OPINION: Nothing to see here, folks
When it comes to allocating public resources to turn someone's idea of the way things should be into law, the Pikes Peak region certainly has no monopoly. Actually, we're probably better than most. Local limited government types can breathe a little easier knowing that at least our police don't have to throw someone in the pokey for showing off his drawers in public.
A report out of Riviera Beach, Fla., last week noted that officers there are stepping up enforcement of that city's ban on saggy pants. The report on thesmokinggun.com says that of the 11 men arrested for the infraction, most were unaware of the fact that their fashionably droopy pants ran afoul of the law.
It's a safe bet that most readers of this page wouldn't have to worry about a similar law in this city (That's not to say young men who like to show off their drawers don't take an interest in public policy matters, they're just usually not part of the demographic that reads opinion pages). But the attitude on the part of public officials that says "We don't like this fashion or that, so we're going to make it illegal" misses the whole idea of limited government and properly allocating scarce resources.
There's likely not a city in the world that believes it has enough money to spend on law enforcement. Likewise, there are few cities where serious crime is so rare that its officers can devote their time and effort to arresting, not merely ticketing, violators with a few inches of their boxer shorts showing. Yet cities such as Riviera Beach and Flint, Mich., among others, have passed laws forbidding saggy pants that show underwear.
Keep in mind that the offenders don't have to be showing any private parts, just their clothing that covers those parts. What's next? Will city councils next go after the underwear models? There are few newspapers whose Sunday editions aren't stuffed with sale fliers, some of which advertise boxers, bras and other underthings. Is that to be considered pornography? How about boxer shorts drying on a clothesline? It's the same article of clothing and hanging on the line they're not exposing forbidden flesh either.
Riviera Beach, as you might expect from the name, is at the water's edge on the Atlantic coast of the Sunshine State. It's almost a certainty that on most days an observer can find sun worshippers that show more than a young man who is proud of his polka-dotted drawers. Are those beach-goers to be hauled away as well? Our Olympic beach volleyball showed more skin in Beijing than a man displaying his underwear on the street. If some new fashion to sweep the country includes wearing undergarments outside trousers and shirts, will that also elicit fines and jail time for scofflaws?
Society invented government to secure the rights of people. That means government's main responsibility is to keep people from violating the rights of others. No one's rights are violated when someone is showing a bit of underwear. Is it tacky and maybe offensive? That's a matter of perspective, not the law.
There is no right to not be offended. Twenty years down the road, those folks wearing their pants halfway to their knees today will look at old photos and laugh at how they looked, much the same as some baby boomers laugh at, in the words of one-time rapper Will Smith, "those bell-bottomed, Brady-Bunch trousers," that were the height of fashion in 1973. Until then, let's give young people the freedom to express themselves. Saggy pants with underwear showing might look goofy to some, but they're not hurting anyone.
