What's In A Name (Spin)

Omaha natives 311 are scoffing at accusations from local police and school officials that the band's name may be a coded reference to the Ku Klux Klan. The group's T-shirts were banned from severl school districts after two Africian-American students at Westside High School complained about the band's logo. "We've been told that white-supremacist groups have used '311' because K is the 11th letter of the alphabet," says Lt. Robert Dacus of the Omaha Gang Task Force. The members of 311, three of whom graduated from Westside High, say the name actually refers to the police code for indecent exposure. "If they want to ban us, they should use something true," says singer Nick Hexum, "like how we advocate the decriminalization of marijuana."