another phase for kids - do something productive and leave them alone.

[bdt5]

I hope they make a law against plumbers showing *** cleveage and ugly women showing boob cleaveage and what about one against politicians showing their ignorance?

Hopefully they never bann beautiful girls from wearing bikinis.

[bdt5]

Un &^%$#@ believable . . .
I am 63 years old, seen everything I thought except the stupidity of these idiot politicians. Do they know we have terrible things going on in the world these days that needs their attention? Maybe GLOBAL warming for instance?

Leave these kids alone. If we don''t force them to think our way maybe they will have some hope of cleaning up this world and all of our mistakes. If showing their underware or bras is what it takes then more power to them. It''s their wold not ours. Open your mind for once!

[bdt5]

Un &^%$#@ believable . . .
I am 63 years old, seen everything I thought except the stupidity of these idiot politicians. Do they know we have terrible things going on in the world these days that needs their attention? Maybe GLOBAL warming for instance?

Leave these kids alone. If we don''t force them to think our way maybe they will have some hope of cleaning up this world and all of our mistakes. If showing their underware or bras is what it takes then more power to them. It''s their wold not ours. Open your mind for once!

[klingon69]

It is mum/dad that teaches the child to dress. The parents. I had a dress code in the foster homes,I did not break it.
Since you have stated that you were legally blind and multi-handicapped, you probably did not do alot of outside socializing(I apologize if my assumptions are wrong). I doubt you had as much peer-pressure as most children. Regardless of what mom and dad teaches and requires, dur certain periods of their life their friends have much more influence on what they wear, eat, read, listen to, watch...etc.

[klingon69]

I am 52. I have never allowed the under wear I have on to be seen by others. I was taught to cover it. I have a dress code.

So, does that mean that at no time in your life you bent over to pick up something and the top of your panties may have shown? Never wore a sleeveless or sun-dress? Never have the brastrap slide down?

The baggy look is awful and more than rude. Ban it nation wide. The girls wore the mini and halter top. That outfit banned as I was never allowed it. Thank goodness.
Does that mean just because you couldn''t or wouldn''t wear it, that it should be legally banned? I personally think it is stupid, but it is their form of expression. It is simply a rebellion. In my day it was long hair and a pierced ear.

I have seen girls and boys wear the baggy pants. White and black kids. It is half dressed. The parents buy the clothes and they must fit properly. They set the dress code the child will abide by as does the school. Send him/her back to their room to change into the right clothes for being in public.They will whine their friends ..Not here.
Posted by MichelleM99 at 05:58 PM : Aug 23, 2007
Good idea except, who to enforce it? I have seen parents drop their "little angel" off at the mall dressed in jeans and nice shirt. First place these girls go is the restrooms, to change into short skirts/shorts, and tube/tank/halter tops. Have seen it nearly everyday that I worked there.

[tseriously]

Klingon69 you are absolutely 100 percent on the mark, people like Debbie Seagraves are the very ones who perpetuate the disfunction amongst everyone. If she did her homework and looked into her ethnicities background she will find that most of the ignorance comes from there and when someone of another ethnic group emulates whatever they do then that is their ownership. It is about time for all to stand up for the furtherance of all our youth and not the downfall, to educate them about their wrongs instead of putting them in circumstances where they can learn such ignorant ways of representing themselves. What I mostly read on such subjects is that adults raise up just to say "they did it so why can''t I" and that would go back to what your elders would say "If Joe jumps off a bridge, would you.

[gunownerdan]

In North Korea and in Iran there are FASHION POLICE who arrest people for wearing unapproved clothing or looking like they are not supposed to look.
If we can ban certain fashion styles what next? Hairstyles?
No doubt about it.
It is your own personal choice to dress and look however you want and no government will ever have a legitimate right to change this fact.

[michellem99-2009]

I have read that the prisons do issue garments that don''t fit. Women no bras, both no belts, no shoe laces. Ill fiting uniforms .They dress much the same out, dress their kids the same. The mums will dress their babies in gang colours. Prisoms are full of gangs and they run it just as the gangs do on the streets. So how do they learn to dress proper when they know no different..

[agnim]

"Atlanta Pol Seeks Ban On Baggy Pants
City Lawmaker Wants Underwear-Showing Style Banned, Says It Violates Indecency Laws"

With this mindless emphasis on criminal PUNISHMENT instead of EDUCATION, what we are witnessing is the continued effect of American slavery on the pshyche of the Black American.

It''s called KARMA!

The ignorance of punishment over education, which was ''cultivated'' by evil creatures during centuries of the enslavement, is coming back to haunt America.

[my2centss]

This is fashion born in the prisons. When new people come in, they are issued clothes that are probably too big, with no belt. Just followed to the streets.

[michellem99-2009]

I live in Seattle and the bus driver has to tell them to pull their pants up. They show more than the tops the boxers. They do show the crack. Children are poor but can learn to dress properly if their parents care. It is mum/dad that teaches the child to dress. The parents. I had a dress code in the foster homes,I did not break it. I would not wear a dress. I wore slacks and a blouse that fit me. No tight/baggy garments. Baggy pants is a gang look here. The school and home is where kids are taught. The nanny govt they need to let parents be parents. Gramma you are right here who will save the kids from them fines if mum/dad won''t. Teacher then...

[sy2502]

I thought the talebans were the ones who got off telling people how to dress. I guess they aren''t the only ones... If we had to criminalize lack of fashion taste, we would all be behind bars.

[grammawhamma]

I have never allowed the under wear I have on to be seen by others. I was taught to cover it. I have a dress code. The baggy look is awful and more than rude. Ban it nation wide.
Posted by MichelleM99

Michelle I read your postings often and I know you are against the nanny type of government. So now you think the country should tell us how to dress?? These kids look stupid with their baggy clothes but so what...their clothes aren''t hurting anyone...they are not running around naked. Go back and look at the picture again. All you see is the top of their boxers. Big deal...that''s not as bad as seeing a plumber''s crack. I would rather see kids in baggy pants then skin tight spandex that leaves nothing to the imagination of what is under it!

[michellem99-2009]

I am 52. I have never allowed the under wear I have on to be seen by others. I was taught to cover it. I have a dress code. The baggy look is awful and more than rude. Ban it nation wide. The girls wore the mini and halter top. That outfit banned as I was never allowed it. Thank goodness. I have seen girls and boys wear the baggy pants. White and black kids. It is half dressed. The parents buy the clothes and they must fit properly. They set the dress code the child will abide by as does the school. Send him/her back to their room to change into the right clothes for being in public.They will whine their friends ..Not here.

[bb19631]

Here we go again more, stupidity!

[gunownerdan]

I wonder if Atlanta is going to hire fashion police from Iran or North Korea, they have a lot of experience with enforcing fascist laws.

[theusa1st]

Once again the ACLU shows their stupidity and any parent that would allow their children to dress like this shoull be sterilized and get some sense slapped into them...idiots.

[jdubs63]

If you dress stupid, you look stupid

[grammawhamma]

Too bad. It makes it easier to catch them when they run from the cops.
Posted by infidel_us at 01:31 PM : Aug 23, 2007

LOL...I love your sense of humor!!

Seriously though, this is just a fad that will soon fade away. There are more important problems to worry about.