New York Snuffs Out Smoking (parks, time square Ban Passed)
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I grew up 12 miles from NYC and later worked in the City for 5 years. This law has no juice. New Yorkers will do what they will and defy this order as they usually do, light up and flip the law off.
Well, another city has been added to those i have seen that I have NO intention of ever seeing again.
Both Audrey Silk, the retired NYPD officer, and papipeguy nailed it. This law will never be enforced.
To me it seems more like a position statement than a serious piece of legislation. The NYPD has its hands full just answering routine calls for service, let alone looking for smokers in the park. Besides, if you, as a smoker are approached by a police officer -- anywhere -- just run away. Believe me, no cop is gonna get in a foot chase just to write a bullshit ticket. :lol:
To me it seems more like a position statement than a serious piece of legislation. The NYPD has its hands full just answering routine calls for service, let alone looking for smokers in the park. Besides, if you, as a smoker are approached by a police officer -- anywhere -- just run away. Believe me, no cop is gonna get in a foot chase just to write a bullshit ticket. :lol:
I don't know, the City's hurting for cash in a bad way. This is an easy target that amounts to extortion--they've tried adding / increasing tolls on all the bridges & tunnels, raised parking fines to the point of animosity, and cut services in every sector to bare bones. This is just #^%#ed.
The steam behind all the recent legislation is from the World Health Organization's "Tobacco-Free Initiative" report from Dec. 2009. The WHO framework convention on tobacco control, Article 8 states that there is "No safe level of exposure"--the guidelines for implementation of Article 8 stipulate that smoking and tobacco smoke be TOTALLY eliminated in all indoor workplaces, indoor public places, and on public transport, AND BE ELIMINATED AS APPROPRIATE in other public places. To note, the thinktank behind the WHO framework? Bloomberg Philanthropies.
Looking into the statistics that created this health-risk hysteria, one finds leaps of imagination and circular logic galore. Here I'll cite Worldwide Burden of Disease from Exposure to Second-Hand Smoke: A retrospective Analysis of Data from 192 Countries, Oberg et al, The Lancet 377:9760 pp 139: The study, a compilation of "relative and best-found" statistics from various sources, attributes 5.1 MILLION active smoking deaths per annum (2004 statistics) and 603,000 deaths to second-hand smoke exposure. The statistics were garnered from 3 categories of reporting: Tier A countries; basically the developed, 1st-world countries with abundant medical statistics; Tier B; 2nd-world countries with sporadic reporting and "averaged-case" statistics, and Tier C; 3rd-world countries with little more than guesswork statistics. China is notably excluded from the lists, and notably large portions of the 6.5 billion people on the planet that this study is using as its statistical model come from the Tier C countries--India, Pakistan, most African nations, many Central and South American nations. I won't bore you with the entire text, but the gist of the report is easily extracted--that smoking in any form is so dangerous as to be a death sentence to anyone who breathes even a puff of an exhaled cigarette from a passerby. The same report defines its own reporting statistics as (AND I QUOTE) "suggestive, supportive", "some, or may contribute" and "meta-analysis".
Let me break this down for you.
For 3/4 of the world's population, living in squalor that most Westerners are joyfully oblivious of, the authors use "meta-analyisis" to extrapolate the number of deaths whose PRIMARY CAUSE was smoking tobacco and second-hand smoke. Out of these numbers the policy for the free world, Bhutan, Nebraska and New York Inc. are being decided. 171 nations are charter to the WHO framework; it's not going away.
I don't mean to denigrate the third world as a whole; heck, I've traveled and lived in a good chunk of it. It has a certain charm. Nor am I making commentary on its inhabitants. BUT, having lived there and feeling qualified to comment, I find it remarkable that so many people are dropping like flies from the demon tobacco. Places where cow dung is the primary fuel source, where the concept of basic personal hygiene is as mysterious as the workings of the gods, where 2.5 billion people lack access to improved sanitation, including 1.2 billion people who have no facilities at all, where 1/8 of the world's population lack access to safe water and nearly 4 million people per year die because of it. Why is tobacco such a target then?
1. Because it's easy PR. It started with the Big Tobacco lawsuits in the '80's and the ball hasn't stopped rolling. Thanks, RJR, for lying to us all (that was really stupid). Did you think we wouldn't find out? Never mind that long before the surgeon general put his warnings on the packages any cogent person could guess that smoking was probably bad for you. That being said, it was a travesty for Big Tobacco to spend millions in research to load 599 chemicals in cigarettes in an effort to make them 7 times more addictive than heroin and then lie to us about it. The worst part is the way it made them taste. :crying:
2. Because cash-strapped government can tax the living shit out of the bogeyman. And anyone who doesn't see that it won't end here needs their beer goggles adjusted. New and exorbitant taxes are in the pipeline for everything from sweetened beverages and alcohol to commuting and, soon, breathing. 'Cause I'm the taxman. Yeah, I'm the taxman.
3. BECAUSE THEY CAN. So far, we're letting them. They are stroking the media to pipe their tune. They're making up any statistic to suit their cause and demonizing anyone who calls their bluff. And they're coming to your town next.
