Law below the belt

Louisiana authorities have launched a war against slipping jeans

Some laws passed in American states, counties and towns have long amused the public. For example, in Indiana, the law does not allow opening cans by shooting a gun, and in Pennsylvania, housewives are officially prohibited from hiding dust under the carpet while cleaning. In Salt Lake City, Utah, you can't hunt whales (despite the fact that the city is in the middle of the desert). Iowa state law regulates the duration of a kiss - it should not exceed five minutes, and in Los Angeles, husbands are prohibited from beating their wives ... with a belt whose width exceeds two inches, without the consent of the “fair half.” And now the legislators of the town of Delcambra, Louisiana, apparently decided to keep up with their colleagues and leave their mark on the tablets of legal history.

The burgomaster from the film “That Same Munchausen,” I remember, was indignant at the fact that some “allow themselves to sew on patch pockets and tighten sleeves.” Delcambre authorities have declared war on low-slung trousers that reveal underwear. For following a fashion that is common among young hip-hop fans, you can end up in prison for six months or, at best, get off with a fine of $500.

The mayor of the town, Carol Broussard, was a hippie in the sixties of the last century, but she treats the current immoral, obscene and “gangster” style without condescension. “I don’t think that our fashion was as terrible as pants falling down,” the mayor said her weighty word. In the larger city of Mansfield, in the same state of Louisiana, panties sticking out from under jeans were treated more tolerantly: here a fashion-conscious rapper can be fined only 150 bucks or be subject to a penalty familiar to domestic hipsters, parasites and hooligans , - arrest for 15 days.

The harsh fight against slipping pants appears to be dictated by the fact that in the conservative South, anyone wearing such pants (and these are, as a rule, young blacks) is seen as a potential criminal. The guardians of the law are not even embarrassed by the fact that wearing jeans that hang “below the waist” makes it very problematic to “go on business” or run away from the police.

Actually, in prisons, where this style came from, it was for this purpose that large uniforms were issued and without belts, so that the prisoner would not run away far, would not be able to hang himself with a belt or strangle his cellmate with it. Gangsta rappers made the prison attribute an element of their outfit, and thanks to music television, this not very elegant manner became fashionable and glamorous, and not only among African Americans.

Now the campaign is spreading throughout Louisiana, and it is quite possible that the “panty bulging law” will be passed at the state level in the near future. Previously, an attempt to ban the wearing of jeans that fell down was made in Virginia. Such zeal of provincial legislators has already transferred the conflict from a haberdashery plane to a political one. The American Civil Liberties Union saw racist implications in the fight against the wrong trousers and the hip-hop style in general. “I don’t understand how you can talk about a legislative ban?! It's just about trying to stand out and follow a style that comes out of the subculture of black youth,” said Debbie Seagraves, executive director of the advocacy organization's branch in another southern state, Georgia.

Mikhail MOSHKIN