Cities across the country are taking the "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" motto of conservatives a bit too literally. Rather than tackling rising crime rates or disparate poverty rates in America's largest cities, it appears baggy pants have become the latest fashionable — pardon the pun — target of the harsh eye of "justice." As reported by the Associated Press, Atlanta, Ga., and Trenton, N.J., have pushed for bans on low-hanging jeans. One small city in Louisiana has made the penalty so severe that baring your drawers will award you with up to $500 in fines or six months in jail. With such a stiff penalty, you would think these baggy pants were part and parcel to some criminal enterprises and dastardly deeds, which is precisely what city council members in these cities are suggesting. Terms like "prison garb," "gangsters" and "classroom disturbances" are bandied about during discussions of this issue, and proposed penalties in Trenton suggest that the city will require these supposedly troubled youths to come in for a reality check and a dose of career guidance. Although these cities may have some honorable goals, this kind of paternalistic guidance has its roots in a deeper symptom of American culture that demands we change the law before we change the culture. In the process of passing these kinds of laws, Americans often overlook how other legal issues necessarily evolved. This law, as hypothesized, faces major hurdles to remain consistent with the body of law we have now. Through what appears to be no unintended coincidence, the policies target fashion trends popularized in the African-American community, which makes the implementations of this policy all the more problematic. How a city will go about enforcing a policy regarding baggy pants is already a viable question — but tack on the fact that the policy targets a specific ethnic group in society, and you have a policy disaster waiting to happen. The policy, as hypothesized, appears to be the most ineffective way of changing the very problem it seeks to fix. Using markers, such as baggy pants, to identify troubled youths only works if those who are wearing baggy pants actually fit the bill of troubled youths. Suffice it to say, the prevalence of this among young people today is grounds alone for abandoning this ludicrous presumption. Kids seeking to avoid trouble could avoid all problems by simply pulling up their pants, which could mean that the young people these policies are designed to target go unwarned, unnoticed or uncounseled. Lastly, the policy targets conduct that could arguably fall under a variety of other laws already in place. Indecent exposure and disorderly conduct were written intentionally vague to incorporate society's standards into a police officer and legal system's discretion. Writing specific laws to outlaw what is already questionably legal conduct simply clutters our policy books and dilutes the goals of the legal system. The truth is, fixing the real problem — disparate poverty and legitimate criminal enterprises such as gangs — is too hard. Passing a law about baggy pants is the easy way out of dealing with these very real issues — and for council members looking to impact change upon their community at a bare minimum cost, this policy is a dream come true. This kind of mentality reflects an all-too-common philosophy in American society. Rather than dealing with violations of our common morality as a society through informal mechanisms that will have substantial success if supported, such as Head Start or various other egalitarian programs, we turn away from such programs, instead turning to the law. The law serves as the rules of the game, but it is not the magical cure-all society has made it out to be. Violations of existent law provide a testament to the fact that society, despite the rules, still manages to find new ways of breaking the ascribed code of conduct and challenging our moral consciousness. This policy disproportionately targets minorities. It is too fundamentally flawed to achieve its desired goal, and laws already exist to deal with this problem. Making a new policy about this issue satisfies nothing except society's misguided desire to legislate. In the end, people are not really offended by the baggy pants as much as they are by the criminal behavior they've associated with the fashion. They should start looking at the root of the problem rather than at the symptoms. Robert Phansalkar ([email protected]) is a first-year law student.