No Belt? Try Handcuffs
In researching the 150-year history of Texas criminal justice, it became increasingly apparent to me that law enforcement and imprisonment have less to do with crime control than social control. This was plain to see in the old days; Texas’s first penal code mandated incarceration for wayward whites, whipping or the gallows for blacks. The pattern has held. Today, a generation removed from the triumphs of the civil rights movement, African Americans are six times as likely to go to prison as whites, a level of racial disparity not witnessed since the 1920s, the heyday of the Ku Klux Klan.
These days, tough-on-crime politicians are too polite to talk about “white man’s government.” But from time to time, a policy initiative pulls back the curtain. The sentencing disparities between crack and powder cocaine provide one example. And now there’s a new scourge in town: sagging pants. That’s right, sagging pants.
It seems that an alarming number of young black men are swaggering around with their jeans hanging low—a hip-hop fashion statement that, ironically, alludes to life in prison, where belts are verboten. The solution? Put those “strutting bucks” behind bars where they belong. This anyway is the trend among a growing number of municipalities. From Dallas to Atlanta, exposed Calvins have knotted up the panties of moralistic, anxious policymakers so tight that they’re mandating stiff fines or jail time for anyone who lets their waist bands slide.
The ordinances are supposedly race neutral, but everyone knows the intent. It’s sartorial social control, white supremacy with a wink. The result will be still higher rates of black imprisonment, another step toward a lockdown America.
February 25th, 2008 at 2:28 am
This is really a issue for all colors of people.
White Black Yellow Brown Red Why do we continue to have these problems? this is a multifaceted question from every angle. why do the police constantly harrass a black man and no one else? the question is why do black men whine so much. do you feel you are owed exemption from the law because your great great grandfather was taken into the slave trade in america? I tell you this , your grandfather and grandmother are owed a apology and anything they would want for what they were put through.NOT YOU!!!! did you march with DR. KING to SELMA no!! did you comfort Mrs. Evers, did you stand up for Malcome. If you walk and talk like you are owed something Tell me what you have invested into the cause.Are your parents honored with your presence, or do you not know how to pay homage for the work that they have done. even if you have had those people walk out of your life, what have you done with the gift. You want respect!!!!1.RESPECT is EARNED Not OWED!!!!2.Respect must be given to be obtained. This is not only a black problem this is a universal COLOR problem. Maybe the law enforcement does push-up on you. they push-up on alot of us. If we have alcohol, drugs, pornography, speed, drive wrecklessly, or make a mistake while driving, or hang around places we would not take the ones that are the most proud of us, maybe this is not law enforcements problem, maybe it is OUR FAULT TO A DEGREE. The laws are simple in Texas. You break them you go to Jail and if you do Quit ca bitchin bout they had no right to harrass me you were just a fool.
February 25th, 2008 at 5:50 pm
The point here is not that the law should be enforced differentially, that those who have been the victims of historical discrimination should be given a free pass. Rather, it’s that the law itself in this case seems to have been crafted with a specific demographic in mind, making its equal enforcement rather difficult. The point is that the laws should be crafted toward equal enforcement and that they should thereafter be equally enforced.