Posted by
Ed Lilly on Tuesday, April 22, 2008 2:14:03 PM
The current fashion of wearing baggy pants that hang down below the waist, exposing the wearer's boxers, butt crack, or worse, has been the subject municipalities trying, and now states, trying to enact legislation to subject such "fashion outlaws" to fines. The latest attempt, in Louisiana, has apparently failed. From Breitbart.com comes this AP report, but what is confusing me is the explanation given at the end of the story for the origin of the fashion trend:
The style is believed to have started in prisons, where inmates are issued ill-fitting jumpsuits but no belts to prevent hangings and beatings. The look was popularized in gangster rap videos.
I have seen this explanation of prison as the origin for baggy pants before, but in reading this explanation and thinking about it, it makes no sense. If inmates are issued jumpsuits, that means they are not getting pants. Sure, they aren't getting belts that can be used as weapons or for hangings, but they also are not getting separate, ill-fitting pants and shirts.
So how do we get from a jumpsuit to avoid having to wear belts to inmates preferring baggy pants? How can the layers upon layers of editors and fact checkers at AP not have thought this through and explained the incongruity?
On a related note, I have also seen stories online about law enforcement actually liking the baggy pants look, because it is sometimes an added bonus for them in chasing suspects who wind up being tripped by their own pants. I don't entirely believe this, but I suppose it's at least theoretically possible. Perhaps someone with law enforcement experience or connections can confirm or debunk it.