MI- ACLU prepares to take cops to court over saggy pants

7-22-2008 Michigan:

Saggers unite: The ACLU wants to talk.

With Flint Police Chief David Dicks refusing to back down from his anti-saggy-pants policy, the ACLU is asking people to come forward for a possible lawsuit.

“We are confident that young men in Flint will contact us now that the chief has announced that he wont budge,” said Michael J. Steinberg, legal director of the state ACLU. “If they do, we’ll sue.”

The ACLU had said today would be the deadline for Dicks to halt the stopping and searching of individuals with low-riding pants exposing underwear or bare bottoms.

Dicks said he has no plans to change anything.

“We’re going to keep doing what we’re doing,” he said today. “I think people are catching on and pulling up their pants. I’m getting a lot of support from local parents and churches and the mayor said he supports me one thousand percent.”

Dicks said wearing pants below the waist is a crime -- a violation of the city's disorderly conduct ordinance -- and can give police probable cause to search saggers for other crimes, such as weapon or drug possession. He said exposing the buttocks is indecent exposure.

Both crimes are misdemeanors punishable by 93 days to a year in jail and fines up to $500, Dicks said.

Meanwhile, other cities are covering their behinds as well.

The suburban Chicago village of Lynwood, Ill., passed an ordinance last week that states people caught exposing three inches or more of their underwear will be fined $35.

“We need to stop this offensive and unsanitary behavior,” said Lynwood Mayor Eugene Williams. “We have to be big enough to take the heat.”

Williams said he salutes Chief Dicks.

“Tell the chief in Flint that I support him,” he said. “And tell him to hang in there.”

In Riviera Beach, Fla., more than 70 percent of the community’s voters approved a measure in March that imposes a series of penalties on saggers with each violation. First-time violators face a $150 fine. Third-time offenders could do jail time.

The crackdown has sparked national, even international, debate on what constitutes freedom of expression.

Terry Girard, an English teacher at Lawrence Technical University in Southfield, said she belongs to the ACLU, but can’t back them on the saggy pants.

“I think the ACLU is dead wrong here,” she said. “I see too many kids walking around like this. I don’t want to see someone’s underwear, and I definitely don’t want to see their bare butts either.”

Catherine Meza, a teacher at Flint Community Schools, said the city has too many other problems to worry about saggers. “New Years Eve — you have to leave town because of all the gunfire,” she said. “People pretty much do what they want, and the only reason it isn’t worse is because the population is draining away.” ..News Source.. by BEN SCHMITT