State Senator Eric Adams is urging young people, in particular young black men to “Stop the Sag.”  The campaign is meant to get young black men to raise their pants up and stop sagging.  To this end, Senator Adams, a former police officer, has committed $20,000 of his member item for billboards and online advertisement encouraging young black men to “raise their level of respect by raising their pants.”  Senator Adams has posted a YouTube video to kick off the campaign.

The anti-sagging campaigns are nothing new.  Every few years for the last two decades the campaign has reappeared to little affect.  Although there has been no statistical correlation between sagging and delinquencies, it’s a cause that many politicians will periodically pick up – presumably to keep kids away from bad behavior and prison.

Currently, there are other anti-sagging campaigns in cities around the country, including Dallas where a rapper named Dooney “Da Priest” has provided the campaign a theme song (listen here).  The reappearance of these campaigns may have something to do with an American Idol audition in which a man raps about the foolishness of sagging pants; ironically, the man auditioning looked pretty foolish doing it.