Word: riviera
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...Despite popular support for the ban, it has elicited plenty of popular opposition. Walking through a Riviera Beach neighborhood last week, 23-year-old Bo Brown denounced the law as a pretext for police officers to harass young men idling on street corners. Brown's jeans-shorts were worn dropped, but a large white polo shirt covered any underwear exposure, making his look legal. Pointing out the home of a friend who was cited for sagging, Brown says, "I did it, but I don't anymore. I don't want to be harassed...
...Riviera Beach does not keep official numbers on warnings or arrests made for saggy-pants violations (most often, Brown says, police simply tell violators to pull up their pants). It's believed, though, that since strict enforcement began in late August, about a dozen people have been arrested, ranging from juveniles to a 36-year-old man, all of them African Americans. Under the local law, a first conviction garners a $150 fine or community service, a second one a $300 fine, and anyone who fails to pay up or perform their service could spend up to 60 days...
...inner-city residents struggling financially, says Tricia Rose, a professor at Brown University's Department of Africana Studies and the author of the forthcoming book The Hip Hop Wars: What We Talk About When We Talk About Hip Hop - And Why It Matters. The average median household income in Riviera Beach is about $10,000 lower than that in the rest of the country, and the city's per capita violent-crime rate is higher than the city of Miami's, according to 2007 FBI figures released this month...
...crackdown on sagging is certainly rallying its defenders. Jeremy Sackler, a student at Boca Raton High School, also in Palm Beach County, started the Facebook group People Who Think the 'Saggy Pants' Law Is Ridiculous in response to Riviera Beach's law - although it has only half the membership of the Girls Against Saggy Pants group, or GASP. "It is a total violation of the First Amendment," Sackler told TIME in a Facebook message. "I have talked about it with friends, and they all agree it is one of the stupidest laws we have ever heard...
...even if they can't persuade their parents and the town's elders, all is not lost for the saggers of Riviera Beach. At a court hearing last week, 17-year-old Julius Hart stood before a Palm Beach County circuit court judge. Police had spotted Hart showing about four inches of boxer shorts, then discovered that he was on probation for a possession-of-marijuana charge. Hart spent a night in jail. Judge Paul Moyle opined that the saggy-pants law was unconstitutional and released Hart. And the county public defender's office may push to repeal...