Do you think if this was a white 20-year old woman wearing a sleeveless shirt that you could also clearly see her bra through, USAir would have kicked her off the plane? I don't have a problem with them enforcing a dress code. But I would hope they enforce it as to everyone, and strongly suspect they don't.

Agreed. The plane belongs to US. They make a reasonable request whether to pull up your pants or eat the stinky food you bought before you board. You do it or don't fly.
End of story.

Is this woman attractive or ugly? Fat or skinny? Would certainly make a difference in my book. :D

I agree, while I only know whats posted on this thread, I'm leaning toward racism. I see lots and I mean lots of white kids wearing the shorts way down and their boxers covering their butt. From this article I don't believe his butt was showing. Women wear much more revealing stuff and you don't hear about this stuff. although wasn't there a WN issue a few years back about a woman wearing something a bit along the scantilly clad lines and got booted???

I'm not advocating this style but it is a very "common" style all across the U.S. I have serious problems with an airline doing this. Especially when there are other outfits that IMHO are just as or even more of a style issue than this particular style. Agreed with whomever posted that the airline really has more pressing needs than this to take care of.

on the trespass issue, I thought he had permission in the form of a BP to be on that plane. I realize that they can ask you to leave but you paid for a time on that property (segment to segment) and there have to be someone in the omni legal clinic (where this thread should be) who can expand upon this trespassing thing and what type of defense he might use/have to fight this. The resisting arrest, well that was all on him.

for those who criticize his style and telling him to make it in life he needs to dress appropriate, well this kid wants the NFL and that is the style.

PJ's should not make one bit of difference than if they were shorts, jeans or something else.

I'm with the Pax on this one at least until the resisting arrest part.

I understand that it is offensive to you, but had you been on the flight, what would you have preferred?:

Option 1: The kid is ordered to leave the plane, refuses, and the capitan deplanes everyone thereby delaying the flight to get him off.
Option 2: The gate agent ignores the sagging pants and the flight departs on time.

Again, I in no way condone the kid's attire or actions, but given the options above, which would you have preferred had you been on the flight?

(Do not accuse me of posing a false choices question as number 1 happened and number 2 would have happened had the GA ignored it. Obviously the best outcome would have been if he complied and pulled up his pants, but that didn't happen leaving the decision tree above).

I look at it like this.... The kid is a NCAA Student Athlete. He should know better. Had he dressed that way flying to a ballgame, I know damn good and well that his Coach would have lit his ... up and not allowed him to fly let alone play that day.....

Our Coaches back home would have and have done the same thing in the past with players not dressing up to standards.

He was asked by the airlines to do something, he refused, and he got smacked for it. End of story.....

Amazes me how folks try to toss racisim into this.....

After this is over, I doubt the kid will be able to play football for that school....as I am sure he violated team rules for acting like an idiot......and will probably get booted from the team......

More coverage in the San Francisco Chronicle this morning, including statements from US, a fellow passenger, and coaches:

Reasoning for SFO sagging-pants arrest debated

Look like a thug act like a thug you might be a thug.

I once walked into the mens room in some now forgotten airport to encounter a completely nude man who was in the process of changing his clothes. I did my business, he did his, but it all felt quite disconcerting.

I imagine it was! :eek:

Very troubling that flight crews are emboldened and enabled to single out those that "offend them".

Don't get how that part is primarily for my safety.

If you are trying to unass the plane in a hurry....and knucklehead trips over himself because his damn pants are dragging.....I bet you'd have issues....

No more than I would with the POS who doesn't fit in the aisle, the elderly person in front of me who needs a walker, the single parent trying to herd multiple small children or the passenger who had a few too many drinks on the flight. Point being, that's a ridiculous, irrational basis for 'for my safety'.

While it may not be 'racism,' it sure does seem to have a slant of cultural and gender hegemony. When's the last time you heard of a white girl showing too much thigh/tummy/tush (something I find just as offensive as baggy pants showing underwear) being kicked off a plane, let alone arrested?

There are some things in this world you just have to deal with as an adult. One of those things is being exposed to things you find distasteful. It happens to all of us every day, we just choose not to get so worked up about it as when something like this grabs headlines and inflames our passions.

That said, there's probably no legal argument to be made here in this young man's defense. It is within the right of the airline to enforce its policies, even if they do so unevenly, just as it is within rights of the police to arrest someone for not complying with a request to vacate someone's private property.

-C

What right does a gate agent have to tell a young man to pull up his pants just because they don't like his fashion sense? He was fully dressed, showing
nothing but fancy boxer shorts. I don't like the look, it started from thugs
in the ghetto, but it is just another form of extreme dress. Even my little blond grandson in grade school tries to emulate it, to the best the clothes
we allow him will permit. Our norm is not the burka, Mormon pioneer dress, Goth, or zoot suits, but all are allowed to board without interference. Sure, the young man would have been smarter to just pull up his pants...but the gate agent instigated this incident, not the kid.