Group tells city to ‘pull up their pants’

A group of concerned citizens are fed up with baggy, saggy pants in their western Chicago neighborhood.

The Empowered Citizens of North Lawndale are pressuring 24th Ward Alderman Michael D. Chandler and City Hall for a citywide amendment to include sagging pants in the indecent exposure law. Such an amendment would cause sagging pants to carry hefty fines of up to $200.

Although the proposed amendment has yet to be brought to the chambers of City Hall, the group is not giving up.

Fred Mitchell, head of the Empowered Citizens group, is not surprised by the lack of action by policy-makers.

"I live in the inner city and [politicians] live in the suburbs, and they may only see sagging pants once a week. I see one once a day," he said. "It should be a concern for all of their constituents who see it and are offended by it."

He said that the Empowered Citizens started because members of the North Lawndale community, especially the women, grew more and more offended by sagging pants.

"I'm offended, but not just me," Mitchell said. "I'm more concerned about women. Women in this community express that they don't like it. Some [of the sagging pants-wearers] don't even have underpants on."

Mitchell believes that the origins of the pant-sagging trend began in prisons, where belts are prohibited due to safety concerns.

"That's where the trend started, and it began to come into the community when people got out of prison," he said.

For Mitchell, the sagging pants trend is not an endpoint, but a kind of slippery slope leading to worse atrocities.

"I look to the future," he said. "I look to what this could lead to. There are girls who wear pajamas to school. What if [pant-saggers] turn into streakers and you see a bunch of them running down the street? Before you know it you are going to have kids having sex on the street."

However, the message of the Empowered Citizens does not appear to be gaining much traction at DePaul.

Senior Carlita Gay does not see sagging pants as a problem.

"I don't see them too often, but if women can wear booty shorts, men can sag their pants," she said.

Junior Alex Wasily also does not share Mitchell's view of sagging pants as a slippery slope.

"That's downright outrageous," Wasily said. "I wear my pants on my waist, not my knee, but I still think it's absolutely ludicrous to believe that it will lead to sex on the street."

The views of the Empowered Citizens are opposed by the Illinois American Civil Liberties Union, who feels that a ban on sagging pants will disproportionately affect African-Americans and also cites the fact that any American has the right to wear what he or she would like.

Mitchell said he agrees with the right to dress freely but asked "What about the people who are offended? Who's in the majority here?"

Alderman Michael Chandler was unable to be reached for comment.