Over the course of my son's twelve years on this planet I cannot even begin to tell you how many times his mouth has embarrassed me. There was the time he told a Vietnam vet that his wheelchair was one cool stroller. The time he announced in the food court, loudly might I add, that Chick-fil-A makes him a little gassy. The time he stood up at the Mommy & Me music class and started singing "It's Getting Hot in Here" and started stripping. But one of the best comments, now I can see the humor in it, is when we were walking the mall and my son saw some teenagers with their pants sagging. This was concerning to him, apparently, and he proceeded to walk straight up to them and said "Excuse me but did you know that your underwear are showing?" Now, I was completely mortified. How could I not be? Luckily for me these teenagers had a sense of humor and laughed it off. As many of you are probably aware Cocoa, Florida recently passed a city ordinance banning the underwear showing fashion sense. Yep, that's right - it is now illegal to have your butt hanging out of the back of your pants.
I know what you are all thinking "Well, gee, this effects me how?" The truth is I hate that look. I always have and I always will. I just don't see the point in buying your clothes ten times too big and then walking around trying to hold them up. If you would just buy them in your size you could avoid the whole situation. However, I believe there is a fine line this city council is walking here. Yes, I understand that they want their city to be civil and that the saggy pants look screams "hey, I'm a gansta". They want their civilians to walk around with pride and dress appropriately. First off, who are they to decide what is appropriate or not? Will they hire a whole new force that is just fashion police? When you actually stop to think about it the whole scenario is quite comical. One hundred years from now I can see some kid cracking up over this unbelievable law, like when my son found out that in a city in Massachusetts it is illegal to marry a goat. Apparently that was a real issue back then.
My concern is that this ban will lead to a few bigger issues. The first thing I don't get is who is this city to tell anyone how they can dress? Is that a violation of our constitutional rights? I'm not a lawyer but I think that falls under free will. Do you consider how you dress to be an extension of your personality? Your freedom of expression and speech? The second issue I have is that I can see this leading to a lot of profiling. Now let me just be blunt here. The truth is that when a teenager wears their pants like that, whether it is the truth or not, it gives the impression that he is up to no good. Is he carrying a gun? Drugs? It's just not a good thing. This ordinance could go too far in allowing police to randomly search anyone based on their clothing alone. It wouldn't matter if your sixteen year old son was hanging out with friends and doing nothing wrong, the police would have the right to pull them over and search them. To me that is a huge violation. The final problem with this ordinance I will use an example to demonstrate. Let's say, rough scenario here, you're being held hostage in your home. You finally get a moment and dial 911. Now you sit there waiting for the cops to come and get you before this nut starts blasting away. Not only do they not get to you right away but you later find out they were at another call for saggy pants. The point here is that police departments all over the country have been forced by budget cuts to work with a minimal staff. They are dwindled to the point, in some areas, so low that the criminals are taking over. The truth is what city has the man power for this? I don't know about you but I would rather see the cops handling true emergencies rather than patting down some kid whose only offense is his undies showing.
It's an intriguing situation. I know there's politics involved and people will start with it but I don't want to hear about Obama or Romney or the US government. All I want to know is if you agree with the ban?
I have to admit that the baggy-pants style makes the wearer look like they can't dress themselves but half the point of teenage fashion is to make older folks grumpy.
ReplyDeleteShould it be an offence? Not really.
I'd agree with both your points - the cops have better things to do and I really don't like the idea of the State dictating what I can or cannot wear.