Baggy Pants Wearers May Soon Have to Pull Up or Pay Up in Atlanta

Hitch Up Your Britches, Atlanta Doesn't Want to See Your Drawers

The fashion that started in prison, has now come full circle, wearing baggy pants that show your underwear in public could land you or jail or cost you a fine.

Atlanta City Councilman C.T. Martin has proposed an amendment to public decency laws, which if passed, will make it a crime to publicly wear baggy pants that reveal one's undies. Martin's ordinance would make exposed undies no different than public sex.

The sight of boxers, thongs, bare buttocks, jogging bras or bra straps in public will be prohibited. The crime won't land a person in jail, but they will have to pay a fine, pull up their britches and do some community work.

Proposals to ban the public wearing of baggy pants and actual bans are occurring across the nation. Louisianna has several cities that already have the ban enacted. Show your undies there, and you could be facing a jail sentence of up to 6 months and/or a $500 fine.

New Jersey Councilwoman Annette Lartigue is drafting a law that will not only cause a baggy pants wearing, undie showing person to be fined, but also have their life assessed by a city worker.

One place that has rejected a similar proposal is Stratford, Conn., critics claimed it would be unconstitutional and unfairly target minorities.

As with any story, there are two opposing sides. Some say it is racial profiling and folks should be allowed to wear what they want. The other side say it is an indecent sloppy trend that is a bad influence on the youth of the nation.

Atlanta City Councilman C.T. Martin is himself a black man, so to accuse him of racial profiling and unfairly targeting minorities with his proposed ban seems almost as ridiculous as arresting a woman for having a bra strap slip out from under her shirt while she is shopping at Wal Mart.

The baggy pants fashion is evident everywhere in Atlanta, and it is mostly young black men that wear the fashion, but bear in mind, the city population is predominately black.

The fashion purportedly started in prison, where inmates are not given belts with their baggy uniforms to prevent hangings and beatings.