Tennessee City Officials Pass Ordinance Making Wearing Baggy Pants Illegal

19 May, 2014 by Cassy Fiano

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There aren’t many people who would argue that the saggy pants trend, most prominent in hip hop culture and among urban youth, is a good thing, especially considering that the look originated in prisons. But does that mean that people should be fined for wearing their pants too low? Pikeville, Tennessee has joined several other cities in creating ordinances punishing citizens who wear pants that sag too much.

Pikeville is just the latest place in the U.S. to take issue with where young men position their trousers.

Two in Louisiana, Jefferson Davis and Terrebonne Parish have passed ordinances in recent months banning the public wearing of saggy pants with hefty fines for those who choose not to belt up, and others have followed suit in Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi.

So why all the palaver over pants?

‘All I know is we just don’t want them running around half-naked on our streets,’ Cagle told the Times Free Press.

‘That’s the bottom line.’

The City Council of Pikesville unanimously approved the ordinance, which will require anyone guilty letting their pants hang ‘more than three inches below the top of the hips (crest of the ilium)’ to pay a fine of $25 for the first offense, and $50 for each offense thereafter.

No one likes seeing the saggy pants, and the lifestyle that the wearers are emulating is certainly a negative one — of course it’s unpleasant to look at. But is the idea that lawmakers should ban everything that is unpleasant or offensive? Because that somehow seems, I don’t know… un-American.

Also see: A Real Man’s Responsibilities