Posted on 02/02/2011 4:12:59 PM PST by NormsRevenge
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — Smokers have just one message to Mayor Michael Bloomberg and City Council members: butt out of our business.
“We’re outside. We should have freedom to smoke,” City Hall Park smoker Harvey Forbes told CBS 2’s Magee Hickey.
By a vote of 36 to 11 on Wednesday the City Council approved a bill to ban smoking in all city parks, beaches and pedestrian plazas.
“People who have made the decision not to smoke have civil liberties too and their health and their lives should not be negatively impacted because other people have decided to smoke,” Council Speaker Christine Quinn said.
Council members who voted against the ban said they see it as an invasion of individual rights.
“We have this crazy idea that we can change the way people behave. You can’t have salt, you can’t have sugar. Hop on a bicycle because it’s bad to drive your car. It’s ridiculous. What’s next?” said minority whip Eric Ulrich, adding when asked if New York City is becoming a police state, “I think so. It’s a slippery slope.”
There is no constitutional right to smoke in city parks and beaches so smokers have no legal recourse. But civil libertarians like Norman Siegal said the ban is just plan wrong.
“I think we’re moving towards a nanny state where government thinks they know what’s best for its citizens. You can inform, educate and persuade, but don’t take away our freedoms,” Siegal said.
A John Jay College public management professor said he finds it hard to believe secondhand smoke outdoors is harmful.
“What is the documentary evidence that secondhand smoke on the street is bad for you. It’s a tough sell. There’s a lot of air out here, not that much cigarette smoke,” Daniel Feldman said. ...
(Excerpt) Read more at newyork.cbslocal.com ...
Bloomy: No Compromise On Smoking Ban
http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2010/10/15/bloomberg-no-compromise-on-public-space-smoking-ban/
October 15, 2010
NEW YORK(1010 WINS / WCBS 880) – Mayor Michael Bloomberg put out Councilman Peter Vallone’s compromise plan about creating smoking zones in parks and beaches once again on Friday.
Bloomberg said he’s not willing to pursue an idea that would be both costly and difficult to enforce.
“I think the zones don’t work. It would cost a lot to enforce. The bottom line is this is one of those programs that came from the public, rather than from the government’s side,” he said.
Instead, he wants to continue fighting for an outright ban in public parks and beaches—something he said the public wants just as much.
“They don’t like someone sitting on a blanket up wind of them smoking on a beach or in a park. They keep complaining and complaining and complaining,” he said. “People complain on the beaches about the cigarette butts and the packs, the same at the parks.”
Where is the documentary evidence...
Exactly, there’s close to none, certainly in trying to compare cigar smoke to who knows what else is in the NYC air.
But then again, it figures that leftist ideas were what drove Prohibition, they might as well be the ones who ban smoking in the one place it makes sense to smoke rather than indoors.
They should have a big “smoke in” this summer and dare the fascists to arrest everybody.
“They don’t like someone sitting on a blanket up wind of them smoking on a beach or in a park. They keep complaining and complaining and complaining,” he said. “People complain on the beaches about the cigarette butts and the packs, the same at the parks.”
I guess they are perfectly fine with the syringes, crack vials and beer cans though.
Remember when the Nazis only asked you to sit in the back of the plane to smoke? Look how far we’ve come. Non-smokers are next. Big smile! Big smile! Sieg heil! The gestapo will be coming after you next.
Incremental frog in boiling water communism thy name is Progressivism!
I'm well past the "ignore the fools" stage. Confront me while I'm outside smoking and you have just issued a declaration of war...........
Where is that cartoon of the guy rolling around lhao? That sentence is funny, funnier still is the guy thinks we are just maybe headed to a nanny state...people are such maroons.
The biggest mistake George Washington made was not burning that traitorous, seditionist craphole to the ground and returning the land to cow pasture.
And enough energy bar wrappers to stretch to the moon and back. That's OK, it's green trash.
And I wonder what the littering fine is compared to the smoking fine?
littering = community service; a day at the beach picking up litter
I don't know. I just made that up.
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