DOCUMENT: Funny, Stupid, Crime

Indiana Man In Saggy Pants Bust

Suspect, 21, told police he “was just swagging”

Saggy pants

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Swagging Arrest Report

AUGUST 18--An Indiana man was arrested last night after cops spotted him with his pants “pulled down to his knees” and his boxer shorts exposed.

Demetrius Russ, 21, was sitting on top of an electrical box talking on his phone when approached by cop Daniel Green. According to an Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department report, after Russ ignored Green’s repeated requests to provide ID, he announced, “You can’t ask me for shit.” Green reported telling Russ that he was “sitting on private property with his pants pulled down on top of an electrical box.”

Russ’s perch can be seen in this Google Street View photo.

When Green asked why his pants were so droopy, Russ noted that he “was just swagging.” The officer replied that, “swagging did not involve exposing your genitals through your boxers because your pants were pulled down all the way.” The term “swagging” generally refers to getting your drink on.

During his interaction with Green, a “belligerent” Russ allegedly cursed frequently and called the cop “nigga and muthafucker on several occasions.” While police contended that Russ appeared drunk, he claimed to have only consumed “one 40 ounce.”

Russ, pictured in the above mug shot, was charged with public intoxication and disorderly conduct, since Indiana’s criminal codes apparently have yet to codify the offense of having one’s pants on the ground. (2 pages)

Comments (69)

