Besides, it isn't like we don't limit freedom elsewhere in an effort to create a safer, sounder, more harmonious society.  You can't just kill people.  You can't drive on the left hand side of the road.  You can't walk out of a store with merchandise you didn't pay for.  You can't pillage the house next door, even if they have a really cool plasma TV.  And in Flint you can't sag your pants!  

To answer your question, yes, the sun is a little brighter and the birds are chirping a little louder since the Chief of Police in the city with one of the highest murder rates in the nation began playing fashion cop.  The world, nay, the universe is now a little better because of it.  Well, depending on your taste in fashion I suppose.

"Some people call it a fad," (Chief David) Dicks told the Free Press this week while patrolling the streets of Flint. "But I believe it's a national nuisance. It is indecent and thus it is indecent exposure, which has been on the books for years."

To answer your next question, no, I'm not making this up.  The police in Flint are going to be writing tickets and making arrests when they see young men with their pants a little low.

OK, OK, a lot low.  

Raise your hands if you like it when boys sag.  Nobody?  Hmm.  Go figure.  

Well as a former sagger myself (yes, it's true) I'll raise my hand.  I'd raise both if I didn't need one to hold up my pants... kidding, kidding.  Now I never went too crazy and according to the Ivory Tower's handy little graphic guide I'd never have been given more than a warning but hey, guilty as charged.  If I'd ever been busted with one of the fineable offenses I'd have paid a much steeper price than the dollar amount on the ticket when my dad found out.  But not everyone had a dad to ask drly every other morning, "do you need a belt?" as he stares directly at the one already around your waist... or, well, a little below it.

That isn't to say guys "getting their sag on" don't already pay a steep societal price themselves.  I know the practice in question represents the prevailing fashion statement in my neighborhood here on Grand Rapids south east side.  Every time a full grown man waddles down the middle of the street with his belt around his thighs, his arms and hands often gesturing wildly in rhythm with the mild to moderately profane spoke word poetry he's reciting aloud (a scene repeated almost daily on my block) those around him don't typically rush into the street with job offers.  

Which, frankly, is pretty OK with him.  He chose to adorn himself in such a way and he chose not to adorn himself in others, understanding that there is perception-altering power in the way he presents himself.  That's freedom.  

But that isn't to say I'm not "behind" (ba-dam-CHING) the police chief on this one.  After he's done wiping out this particular "national nuisance" he can start conducting raids on plumbers vans, station beat cops inside city pools to make sure trunks are properly fastened and then tackle the scourge of the Midwest... jaywalking.  Not like cops in Flint have anything better to do.