"It's a fashion thing," the Fort Pierce Tribune quotes 27-year-old Antwuane Goodman as saying. Regardless of whether perps wear an extra pair of underwear under their exposed boxers (so they're not technically showing underwear), that city is looking to impose fines or community service for waistlines below a certain point.
It's also an issue down here, with a Wellington family filing a suit against PBSO for an arrest in the Mall at Wellington Green resulting from some ill-fastened drawers. Frantz Leger was 20 in 2007 when he visited the mall with low-hanging pants and received a trespass warning because of his attire. He returned four months later, violating the warning, and was arrested.
You'll never guess what kind of police strength it took to hoist up those pants.
From the Herald: "When
family members objected, they were arrested, too, after the agency
responded with about 20 deputies, two canine units and a helicopter." (Emphasis ours.) Now Leger's family is suing for false arrest, malicious prosecution, and civil rights violations.
And two years ago, Riviera Beach made the pages of Time magazine for its own saggy-pants ban, which was later overturned by a state circuit court. "Everywhere
I went, there was a groundswell, a cry for something to be done for
what the community was seeing as disrespect, indecent exposure,
disorderly conduct, as related to the pants situation," said Riviera Beach Mayor Thomas Masters, an African-American pastor.
Replace "pants situation" with "gang violence" or "high-school dropout rates" and we wouldn't have to get all cheeky with you, Mr. Mayor.
