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Dicks: "This immoral self expression goes beyond freedom of expression."

Flint Police Chief David Dicks "announced that his officers would start arresting people wearing saggy pants that expose skivvies, boxer shorts or bare bottoms."

"Some people call it a fad," Dicks told the Free Press this week while patrolling the streets of Flint. "But I believe it's a national nuisance. It is indecent and thus it is indecent exposure, which has been on the books for years."

It's a misdemeanor that could put you in jail for up to a year!

A lot of people think Dicks is going too far:

"If I pay for my pants, I should be able to wear them how I want to," said 16-year-old Montez Phifer, taking a break from playing hoops in the city Monday. "Everyone thinks it's gangster, but it's a fashion. Nothing more."

His friend, Lorenzo Johnson, 14, said his mother warned him about the chief's stance on sagging.

"I pulled them up to respect her," he said. "When she left I pulled them back down."

Another friend, Senita Abrams, 18, said: "I think it's cute when boys sag."....

Greg Gibbs, a lawyer and chair of the ACLU Flint chapter, said the crackdown sounds like a "vast waste of resources."

Ha ha. Crackdown. You know which side the newspaper is on.

Full post as published by Althouse on July 09, 2008 (boomark / email).