Outdoor smoking ban, exemption for police

[The Straight Story]

Editorials : Butt ban out of line, so is cop exemption

The Issue: South Heidelberg Township supervisors ban outdoor smoking on most township properties but make an exemption for the police.

Our Opinion: As well-intended as the law may be, the supervisors got things backward.

Aside from the obvious conflict of interest involving special treatment for the police, the South Heidelberg Township smoking ban seems to be a case of piling on.

...

Richard E. Hummel, chairman of the South Heidelberg Township supervisors, said the local law is a public-health measure designed to protect children and young people from the hazards of smoking by banning cigarette and cigar use in designated open spaces and the parking lots adjoining them.
...

But that said, just how far should a government entity go to protect people from themselves and then make an exemption to accommodate the very people who are charged with enforcing the law?

http://readingeagle.com/blog.aspx?bid=4&id=19245&t=Butt-ban-out-of-line-so-is-cop-exemptio

[nichomachus]

1. They are not "protecting people from themselves"

They are protecting non-smokers from the toxic fumes from smokers.

[qazplm]

3. I hate smoking

and fully endorse indoor bans everywhere.

But an outdoor ban? That seems like overkill even to me.

[The Straight Story]

4. Even outdoors?

Doesn't smoke tend to go upwards?

Before it was - ban it bars, take it outside and we will all be happy. We said it was a slippery slope and people laughed. Guess it was indeed slippery.

[onehandle]

5. Yes. The finite physics of cigarette smoke are absolute.

It exits the smoker's body and goes straight up and out of the atmosphere.

From there it streaks to the sun and is destroyed.

[BOSSHOG]

2. So

can everybody muster at the police department parking lot and smoke or just police?

[midnight]

7. Ha, Ha.....That was close to what I was thinking, but don't

we also want police to be healthy too. But that said, just how far should a government entity go to protect people from themselves and then make an exemption to accommodate the very people who are charged with enforcing the law?

[The Straight Story]

8. There was something like this I think in Oklahoma, where the state senate could smoke inside

but no one else could.

Us little people aren't supposed to complain ya know...

[doodadem]

6. This is ridiculous

We are on the outskirts of Fresno County. I've posted before about the horrendous lawsuit and neighbor battle we've had going on for the past several years, where the Sheriff's Dept. have been frequent visitors to our property. The minute they step out of their cars, they light up, because they aren't allowed to smoke in the cars. I mean, you can tell they are doing some serious jones'ing.

So you're trying to talk to them, and having to do so thru a cloud of smoke, especially if there are several together, and even though you're outside. The one time the neighbor talked them into arresting me, they left me sitting in the car with the doors open, while the whole group stood right there and smoked, and it all came back in the car.

I have asthma and chronic bronchitis. I started coughing like crazy and gasping for breath. After about 10 minutes, one of them went and got me a glass of water. Nobody stopped smoking.

The health of whomever they are harassing at the moment is pretty low on their list of priorities......