The kids in the backseat of the van.  Me driving.  Dum-de-dum.  “Mom!  Oh no!  Look!  That man has boobies!”  Lots of laughing and “ewww’s”.  Great.  Closer look.  Those are really, really pendulous boobies for a man…mid length hair…little chubby, young…what the….and then we pass him and you know what?  I don’t know if that was a man or a woman.  Interesting.   

A few days later driving in the van.  Dum-de-dum.  “Mom!  Oh no!  Look!  I can see that boys underwear!  His pants are falling down!  Oh no!”  Sigh.  Yup.  Kid with those super low slung jeans and 4 inches of boxer shorts.  A bandana around his head.  Um.  Guy?  We are in Saskatoon.  Not LA.  Seriously?

I just learned, quite recently from Michele, that the low pants thing on gangster wannabes originated in prison.  One of Debbie’s readers explains:

It started when prison staff began taking away colored hats, jackets, shirts, and bandanas from inmates who were showing they’re gang affiliation. Since they could no longer wear those items they wore colored underwear and allowed their pants to sag.

When those inmates were released they continued the tradition (and I use that word loosely) on the streets.

Of course, the wanna-be (and a lot of real life) thugs in the rap/hip-hop business immediately picked up on this mode of dress to help improve their “street-cred.” This helped it move more mainstream via the impressionable youth who listen to that form of music.

Interestingly enough, back when I was still on patrol, the baggy-saggy pants helped me out, much to the chagrin of several people I was in a foot pursuit with. It’s really hard to outrun a police officer when your pants keep slipping to your ankles as you run.

As you can determine from this video Debbie posted, low slung pants can be inconvenient for the police officer as well…