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Yonkers Considers Banning Baggy Pants

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Sep 20, 2007 9:05 pm US/Eastern

Yonkers Considers Banning Baggy Pants

Many Don't Want Police Enforcement Anywhere Near This

YONKERS (CBS) ―

Click to enlarge 1 of 1: Saggy, underwear-revealing pants like these could be the target of a Yonkers ban under an anti-gang initiative be present to the city council. (File)
AP

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Teenagers who wear baggy jeans below their waists may be in for a shock. A city councilwoman wants to make the style illegal.

Along Main Street in Yonkers, you see them everywhere: Kids wearing jeans so low they're practically falling off.

"It looks like their underwear's sticking out walking down the street. How appropriate is that?" contractor Robert Stevenson said.

It's not appropriate at all, according to some city elders. They want to make it illegal to wear jeans below the waist.

"We're tired of seeing pants down to here and people's buttocks exposed," Councilwoman Patricia McDow. "We just don't want to see that any more."

The councilwoman would have police issue summonses to kids whose pants fall below the waistline.

And she's not alone. Movements like these have sprouted in communities across the country.

"I think it's offensive to neighborhood and community and detracts from the quality of life," said Jim Bostic, executive director of the Nepperham Community Center.

But does the government have the right to tell people how to dress? Some people don't want to turn the police into fashion police.

Richard Williamson is a former cop.

"I don't like it, but I don't think the police should be involved in that. I think that causes a problem."

And teenagers like Ray Rodriguez don't understand the fuss.

"I think people should express their own style of how to dress," Rodriguez said.

But a government crackdown is a long way off. Even if the Yonkers City Council supports it, the state legislature would have to make it law. So the low-slung jean, love it or hate it, is safe for now.

Last month, officials in Stratford, Conn., rejected a similar law, saying it would promote racial profiling and violate people's civil rights.

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