By John Howell Sr.

City officials are considering a ban on sagging pants in Batesville.

That move came rather unexpectedly during Tuesday’s meeting of the board of mayor and aldermen as Mayor Jerry Autrey was going over a checklist of questions he had been asked by constituents.

“I was asked if the board was willing to try to implement a saggy pants ordinance,” Autrey said to aldermen.

“I’m very much in favor of that,” Alderman Stan Harrison quickly replied.

“I am, too,” Alderman Bill Dugger said.

“Clarksdale has it,” Alderman Ted Stewart said, after Alderman Eddie Nabors recalled several other Mississippi cities that have adopted ordinances banning sagging pants:

“Columbia, Columbus, Guntown, Indianola, Meridian, Ripley and Saltillo,” Nabors said after referring July 17 Clarion-Ledger story reporting that Greenwood is considering prohibition of “pants or skirts that ride more than three inches below the top of hips and which expose skin or underwear.”

“I’d like to look at some of the other ones,” Alderman Teddy Morrow said, referring to ordinances adopted in those towns. Aldermen asked assistant City Attorney Colmon Mitchell to study other ordinances.

“We’ve got to make sure it’s something we can enforce,” Alderman Bill Dugger said.

Sagging means the wearing of pants below the waist, showing much of the underwear. The practice was carried over from prisons where belts are prohibited and later popularized by hip-hop artists in the 1990s, according to Wikipedia. Attempts by municipalities, transportation authorities and schools to ban the wearing of sagging pants have met with some success.

Support for a sagging pants ordinance appeared to be unanimous at Tuesday’s meeting.

And the other questions on the mayor’s list?

“Is drinking beer in your yard legal?” Autrey asked Police Chief Tony Jones.

“If it’s a private yard, it is; that’s a state law,” the police chief replied.

“What if they’re drinking and mowing the grass? Can you get them for that? On a riding lawn mower?” the mayor continued, prompting chuckles around the table.

“If they hit the sidewalk or street, then they’ll be ours,” Jones responded, prompting further laughter.

“We’re slipping kind of over the edge aren’t we?” Dugger said, drawing city officials’ attention back to more mundane matters of municipal business.