Don't get caught with your pants down: Tennessee city creates ordinance that makes wearing saggy pants illegal

  • Officials in Pikeville, Tennessee have voted unanimously for an ordinance banning saggy pants
  • Anyone wearing pants 'more than three inches below the top of the hips' will be fined for public indecency
  • Offenders will be fined $25 for the first offense and $50 for each thereafter
  • Pikeviille joins many other southern cities in outlawing the trend, which has its roots in hip hop culture

  • 'All I know is we just don’t want them running around half-naked on our streets. That’s the bottom line,' said Mayor Phil Cagle

By Alex Greig

Published: 20:55 EST, 18 May 2014 | Updated: 09:31 EST, 19 May 2014

Standards - and pants - have been slipping in the Tennessee city of Pikeville, where the mayor has decided things have gotten as low as they can go.

Mayor Phil Cagle is the author of an ordinance that will soon see anyone wearing their pants 'more than three inches below the top of the hips' fined for public indecency.

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

Scroll down for video

'Injurious to health': Pikeville's ordinance bans saggy pants on the basis of indecency - and that it could harm wearers by causing them to adopt an 'improper gait'

'Injurious to health': Pikeville's ordinance bans saggy pants on the basis of indecency - and that it could harm wearers by causing them to adopt an 'improper gait'

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.'

 

More...

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.

Unanimous: The ordinance was approved by all relevant Pikeville officials and states that anyone wearing their pants too low will incur a fine, says Mayor Phil Cagle

Unanimous: The ordinance was approved by all relevant Pikeville officials and states that anyone wearing their pants too low will incur a fine, says Mayor Phil Cagle

'Myself and the City Council, we wanted an ordinance passed in black and white that our officers know what to tolerate and what not to tolerate,' Cagle told the Times Free Press.

'Now they know what we expect, and they know how to handle it.'

Pikeville's ordinance purports to be for the health of its citizens.

It states that 'there is evidence that indicates that wearing sagging pants is injurious to the health of the wearer as it causes improper gait.'

The trend for wearing the pants very low on the hips may have originated in the U.S. prison system, where inmates are not allowed to wear belts.

'Unconstitutional': Civil liberties groups argue that banning people from wearing their pants low on their hips is a violation of their rights

'Unconstitutional': Civil liberties groups argue that banning people from wearing their pants low on their hips is a violation of their rights

The look was adopted by hip hop culture and by the 1990s, young men around the country were wearing their pants perilously low with underpants-clad buttocks on prominent display.

Even the President addressed the trend in 2008: ‘Brothers should pull up their pants,' Obama said.

‘You are walking by your mother, your grandmother, your underwear is showing. What’s wrong with that? Come on. Some people might not want to see your underwear. I’m one of them.’

Civil Liberties groups have in the past argued that such bans are ‘unconstitutional’ under the 14th Amendment, which says no citizen should be deprived of ‘life, liberty or property’ and no person should be denied equal protection of the law.

Comments (302)

Share what you think

 View all

The comments below have not been moderated.

at least they won't be able to run that fast when a patrolman asks them to stop... However, it's just foolish the change comes from the law & government and not the home & family.

0
2
 Click to rate

Where is the ACLU on this? These gangsa wanna be's have a RIGHT to let other men know they are sexually available.

0
3
 Click to rate

Should be a worldwide ban. Do they have any idea how STUPID they look, waddling around like ducks.

0
7
 Click to rate

I don't like blue houses or purple shutters on houses..so lets ban that next...oh and I don't like seeing fat people in tight clothes..please let's ban that as well...Funny how EVERY generation craps on the generation that follows..I get it I don't care for this saggin myself however I get it because I understand as well as remember the history of it..Sure it has taken on a fashion look now but where was the outcry when it wasn't fashion..but just a everyday part of life that society chose to ignore..Didn't hear one word being uttered let alone printed when kids in the poorest neighborhoods had to wear Hand-Me-Downs that was either to big in the waist and constantly fell down or to short and had to be pulled down to keep from being teased about wearing high waters or floods.But I can appreciate the irony.. funny how Tenn, Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi can establish the fashion police and fine people for saggin but has NEVER had a fashion issue with people wearing white sheet fashion

19
3
 Click to rate

A lot of words... all crap! If they went around naked would you be bothered then, cos' that's what could happen if it's not stopped now.

0
0
 Click to rate

I wish every state would do this.

0
25
 Click to rate

Illinois please!

0
16
 Click to rate

Illinois please!

0
11
 Click to rate

This is simply absurd. How many of these saggy pants wearers are truly indecent? Most are wearing some sort of boxer short underneath that would prevent exposure even if they weren't wearing pants. This is an example of local government overreach and legislating of personal preference. What's next? Banning of swim trunks and bikinis? Get a life Tennessee and leave people some freedom of expression.

31
4
 Click to rate

It's a horrible fashion, in 20 year's time they'll look at their photos and quite rightly be very embarassed, surely I was never such an idiot?!!

0
38
 Click to rate

Identifies the ones for culling.

1
32
 Click to rate

The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline.

Add your comment

By posting your comment you agree to our house rules.

Who is this week's top commenter? Find out now