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Pull up your pants!
The Manhattan judge who specializes in 14-, 15- and 16-year-old muggers and gunslingers has grown so tired of telling kids to hike up their sagging jeans that he’s Scotch-taped a notice to the defense table.
“Pull Up Pants,” it decrees.
Not that the sign always helps.
“I have no interest in seeing your behind,” Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Eduardo Padro had to scold one 16-year-old boy on Friday.
The kid was in custody on violent robbery charges after allegedly grabbing a woman in a headlock in Harlem, flinging her to the sidewalk and stealing her purse.
He stood before Padro wearing jeans perched at such a distance from his waist that it would have been noticeable even if his briefs had not been a bracing shade of chartreuse.
Padro sent the boy back to the holding cells to recompose himself before hearing his case.
“I often tell them, ‘Excuse me, so-and-so. Were you going to a basketball court, or a tennis court? Because you certainly don’t look appropriately dressed for a court of law,” Padro told The Post.
“I’m giving them an opportunity to prove that they merit another chance,” he said of his courtroom, where selected teens are offered closely monitored, non-jail programs.
“But one of the things I’m a stickler about is that they need to carry themselves appropriately, dress appropriately and learn how to address people properly,” he explained.
“It’s about respect.”
Judges don’t typically issue wardrobe rulings and certainly aren’t paid to be fashion stylists.
But Padro’s admonitions are part of a trend.
Last year, state Sen. Eric Adams posted several billboards in Brooklyn targeting saggy pants.
The billboard showed two young men wearing low-hanging jeans above the phrase, “Raise your pants, raise your image.”
As a candidate, President Obama came out against low-sitting trousers in 2008.
“Some people might not want to see your underwear,” Obama told MTV News. “I’m one of them.”
Padro’s counseling seems generally well taken.
“I make sure I have a belt,” a 15-year-old charged in a cellphone-snatching said after leaving Padro’s courtroom Friday.
“He’s telling me the right thing,” agreed a 16-year-old being monitored on home confinement for gun possession. “Honestly, he doesn’t want to see my behind. I understand.”