Crispus Attucks is no doubt rolling over in his grave at this injustice done to a man based purely on the color of his skin. It's a sad day in Amerika when one can't be "swagging" or getting "their drink on" any more! I think that to let this stand is to let the terrorists win!
It's a sad day in America when someone thinks that this guy, who was obviously guilty of indecent exposure, should be given a pass on cursing and being combative with police who just asked for his ID. I hope this guy gets time and I hope you learn to spell America. You gotta love when idiots think that being dealt with by the police in the same manner everyone else is dealt with is discrimination. Please do not reproduce
Amen!
An intoxicated guy with his pants down, sounds like public intoxication with indecent exposure! If he doesn't want to be hassled by the cops then he should have some decency and keep his pants up in public! There are children and other folks who do not want or need to see this drunken buffoon exposing his genitals or anything else? I would wager if this guy knew anything about public decency and behaving like a normal human being that he would not have been arrested! Rather than berating the police with foul language, including some racial rubbish, he should have pulled his pants up and shown them his ID as requested, then he would have most likely not been arrested! Far be it for the police to wonder about some guy drinking a "forty" with his pants down around his ankles in public? lol
He looked like a dirty-butt; all I am hoping for the sake of all of the people who lived in Caravelle Commons, is that he (at least) had on clean underwear.
Who wants to see another persons underwear? Nor do I want my young son seeing it. This guy was drunk with his pants down, the cop had every right to question him.
I always wondered if one of these gangster crowd would mess with me.never happened but just drop down pulling pants to ankles push up with legs still holding jeans when he goes down make sure someones videotaping it to show his friends.
what is wit hthose ears on the african american? he looks like Mr.Spook from Star Trek
I think the saggy pants "style", and I use the term LOOSELY, is trashy, unappealing and not in the least bit sexy. That being said if people want to look like fools wearing their clothes that way let them. But if you show up in court looking like a thug and piss off the judge with the attitude and appearance suck it up and take your medicine, moron!
Look, a good portion of the job police do is making sure they are a presence in the community. You act like they're ignoring an armed robbery call to bother some poor citizen minding his own business. This guy is textbook trouble and anybody who wants to yell "racial profiling" has their head up the area the boxers SHOULD cover. Some gang-banger getting drunk and hanging out (perhaps in an area known for drug problems?) can and should be called on to account for what he's doing. Unless you like the idea of this fine, upstanding young man grabbing your 12 year old and offering him crack as he passes. Or perhaps, your daughter...
I read long ago that pants down is a signal to other prison inmates that you are willing to take it where the sun don't shine.
I read somewhere that gays started the saggy pants thing to let others know they were gay and available. Oh well...either way saggy pants are not sexy or attractive. I like mens butts in snug, not too tight, jeans. Knowing what kind and brand of underwear they wear just does not turn me on. And oh my God and some of those guys don't even bother to wear CLEAN underwear. G R O S S!!!!!
Scientific studies conclude that there is a direct correlation between the distance of pant tops from the buttocks, further the distance between the two the lower the IQ in the subject, and a higher the probability of voting Democrat...
ROTFLMBO....So true!!!!
he was not showing his genitalia. his genitalia was covered better than anyone at the public swimming pool. Boxers are nothing more than thin shorts. Personally I find the whole pants down thing stupid, but no worse than the long hair I have now. The officer had no right to harrass this guy. The whole scenario stinks of entrapment.
Pull your pants up, go home and put some on that fit, sober up, get a job, show some self respect and, above all, quit blaming all of your problems on whitey! Grow up.
Yes that's exactly what we need, another law to take away the little rights that we have. No I don't want to see any guys butt, but I feel this country isn't quite as free as it used to be!
What right do you have to appear in public in an indecent manner? I don't want to see your, or any ones, underwear in public. On another note: why wear pants that sag to the ground? Gotta admit, it looks kinda stupid.
Yes that's exactly what we need, another law to take away the little rights that we have. No I don't want to see any guys butt, but I feel this country isn't quite as free as it used to be!
If my mother let me dress that way, I'd hit her. I'm an inner city public HS Business teacher, and I see this everyday. I do call the kids on this everytime I see it. Most take care of it right away, because I do respect my kids. In class, I explain that I would not even consider your job application if you dressed like that. I certainly would not consider you if you spoke to people like that. I also tell them that in prison, you'd look like you were asking for a date. The pants get pulled up very quickly.
Two months ago in NE Ohio I went to and "Open House" interview with a major high volume company. I was dressed in Business Casual and properly refreshed. While I was filling out a quick qualification test I was wondering what my chances were. I looked up and seen T-shirts, torn jeans, PANTS PULLED DOWN, hats on sideways, whale-tails and a plethora of improper and inappropriate attire and I thought "No problem!" I was the first one taken back after the screening interview to a regular interview, Invited back for the third and fourth interviews and additional testing including urine drop. Guess who got the job? ME! Looks and proper speech does matter, if a kid thinks a job is a right they had better think again.