Whew, glad I got that off my chest. The moral of the story is that the law is being made by lawyers, for the sole intent of keeping themselves in business. I urge everyone to educate yourselves, VOTE, write your local representatives, express your dissent, keep an open mind, and take action in any way you can see fit. I'm drafting a scathing letter to my council reps right now.
And I'll leave you with another true statistic from water.org:
The majority of the illness in the world is caused by fecal matter. 10 million deaths and untold serious illnesses worldwide could be prevented each year by silencing politicians.
The steam behind all the recent legislation is from the World Health Organization's "Tobacco-Free Initiative" report from Dec. 2009. The WHO framework convention on tobacco control, Article 8 states that there is "No safe level of exposure"--the guidelines for implementation of Article 8 stipulate that smoking and tobacco smoke be TOTALLY eliminated in all indoor workplaces, indoor public places, and on public transport, AND BE ELIMINATED AS APPROPRIATE in other public places. To note, the thinktank behind the WHO framework? Bloomberg Philanthropies.
Looking into the statistics that created this health-risk hysteria, one finds leaps of imagination and circular logic galore. Here I'll cite Worldwide Burden of Disease from Exposure to Second-Hand Smoke: A retrospective Analysis of Data from 192 Countries, Oberg et al, The Lancet 377:9760 pp 139: The study, a compilation of "relative and best-found" statistics from various sources, attributes 5.1 MILLION active smoking deaths per annum (2004 statistics) and 603,000 deaths to second-hand smoke exposure. The statistics were garnered from 3 categories of reporting: Tier A countries; basically the developed, 1st-world countries with abundant medical statistics; Tier B; 2nd-world countries with sporadic reporting and "averaged-case" statistics, and Tier C; 3rd-world countries with little more than guesswork statistics. China is notably excluded from the lists, and notably large portions of the 6.5 billion people on the planet that this study is using as its statistical model come from the Tier C countries--India, Pakistan, most African nations, many Central and South American nations. I won't bore you with the entire text, but the gist of the report is easily extracted--that smoking in any form is so dangerous as to be a death sentence to anyone who breathes even a puff of an exhaled cigarette from a passerby. The same report defines its own reporting statistics as (AND I QUOTE) "suggestive, supportive", "some, or may contribute" and "meta-analysis".
Let me break this down for you.
For 3/4 of the world's population, living in squalor that most Westerners are joyfully oblivious of, the authors use "meta-analyisis" to extrapolate the number of deaths whose PRIMARY CAUSE was smoking tobacco and second-hand smoke. Out of these numbers the policy for the free world, Bhutan, Nebraska and New York Inc. are being decided. 171 nations are charter to the WHO framework; it's not going away.
I don't mean to denigrate the third world as a whole; heck, I've traveled and lived in a good chunk of it. It has a certain charm. Nor am I making commentary on its inhabitants. BUT, having lived there and feeling qualified to comment, I find it remarkable that so many people are dropping like flies from the demon tobacco. Places where cow dung is the primary fuel source, where the concept of basic personal hygiene is as mysterious as the workings of the gods, where 2.5 billion people lack access to improved sanitation, including 1.2 billion people who have no facilities at all, where 1/8 of the world's population lack access to safe water and nearly 4 million people per year die because of it. Why is tobacco such a target then?
1. Because it's easy PR. It started with the Big Tobacco lawsuits in the '80's and the ball hasn't stopped rolling. Thanks, RJR, for lying to us all (that was really stupid). Did you think we wouldn't find out? Never mind that long before the surgeon general put his warnings on the packages any cogent person could guess that smoking was probably bad for you. That being said, it was a travesty for Big Tobacco to spend millions in research to load 599 chemicals in cigarettes in an effort to make them 7 times more addictive than heroin and then lie to us about it. The worst part is the way it made them taste. :crying:
2. Because cash-strapped government can tax the living shit out of the bogeyman. And anyone who doesn't see that it won't end here needs their beer goggles adjusted. New and exorbitant taxes are in the pipeline for everything from sweetened beverages and alcohol to commuting and, soon, breathing. 'Cause I'm the taxman. Yeah, I'm the taxman.
3. BECAUSE THEY CAN. So far, we're letting them. They are stroking the media to pipe their tune. They're making up any statistic to suit their cause and demonizing anyone who calls their bluff. And they're coming to your town next.
Whew, glad I got that off my chest. The moral of the story is that the law is being made by lawyers, for the sole intent of keeping themselves in business. I urge everyone to educate yourselves, VOTE, write your local representatives, express your dissent, keep an open mind, and take action in any way you can see fit. I'm drafting a scathing letter to my council reps right now.
And I'll leave you with another true statistic from water.org:
The majority of the illness in the world is caused by fecal matter. 10 million deaths and untold serious illnesses worldwide could be prevented each year by silencing politicians.
NEW YORK—At 4:32 p.m. Tuesday, every single resident of New York City decided to evacuate the famed metropolis, having realized it was nothing more than a massive, trash-ridden hellhole that slowly sucks the life out of every one of its inhabitants.
