St. Louis CofCC Blog

St. Louis Post-Dispatch:

Now, anyone who wears pants below the waist that expose the skivvies or skin is subject to a $100 fine. That includes girls whose low-rise jeans sit too low. Parents face up to a $500 fine or 90 days in jail if they knowingly allow their children to wear their pants in such a manner.

When it comes to the parents, the city attorney would have to prove that the parent(s) knew that their children were sagging, and let them do it anyway.  For a prosecutor, that would be almost as tall of an order as first-degree murder, and since Pine Lawn doesn’t have a CSI unit, or a “Saggy Pants Task Force,” the city attorney would rarely be able to prove this.  You Pine Lawn parents have nothing to worry about.

Of course, this brings up an interesting question. What about plumbers?

Police Chief Rickey Collins just chuckled. “It’s the police officer’s discretion,” he said.

You just gave away the argument for the unconstitutionality of the ordinance.  No law or ordinance can ever be at “the police officer’s discretion,” because it violates Substantive Due Process of the Fifth Amendment.

It’s unclear how sagging became so popular.

According to some accounts, the trend originated among prison inmates who had lost access to belts, and then spread to Southern California’s gang culture in the early 1990s.

The other theory also revolves around prison culture, that men in prison that wanted to be (or were compelled to be) done frequently had to wear their pants low to advertise their availability.

Instead, sagging has spread and so has the backlash against it. But once a city tries to enforce a dress code, it’s traveling down a slippery slope, said Redditt Hudson, the racial justice manager for the American Civil Liberties Union of Eastern Missouri.

“What’s next?” he said. “Are we going to ban certain hairstyles?”

Hudson also predicted the ordinance would lead to charges of racial profiling because Pine Lawn’s population is overwhelmingly African-American. “I would not be surprised to see (the ordinance) challenged if someone were to enforce it,” Hudson said.

Once again, ACLU, you’re killing yourself by pursuing this on racial grounds.  Use substantive due process, that is, if you want more than a 1% approval rating on your handling of the issue.

Caldwell said he wasn’t too concerned with the legal fallout. “That’s what we have an attorney for.”

But do you have an unlimited budget?  I think the ACLU could outspend Pine Lawn many many times over.

While Collins is getting support to enforce the new law, he stressed that the Police Department won’t create a pants patrol any time soon.

“Saggy Pants Task Force.”  Someone just made a joke about that.

The chief hasn’t ordered his 22 road officers to cite violators. He wants officers to use the law during regular patrols as an opportunity to explain to youths how their style can be offensive and to inform parents who might not know how their children are dressing away from home.

Then why pass a law?  Even if Pine Lawn didn’t pass this ordinance, this wouldn’t preclude their cops from telling their saggy-panted young men the facts of life.  Now that they’re not going to enforce this ordinance against anyone evidently, it looks like Pine Lawn is bluffing and trying to force all the other players (or playas) to fold (or pull their pants up).