Robert Ford is a South Carolina State Senator with a long record as a civil rights activist. Ford, a Democrat and African-American, now has his target in a different direction. He says the way young black men dress is “a disgrace.”
At GoUpstate.com, Ford explained himself:
“I mean, this is supposed to be the proudest age in African-American lives … and we’ve still got these young men, instead of trying to look like somebody who’s got it made, or somebody who’s looking out for their community, they want to look like prisoners.”
“You’ve got an African-American president,” said Ford, who supported Democrat Hillary Clinton in her primary against Obama, saying he never imagined a year ago Obama could win the presidency. “That should give hope to a lot of people. You don’t have to emulate prisoners no more. You can emulate somebody like Barack Obama.”
Ford is introducing a bill, S.56, to make pants sagging more than 3 inches below the hip illegal. He wants $25 for a first offense and up to $75, plus 6 hours of community service, for three or more offenses.
“When older black people go to the mall they cry when they see that stuff,” Ford said.
Ford gleaned the idea from a Jaspar County ordinance passed on December 15, proposing the same 3-inch limit. As of January 10, no one had been cited for it. According to The State.com, there were plenty of young men with pants violating that ordinance out in public.
LeRoy Blackshear, who proposed the Jaspar County ordinance said:
“I don’t think anyone would want to be waiting in line at a supermarket or anywhere behind someone whose pants are down and you can see their underwear or their crack. If no one says anything about it, that means we condone it and whether we sag or not, we are in the same boat as the saggers.”
Isn’t that what indecent exposure laws are for? If those aren’t going to be enforced, why make new ones?
Yet, it isn’t just too much exposed skin from the saggers that has Ford riled up.
Ford wants to make it illegal to play, perform in public or sell to minors music that is “profane, vulgar, lewd, lascivious, or indecent.”
That offense would come with a $5,000 fine or five years in prison if Ford gets his way.
Ford has a point that many public displays by young people are simply disgusting, but it is interesting his solution for what he finds revolting mirrors the same path that his more conservative colleagues like to try. That is legislate morality and behavior.
If anything that Ford proposes passes, the ACLU will have a field day cleaning it up in the courts.
“If the civil liberty boys don’t have enough sense, let them fight it,” Ford said. “We won’t stand for it anymore.
Nevertheless, even Ford realizes it is probably unconstitutional. He hopes that at least it stimulates discussion.
Ford wants to run for Governor in 2010. Ironically, part of his platform is a referendum for video poker, which was outlawed in 2000.
Some people think all gambling is immoral and should be outlawed. Not Ford, though. It’s clean stuff to him, as long as you keep your pants up and cussing down.
When asked if all this was a publicity stunt, Ford responded:
“Oh no, hell no,” he said. “I’ve been doing this for years.”
Hmm, hell is a profanity too, albeit a mild one. Robert Ford sounds like a complicated man, or at least his code of conduct is.
If it is obscene then there are already laws on the books that can be enforced. The leaders in SC should focus on creating jobs and increasing college enrollment and graduation.