Sagging Pants Ordinance Takes Effect Thursday

So just to clarify, starting Thursday in Shreveport you won't be allowed to wear your pants below your waist exposing skin or underwear in public. Mayor Cedric Glover says if you are caught violating the sagging pants ordinance you will have to pay the city a fine and be forced to work for the city for free. "We would welcome the fines and we can certainly use the manpower. We'll have them out on I-20 picking up trash, I-49 picking up trash, also some of the other roads across the city. We hope that we have a few folks out there that are rich enough to give us the time and money at the same time."City leaders are asking citizens to police themselves, so it doesn't have to come to this. A local civil rights attorney with more than forty years experience is one of the people who says the new sagging pants ordinance is a violation of freedom. Attorney Henry Walker doesn't understand why the city of Shreveport would spend time wasting tax payer money enforcing this new sagging pants ordinance. During Wednesday's press conference Shreveport Police Chief Henry Whitehorn told us starting Thursday officers will spend time looking out for people violating the sagging pants ordinance. Walker believes police should be fighting crime instead. Plus, Walker says there are some things Shreveport city leaders may have over looked when they approved the sagging pants ordinance. We showed up at Walker's office armed with a copy of the new sagging pants ordinance. He reviewed it for us. First thing Walker said about it. He believes it's targeting specific people in the community. "It also seems to me that it's going to be used by the police to harass black kids, to pat them down when ever they stop them to see if they can find marijuana on them on pretense of officer safety or something else." Plus, Walker says it's going to be hard to prove someone is violating the new sagging pants ordinance. "And the whole thing seems to me to be a nightmare in court. What level are your pants too low? What comprises showing skin? Since when did we become the clothes police?" Walker says there is also one other thing city leaders might have missed when they approved the new sagging pants ordinance. Those citied are not only going to have to pay citation fines given to them by the city. They will also have to pay for court fees. "The cost can run into a couple of hundred dollars. This is going to be a burden on poor families and if they don't have the money they're going to have to work at picking up trash." Basically Walker doesn't agree with the new sagging pants ordinance. "This is just something that is politically easy to do because it is a distasteful thing to watch kids with low cut pants. But it's not something that government should be involved in. It violates a whole bunch of things involving free expression, stuff like that. Are they going to arrest women for not wearing bras?" In a press release given to us by the Shreveport police department at Wednesday's press conference it basically said city attorney Terri Scott says the ordinance is not intended or designed not to target young black males. It is intended to target any person that is wearing their pants below their waist so that it exposes their skin or underwear in public.