I agree 100%. This has got to be the ugliest, most repulsive "fashion statement" to ever contaminate society. It screams "lack of self respect". Can you imagine the discomfort this "style" causes? And all just to be a FOLLOWER, not a LEADER. It reminds me of looking at someone with some heavy-duty skidmarks or a loaded diaper. Heck, plumbers (WHO WORK) could've made this a popular style long ago, wonder why it never caught on?! And here's a good punchline for those of you who also agree with the bible's message: Armageddon's gonna' catch them with their pants down!
you dumb ***, pull up your pants like every other civilized being, a black person, or a white person would have....quit thinking everybody owes you something and you might get somewhere in life.....LOSER, get a goal in life.
This guy is a PNUF. A PNUF is Provides No Useful Function. Since he is useless maybe he should be removed from society. This is the type that Rep Diane Waters is known to obtain cash payments for to keep him beholding to her and her kind. Give a PNUF money and he will always vote for you. Same plan the Marxist muslim president uses and it works. This country has millions of PNUFs and many are members of congress and on the white house staff..
Come on people....black, white, red, who really cares. This is a matter of a lack of respect, not only for passer-bys who don't really want to see somebody's junk hanging out, for authority, and for the offender himself. I mean come on, I would be embarrased if I was out in public with my pants down. True ignorance is pulling out the race card anytime a so-called "minority" is involved in any incident. By the sounds of it, the police officer involved was not passing judgement in anyway by simply asking for the man's ID. I was stopped by police while driving in my car a few weeks ago and the first exchange of words was the cop asking for my ID. Had I been cocky and disrespectful, I would expect him to take further action against me. Bottom line is this....there is a disturbing amount of lack of respect in today's society, which only fuels more. Love your neighbor. Alright, I've stated my case....go ahead and belittle me and my opinion now...I know many will. Go for it. Thanks for making insulting my stance on this issue so worth your valuable time. ----God Bless, educatedwhiteguy
Tis juts the wite man keeping the blk mans doun. Why thay not aressting rapistss and droug deelerz! o yeh day iz bouthrs two!
i could barely read this gibberish, whether you're black or white, i dont care and either does anybody else, go back to school and find out how spell. get a goal a life, find something you want to do, make money, live and love it. quit complaining about police setting a young man straight who doesn't wan't to pull up his pants. if you're black and supporting him simply because he's black. you're a racist and need help, if you're white or black and supporting him because he's a misguided young black man, then you are the worst of them all. brothers my ass, get a life, get a job, find something you love in life and do it, quit trying to associate yourself simply because of race or your misfortune, it's only bringing more disastrous effects to your cause. oh yea but im the confused one. LOSER
The DNC keeps these kids on the welfare plantation. It is the DNC and the welfare pimps that create these fools. In the real world they would assimilate to normal productive lives, not this trash taking dead end. Get out of the poverty trap, walk away from the familiar failure trap that the DNC has produced and foster. GET OFF OF THE PLANTATION FOOL! From Torstone "What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.” – Dr. Adrian Rogers
the kid was a fool. the cops were bored and hungry for their donut quota end of statement.
Too bad that transformer didn't blow up his saggy ass. Look, I know there's some alright black dudes out there, but the kids are lazy and ignorant. I have yet to see a young black kid without a cell phone to his ear. Get a job.
You people who think this wasted human was on private property and so can't be approached for being obviously inappropriately dressed can shut up now. ANY sagger on rental property can be assumed to be on the taxpayer's dime, Section-8 Housing, and subject to reasonable decency standards. -Else the complex descends in short order.
My question is: Did he have a gold toof in his mouff???
Just another example of the permanent underclass created by the Democratic;s socialist agenda. You'll never hear Sharpton or Jackson speaking out about the ridiculous behaviors Blacks in this country seem to cling too! The cop actually did this idiot a favor!
Lets see public intoxication the last I heard was a crime. Stupid is also a crime when it includes public drunkeness and mouthing off to police officers. But, like other fools of his kind he will be held up as an American hero like Rodney King.
This cat is hot. Smokin'. Get him to Hollywood. Can he rap? Who cares...he's flight attendant dude famous already!
Some of the people commenting are as stupid or more stupid than the prep.
This is a completely foolish use of the police officer's time. Surely there is a more dangerous person in Indiana than this guy with bad fashion sense. Do they arrest every young woman with her thong hanging out, or her bra straps showing? Of course not, and it's a double standard. Probably stupid of him to cuss at the police officer, but the police officer should also be reprimanded for harassing someone who was doing nothing more criminal than converse outside. Last time I checked they were NOT the fashion police.
Hey Jessica , maybe you missed the part that he was on private property with his pants down ? What would you do if I'd be standing on your front or back yard , on the phone with my pants down to my knees ?? I'm pretty sure you'd call the cops ..that's just common sense.
Commosense, It doesn't say the cops were called on him because he was disturbing the public, it says "cops spotted" him. It doesn't say whose private property it was. Maybe it was his private property, maybe it was his brother's, or a friend's, and he stepped outside to talk on the phone. I think if this situation were a little different-my little white self, just drank my second glass of wine, thong showing in the back-they would not have arrested me for the same offense. I just think that in a place that routinely gives child molesters light sentences, and lets them out early because of overcrowded jails, they could ease up on the baggy pants and keep some more important criminals locked up.
