Pull Up Your Pants, Dallas Man Says

Sep 2, 3:17 AM (ET)

DALLAS (AP) - Ron Price, a Dallas school board member, has asked the City Council to look at strenghtening a law to go after people who wear baggy pants and expose their underwear.

"I think it's disrespectful, it's dishonorable and it's disgusting," said Price, who made the recommendation last week to the City Council. "I have no problem with the top of your Hanes label being shown. My problem is when grown men walk about the city with pants below their buttocks."

Council members have asked the city attorney to look into the issue. City Attorney Tom Perkins said this week he's investigating the legalities and will report back to the council.

But experts say that such a law might not hold up, so to speak.

It would be too vague, said Robert Jarvis, constitutional law professor at Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. He said that for a criminal law to be constitutional, a person of average intelligence must know what's being prohibited.

"Who's to say how baggy pants can be before they're 'baggy pants,'" he said. "There's just no way to regulate these things."

Such proposals haven't made it too far in recent years. In Virginia, the Senate dropped a bill last year the would have fined those with pants so low their underwear was exposed. A similar bill from a Louisiana state representative failed to pass in 2004. And such proposals haven't faired well at the city level either.

linky

I agree 100%, it bugs the hell out of me to see people with pants that drop down below their butts...not the top of their butts, but below their butts; it is just insane. There are very few people of which I would like to see their underwear, and the 18-24 male gangbanger looking guys just don't make the cut...

Do I make that cut?

Sure it may be annoying...but to try and make a law forbidding it is absurd. It's way too open to interpretation, and it's invasive. As much as people may not like it, well, you're gonna have to suck it up. I don't wear my pants that low, but if I wanted to, I would. Nobody's going to tell me what to wear or how to wear it, that's insane.

I for one can't stand that look...shouldn't it be considered indecent?

It has been a joke for as long as I can remember about fat men with their tool belts pulling their pants down below their cracks. It's about as attractive as that.

OlDrippy, you are dictated to every day on what you wear at work, at school, at restaurants, at malls....

...I'd have to see your butt to know if you make the cut or not.

Well when guys have their pants below their butts with boxers on, there is an issue of... exposure...which I see regularly...unfortunately.

The same kind of argument could be made for the right to be able to walk around bottomless with jimmy swinging in the breeze. There are places where that would be ok, but not in public.

Of course there is going to be more lattitude in the general public but I fixated on the school board member and thought more about schools than just regular folks on the street. School kids were what came to mind right off the bat as that is what I see in my experience as adults generally grow up enough to get away from extremes of dress like kids go for.

I guess my point is that if you want to walk around with your pants at your ankles because it is cool, make sure that you are covered where it counts. Kids however aught to have to wear uniforms, but that is just my opinion.

But, isn't it funny when you watch one of those cop shows where the kids are trying to run away and their pants fall down around their ankles. They fall on their faces and are basically helpless.

About bloody time someone does something about it.

I mean there's a few people I wouldn't mind seeing there rears... Oh wait... I have...

None of them are American wanna-be thugs though

That's possibly the funniest (and most effective) way to stop crime. Make all known criminals wear the baggy jeans with orange prison-issue underwear on. Then , if you need them in again - they won't be able to get away

Ahaha i agree

If such legislation gets passed then so should legislation banning overweight individuals from wearing tight clothes. That is a form of exposure that disturbs far more than seeing individuals underwear. I support banning neither but when you ban something such as having baggy pants, then any form of clothing that offends or disturbs others must also be taken into account. Anyway there are far greater issues that should be taking up the time of the courts and differing levels of government.

The thing is, such items of clothing are (unless they expose, directly, the genitals) covered by the freedom of expression that most people enjoy. So to ban people wearing them would mean we'd have to ban that right. So people would have to conform to the exact looks the government lays down. And that's not a particularly good thing. I hate Mr. Blair's haircut

They still do that in Texas? I haven't seen anyone wear their pants like that for almost a year or more. I wonder how slow info really spreads around. If it aint cool in NYC, it aint cool anywhere.

I really think its funny when the boys actually put on a belt, belt their pants below their asses. I guess its one thing if they slip down a bit but to put on a belt and leave the house looking like that on purpose just makes me laugh out loud.

I don't like the look myself, but to ban it just leads to trouble. Banning it in schools, yeah but as part of the dress code.

I thought your butt was supposed to help hold up your pants, so what do I know?

I do find it hilarious tho like girty said when the belt is below the butt. Just more stuff for me to laugh at on a daily basis. Well laugh until I get shot.