When Democracy Fails

In explaining why he supports banning low-slung, or saggy, pants, Riviera Beach, FLA Mayor Thomas Masters argued that “I think society has the right to draw the line,” and succintly illustrated everything that is wrong about America.

Riviera Beach isn’t the only city that has banned the fashion style – towns across the country, majority white and black, have passed similar laws. The state of Virginia nearly banned saggy pants, apparently deciding against it so as not to become an international embarrassment. In Riviera Beach, the approval rating for the law exceeded 70%.

In Pine Lawn, MO, offenders could be charged up to $100 and their parents thrown in jail – I’m not making this up – for 90 days! For wearing sagging pants! All on the legal reasoning that, to quote Mary Gray, an alderwoman and supporter of the law, “it just doesn’t look nice.” I’d assume that racism plays a large part in this, but Pine Lawn Police Chief Ricky Collins, who is black, supports the law and notes “its not a black or white issue – its a showing your… underclothes issue. Its indecent exposure.”

No, its a police harassment issue. If you’ve ever come to wonder how it is that America has become a nation of jailers, where 25% of the world’s prisoners are housed, despite us only accounting for 5% of the world’s population – an astouning, horrific figure – you only need to look at measures like these. We criminalize everything. Even taste. It is difficult to imagine a democracy that tries to resolve social issues through the criminal justice system, through giving more and more power to the police. Don’t like it that some kids buy chronic and listen to The Chronic? Get the police to fill up our jails with these people. Don’t like kids wearing baggy pants? Give the police the right to arbitrarily decide which pants sagg and allow them to arrest offenders. And remember, no “but, officer, this is the way I like to dress” – thats showing disrespect to an officer of the law.

Maybe in a few months, local governments around America will also ban trenchcoats, visible tattoos, heavy mascara and black leather boots. Also, old women at the beach should cover up. Let’s allow our police to patrol the beaches to ensure this decree is strictly obeyed.

I’ve been living in this country for a long time and this logic – X is distasteful to me, so lets throw people who use/show/wear X in jail – is intuitive to too many people. Lucky or us, we have the Constitution, and we have the first amendment, which clearly allows for Americans to exercise their Freedom of Expression to, for example, wear clothes others might find distasteful. And we have the eighth amendment, which prohibits “cruel and unusual punishment,” i.e. jailing/fining citizens for wearing clothes others might find objectionable.

The more litigints challenge these laws on Constitutional grounds, and the more activist judges overrule narrow-minded legislators, the better.