By Dr. John Gilmore
Other than being a bit annoying and aesthetically challenging to many people from my generation, it seems that sagging pants, i.e., pants hanging off someone’s butt, have become a crime in some local jurisdictions. During these times when people are looking to local government for more support and sensible decisions, and the federal government for less, it is a bit frightening to see the focus of some of our jurisdictions.
In recent years, cities from Dallas to Rivera Beach, Fla. have launched efforts to make sagging pants punishable by fines and jail time. Some of the most vociferous supporters of these efforts claim the fashion was born in prison culture and, by implication glorifies criminal behavior. Others just argue, like Townsend, that it offends community taste.
“It’s a horrible fad,” said City Councilman Anthony Davis of Paterson, New Jersey. The 40-something legislator, who spearheaded an anti-sagging campaign in his city, traces the trend to correctional institutions, where belts are often banned, and says many in the African American community worry that young black men are embodying a “prison mentality” when they let their pants sag.
What better way to deal with this “embodying a prison mentality” then by fining them and putting them in prison? In the study of Symbolic Logic there is a type of logic called “not logic.” I would definitely say that this is a prime example of not logic, or perhaps logic–not! I wonder if this is what happened to tube tops.