Flint, Michigan, Cracks Down on Baggy Pants

David Dicks, the Chief of Police in Flint, Michigan, has ordered a city-wide crackdown on sagging paints:

"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."

The lefties and libertarians are already "cracking" wise:

* "Just Say No To Crack," announced the radical LGM.

* "Watch Your Butt," warns Jeralyn, at Talk Left.

* "Flint, Michigan, Battles Crack Epidemic," announces Reason, the libertarian standard-bearer.

While humorous, I think Chief Dicks is onto something.

To the extent baggy pants reflect the glorification of "gang culture" (which predicts limited school success) among particular urban demographics - or at least a hip-hop identity that is oppositional to educational attainment - then a crackdown on baggy pants might be considered a social extension of the "broken windows" theory of policing.

Image Credit: Detroit Free Press