Thief on the Run Trips and Gets Caught After Sagging Pants Slip Down to Ankles
After years of campaigning throughout New York City and other parts of the country imploring young men to pull up their sagging pants, the fashion epidemic finally caught up with a fleeing robber in Brooklyn, N.Y. this week when he tripped over his sagging pants and was cornered by the cops.
According to a report in the New York Post, Joel Donaldson, 21, allegedly punched a woman in the face, grabbed her cellphone and took off at about 2:30 p.m. on Wednesday.
Donaldson, however, didn't get very far as his sagging blue jeans that left his boxers exposed began sliding down as he ran. An alert traffic cop who watched his now botched escape quickly gave chase.
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The crooks jeans were at his ankles after only a city block of running which allowed the officer to tackle him.
"He was zigzagging all over the place, but he couldn't run because his pants was falling down," witness Arlene Williams told the New York Post. "This cop saw it, and he went right after him.'"
In 2010, former New York City police captain and New York State Sen. Eric Adams launched a campaign in Brooklyn targeting the popular pants-sagging trend called "Raise your pants, raise your image."
"It's part of a larger campaign ... to tell our young people and our community as a whole, we are better than this," Adams explained in a CNN report. "I policed all over the city. ... The first indicator of whether a young person was in trouble was the way they dressed," he added.
Last Thursday, a report in the San Francisco Chronicle highlighted that several cities across America are now moving beyond the soft approach to deter the sagging pants trend. Many want to ban the practice in the name of decency.
In New Jersey, according to the report, the cities of Wildwood and Penns Grove banned sagging pants this summer. Violators of the ban can incur fines ranging from $25 to $200. Similar ordinances were proposed in suburban cities outside Detroit, New Orleans, Atlanta, Miami and Jacksonville, Fla., noted the report.
"This is not a style," St. Louis, Alderwoman Marlene Davis told local newspaper. "This is an absolutely vulgar display of disrespect not only to every human being who has to look at it, but also to themselves. It's totally out of control."