Jessica, having your thong show a bit in the back is really tacky, I if i saw you I would say something to you about it just like I do my teenage girls if they let their panties show, but it is NOT the same thing as having your pants down to your knees with all of your undies hangin out. The cop was right to question.
To Kmasitti, and principles: I would never walk around with my thong exposed, that's tacky-not illegal, however. Because he wasn't charged with public indecency, and because while sitting, pants down to a man's knees would typically fall to his ankles, I am inclined to suspect the pants weren't really "down to his knees," although in a society that allows high school girls to dress in bikinis on the side of the road for a carwash, I don't see why boxers are so offensive. Regardless, my point was not that his fashion statement was socially acceptable, nor was it meant to defend the suspect's actions, but rather to point out that the police officer surely had better things to do with his time. While he was wasting time on the baggy pants, there were cars being stolen, houses being broken into, children being hurt. I have a problem with the system currently in place that picks on people with baggy pants, and vigilantly watches out for speedy drivers, but doesn't follow up on car thefts and allows violent criminals out of jail early. And for the people on here with the horribly racist comments, shame on you! I'm embarrassed reading your comments. If you don't like the black culture, do something about it, don't just bash every black person who shows up in the news. Go downtown and volunteer at a Boys and Girls club, read to them, give them love. Don't just stand behind your pedestal and preach about how evil that society is. They aren't ALL like that, and the ones who are will change more quickly with your love and help than with your condemnation.
You need to get off your "HIGH HORSE". Sitting in public, drunk, with your pants pulled down, and using foul language and insults towards a police officer is the FASTEST way to get thrown in jail. Jessica, it's people like you that enable this kind of behavior by coming to the "rescue" claiming the cops have better things to do. A police officer has the RIGHT to request your identification anytime you are in public regardless of what activity you are involved with. If you don't like the Police culture, don't come on here and rip them a new one for doing their job. You should be ashamed. Go downtown and volunteer YOUR services to the community police department. YOU walk the beet, YOU go and see firsthand the criminal activity. Don't just stand behind your pedestal and preach about how the Police should be doing this or doing that. You are an enabler.
jamaicanred, you bring up a good point. Police officers DO have the right to require a person's ID regardless of what activity they are involved in. A right that no government, military or civilian should ever have been given, a right that reminds my old Jewish friend of Nazi Germany. I do my part to change the police culture that I disagree with-and it's not actually the police I have a problem with, but rather the rights and red tape they have to go through to do their job. I write local and federal governments with my concerns, and of all the letters I've written, I've only had two form letter responses from aids of the person I was writing. Aside from my letters and phone calls, the only other thing I can do to change the laws I dislike is to alert other citizens of the rights we are no longer afforded, and this arrest is a prime example. I have no problem with being an enabler, if what I am enabling is a man's right to wear baggy pants and chat on a cell phone. I noticed your insinuation that I hold disdain for the police, and though I don't think that's the case, I'm willing to consider it. I never thought that I could volunteer at a police department. Now that you bring it up, I'm more than willing to look into it. Thanks.
Wow Jessica . . . You said everything so perfectly and I could not agree with you more. You write so well, I could never had said it all like that.
I doubt your "tiny little white self" would have acted so belligerent towards the officers after your second glass of wine. If you had, then I would agree with them arresting you as well, regardless of the fact that you think your exposed thong and race are somehow deemed more "superior" in society's eyes.
I don't think he should have been arrested but I think EVERYONE who sees any fool wearing his pants on the ground should approach them politely and tell them they look like complete idiots. Shame them into dressing in a way that is civilized.
Your serious? Go and do that the next time you see one of these thugs standing around doing this, please go ahead and try it, have a camera filming it and I hope you live long enough to put it on you tube. This kind of a slug will pull a 9MM out and shoot your cracker ass.
I've thought about doing that many times, Justme, but then you have to consider if they've got a weapon they would use on you like, say, a knife or a gun. These days, it's scary to approach anyone about anything. Seriously!! Finland's lookin' really good!!!!
Explain to me what the crime here was. What was the cop's reason to approach Mr. Russ? Mr. Russ was not charged with loitering, nor was he charged with public/indecent exposure. The cop did not write that Mr. Russ was yelling angrily into his phone or was engaging in any suspicious behavior. His charges stem from the "conversation" that he had with the arresting officer. Having alcohol on one's breath while on private property is not a crime, last I checked. Mr. Russ clearly is a dumb*** (don't start cursing at a cop moron), but the arresting officer baited him into committing crimes. The Indy cops had a quota that night, found some idiot, and got their daily donut reward early.
Swagging refers to the droopy pants; the officer confused this with swilling, which is drinking, neither of which makes sense in public. And the trend is not confined to black people, as some of you want to believe. The only thing sagging on anyone's butt should be a diaper; if you're potty trained, pull your damn pants up.