Do your pants hang low?
Do they wobble to and fro?
The answer in Ocala, Fla., once again is a resounding yes. WFTV reports:
Ocala city leaders have voted to repeal a controversial ordinance that banned saggy pants.
The ordinance was discussed at the city council meeting on Tuesday. After consideration, city council members decided to get rid of the ordinance altogether.
The saggy pants ordinance banned people from wearing their pants below the waistline and exposing their undergarments. The NAACP criticized the ordinance, saying it targeted young black men.
Well, yeah, it does. But how does rescinding it help them? Putting aside laws on public indecency, which exist in virtually every locality in the country, what positives come out of this form of self-expression?
As I noted here in July around the time the ordinance was passed, one possible origin of this trend is prison culture: Inmates are not permitted to wear belts (which can be used as a means of self-destruction), and so their pants sag. The explanation seems far-fetched, but its existence should be sufficient to deter black inner-city youths from a fashion statement that might create associations with “doing time.”
One might expect that the NAACP, the second “A” in which stands for advancement, would be eager to dissuade young blacks from looking unkempt (if not obscene). Maybe one expects too much?
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