Fashion, idioicy, and newspaper journal-lists

I was recently made aware of an incident where a college football player was removed from a flight because he refused to pull his pants up. A bit of detail is in this article from College Football Talk.

Now a couple of questions come of this report quick. One, why is this person a college football player in this article. He seems to be a large black man dressing like many younger people these days...although I've busted many a 50 something with their pants down their ass.

Two, what is the problem with this man simply pulling his pants up...that's what a belt is for moron. If you had done that the flight would have left on schedule, you wouldn't have had to post a 11000 bond and everyone would be happy. This is nothing to do with race although I have no doubt you will push that with a lawsuit...I'm surprised the Justice Brothers of Jackson and Sharpton aren't on the case already.

Three, why won't the people pushing this give us details on the other charges...besides the trespass the resisting arrest and warrant. Hey, eleven grand for a bail on a trespass seems a bit excessive. Or is curiosity a bit too much to ask of people who notionally get paid money to ask questions.

With that in mind here is the SF Chronicle's report on this incident with my commentary.

SAN FRANCISCO -- As prosecutors mulled whether to file charges against a college football player who allegedly refused to pull up his sagging pants at San Francisco International Airport, the outside world seized the incident to debate broader questions about respect, fashion policies and racial stereotyping.

Whom is the outside world? I only heard about this on Michael Berry's talk show...from Houston.

Deshon Marman, 20, a defensive player for the University of New Mexico and graduate of Lincoln High in San Francisco, was arrested and removed from US Airways flight 488 Wednesday after police said he ignored an airline employee's request to pull up sweatpants that exposed his underwear below the buttocks.

He was jailed for a day in San Mateo County on suspicion of trespassing, battery and resisting arrest before being released on $11,000 bail Thursday. Sheriff's deputies said there was also an outstanding warrant for Marman from Santa Clara County on a marijuana possession charge.

Hell, missed the assault charges. And another thing just hit me. Where is the video of this. Don't tell me someone on a packed plane didn't use his cell phone camera on this one.

San Francisco police, who took Marman off the plane, said he had refused the pilot's orders and had taken 15 minutes to leave. His family disputed that, saying Marman had pulled up his pants after boarding the plane and thought the problem had been solved after a visit from the pilot.

OK, his family was there? From what I know (granted limited) he was travelling alone.

...Looked like a thug?

Ranon Ross, who coached Marman on youth teams and is president of the Brown Bombers, a football league in the Bayview, noted that Marman is African American and wears his hair in dreadlocks. He figures the airline employee who told him to hitch up his pants pegged him for a thug...

...Ross added that Marman held a 3.0 grade point average through high school and City College of San Francisco and that his older brother, John Marman, received an academic and athletic scholarship to West Point.

"Sometimes, when we talk about kids who come out of the Bayview and are trying to make their way out, we're talking about kids who don't have a lot of hope and there's a lot of despair," Ross said. "Deshon Marman is not one of those kids."

Gee, I would have never know he was black or wore dreads...thanks for letting me know that. Also the comment about his brother is dead wrong and irrelevant. Some kids are good, some kids are not...doesn't matter if your brother is the president of his class at Harvard, that doesn't change the possibility you could be a jerk. And a quick conversation with anyone in the military would have told this "journalist" there is no such thing as "academic and athletic scholarship to West Point." You get admitted through the nomination processes and if you are accepted you get four years of college during which you are required to participate in a sport (team or individual).

Fashion statement

...Paris Carthen, 47, who coached Marman and Henderson during their Pop Warner years, said sagging pants are a youth fashion statement that wouldn't have caused a fuss at the airport if the right young man had been wearing them.

"If he was a rich and famous rapper wearing his pants that way, the employee probably would have run to him and asked for his autograph," Carthen said. "But because he's not famous, they make assumptions."

Andrew Christie, a spokesman for US Airways, said employees had the discretion to decide whether boarding passengers are wearing clothes that ensure "the safety and the comfort" of other passengers.

It may have been Marman's clothing that set things off, but Christie emphasized that it was his behavior that got him arrested.

"It's an important distinction to note that (Marman) was not removed from the plane due to what he was wearing," Christie said. "It was for the fact that he was not following crew member's instructions."

Weiner in underwear only...is that too much? Where do we draw a line. I don't expect someone to wear shirt and tie on a flight but can we at least expect someone to not expose their privates...be it a woman's ass or man's.