Tuesday, July 29 - Last Sunday night I was listening to a talk-show on one of New York City’s premier hip-hop radio stations as they were discussing the city of Paterson, New Jersey and an attempt by one of its politicians to enact legislation to make the wearing of sagging pants a punishable offense.

The proposal to attach this ordinance to the city’s existing indecency laws can be credited to Councilman Anthony Davis who is African-American and represents Paterson’s 1st ward. Davis also spear-headed the symbolic campaign to ban use of the words nigger or nigga last year. He has recently been quoted as saying to the saggy-style offenders, “We're tired of seeing your behind…We don't want to see your back side. We don't need to see your underwear. We don't need to see your drawers. Wear your pants."

Immediately, I see a problem here.

First off, I’m not going question the etiquette or fashionableness of this trend. I myself don’t wear my pants up to my hips as this law would have me do. I haven’t for years, since early high-school. I thought it was cool, edgy, rebellious and even comfortable. I still feel more relaxed to have my pants about two inches below my waist-line.

The other day I was driving through my neighborhood and I saw this twenty-something dude walking with his friend, boxer-draped ass out, with those tight-fitting pants of the style now, at his thighs. He walked like he was caught doing something with his pants down. But you could tell he thought nothing of his “style” as he shuffled down the block slowly. I think he should have had his ass whipped personally. I think jeans riding that low is going way too far.

But that is the whole thing with this proposed ordinance, isn’t it? Not only a question of what is acceptable in the minds of the enforcers, police, but more importantly the public it serves? Aren’t their more pressing issues, not only in Patterson, New Jersey, but anywhere where this kind of legislation is being considered ?

Now the next problem is who is going to be targeted as a result of enforcing this code? The focus now is on urban Black and Latino youths, both male and female (need I remind you about your local Laquisha or Lisette struttin’ around muffin-topped, thong desperately stretching to stay in one piece, little bullseye tat above the crack of their money-maker?). But what of those working class Joe Schmoes you see, more worried about completing a job than they are adjusting their pants to the hip as needed. I’ve also seen many a white guy, in their gorilla-thick back-hair splendor, crackin’ everyone a smile as the top of his backside peeps out from his Dickies or Levi’s. What about them?

Another issue; won’t this create more work for policeman who can be out there catching real crooks rather than giving Boo-Boo a ticket for no common sense? Or is that just it, that this is a way to search and arrest young Black and Latino men for other crimes, using enforcement of this legislation as probable cause? If they really want the local hard-asses locked-up, is this the best tactic they could come up with to do it?

I have to believe in our country’s Constitution and its First Amendment, that we have the right to freely speak and otherwise express ourselves, be it with music, poetry, art or fashion. Surely, there is plenty out there that people can deem offensive, according to our respective cultures, beliefs or upbringing. What about blue hair and spikes in your lips or metal studs in your eyebrow, isn’t that a bit offensive? What about tattoos, especially whole arms and legs, necks or especially ink done on females, particularly those slapped east or west of one’s cleavage? Six-inch heels? Women wearing pants (don’t laugh; some older folks find that appalling). Dammit, what about those garish and oversized hats some ladies wear to church? Some of them should be ticketed for real…

My point is that we cross a dangerous line when we try to tell people how to live their lives by imposing restrictions on the way they speak, think, or dress. Hell, the Ku Klux Klan is still allowed to march in those damn white sheets they call robes which represent terror to all African-Americans, Jews and Latinos! What is the impetus for this attack on baggy pants?

I am upset that a black man came up with this, mainly because he is a person representing other black people that he has sworn to serve. When I heard about this situation I did some research, almost none of which I bored you with (if I did bore you at least it wasn’t from blandly repetitive data). But I was most shocked when I Googled Anthony Davis’s name and found a blog about this topic and a big picture of him in front of the American flag---on a white supremacist web site ( see this at http://www.stormfront.org/forum/showthread.php/black-paterson-nj-councilman-suggests-506326.html)!

This is an implication that can’t be ignored; while some of our government officials are touting some relatively trivial (yet embarrassing) fashion trend as something that parents, families and communities can’t eradicate but only policeman can, the rest of the nation (if not world) snickers as we concern ourselves with dingy boxers hanging out of the jeans of some misguided adolescent and not the crime-ridden, diseased, disenfranchised and hopeless environment he’s bopping around in.

Get at me, and tell me what you think about this issue at: shotta@nowadayzdancehall.com

shotta@nowadayzdancehall.com

By Shotta Mumrah

Photography: Mistah Shakes

Layout and Design: B.Diamondz and Mistah Shakes

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