With audible murmurs of "This is no way to live," "What the hell am I doing here—I hate it here," and "Fuck this place. Fuck this horrible place," all 8.4 million citizens in each of the five boroughs packed up their belongings and told reporters they would rather blow their brains out with a shotgun than spend another waking moment in this festering cesspool of filth and scum and sadness.
By 5:15 p.m. there was gridlock traffic on the outbound sides of the Holland and Lincoln tunnels, and the area's three major airports were flooded with New Yorkers, all of whom said they wanted to go anyplace where the pressure of 20 million tons of concrete wasn't constantly suffocating them.
"I always had this perverted sense of pride because I was managing to scrape by here," said Brooklyn resident Andrew McQuade, who, after watching two subway rats gnawing on a third bloody rat carcass, finally determined that New York City was a giant sprawling cancer. "Well, fuck that. I don't need to pay $2,000 a month to share a doghouse-sized apartment with some random Craigslist dipshit to prove my worth. I want to live like a goddamn human being."
"You see this?" added McQuade, pointing at a real estate listing for a duplex in Hagerstown, MD. "Two bedrooms, two baths, a den—a fucking den—and a patio. Twelve hundred a month. That's total, not per person."
According to residents, the mass exodus was triggered by a number of normal, everyday New York City events. For Erin Caldwell of Manhattan, an endlessly honking car horn sent her over the edge, causing her to go into a blind rage and scream "shut up!" at the vehicle as loud as she could until her voice went hoarse; for Danny Tremba of Queens it was being cursed at for walking too slow; and for Paul Ogden, also of Queens, it was his overreaction to somebody walking too slow.
Other incidents that prompted citizens to pick up and leave included the sight of garbage bags stacked 5 feet high on the sidewalk; the realization that being alone among millions of anonymous people is actually quite horrifying; a blaring siren that droned on and fucking on; muddy, refuse-filled puddles that have inexplicably not dried in three years; the thought of growing into a person whose meanness and cynicism is cloaked in a kind of holier-than-thou brand of sarcasm that the rest of the world finds nauseating; and all the goddamn people.
In addition, 3 million New Yorkers reportedly left the city because they realized the phrase "Only in New York" is actually just a defense mechanism used to convince themselves that seeing a naked man take a shit on a park bench is somehow endearing, or part of some shared cultural experience.
Slideshow
New York City
"I was sitting on my stoop, drinking coffee, and out of nowhere this crazy-looking woman just starts screaming, 'I am inside all of you,' over and over," Bronx resident Sarah Perez, 37, said. "Then, we both had this moment where we looked at each other and realized, okay, we have to get out of here."
"This place sucks," Manhattan resident Woody Allen, 74, told reporters. "It just fucking sucks."
When fleeing New Yorkers were asked if they would miss the city's iconic landmarks, most responded that Central Park is just a pathetic excuse for experiencing actual nature, that the Brooklyn Bridge is great but it's just a fucking bridge, that nobody goes to the Met anyway, and that living in a dingy, grime-caked apartment while exhaust fumes from an idling truck seep through your bedroom window isn't worth slightly bigger bagels.
"This is no place to raise a kid, that's for sure," said 32-year-old Brandon Rushing, a lifelong New Yorker. "I grew up here and I turned into a giant asshole. Why would I want that for my son?"
"Plus, we're the place most likely to get nuked by a dirty bomb in a terrorist attack," he added. "So that's great. Also, it smells like shit here, and I'm not exaggerating. You'll just be walking around and it starts smelling like human shit, and it just fills your nostrils and you breathe in shit for like 20 seconds."
Before departing by private helicopter, Mayor Michael Bloomberg spoke with members of the media to address the situation.
"You know what the greatest city in the world is?" Bloomberg asked reporters. "Scottsdale, Arizona. It's clean, it's not too big, it's got a couple streets with shops and restaurants, and the people there aren't fucking insane. This place is fucking insane. And by the way, that's not a reason to like it. Anyone who says that is a delusional dirtbag."
By Tuesday night, New York was completely abandoned. At press time, however, some 10 million Los Angeles–area residents, tired of their self-centered, laid-back culture and lack of four distinct seasons, and yearning for the hustle and bustle of East Coast life, had already begun repopulating the city.
With audible murmurs of "This is no way to live," "What the hell am I doing here—I hate it here," and "Fuck this place. Fuck this horrible place," all 8.4 million citizens in each of the five boroughs packed up their belongings and told reporters they would rather blow their brains out with a shotgun than spend another waking moment in this festering cesspool of filth and scum and sadness.
By 5:15 p.m. there was gridlock traffic on the outbound sides of the Holland and Lincoln tunnels, and the area's three major airports were flooded with New Yorkers, all of whom said they wanted to go anyplace where the pressure of 20 million tons of concrete wasn't constantly suffocating them.
"I always had this perverted sense of pride because I was managing to scrape by here," said Brooklyn resident Andrew McQuade, who, after watching two subway rats gnawing on a third bloody rat carcass, finally determined that New York City was a giant sprawling cancer. "Well, fuck that. I don't need to pay $2,000 a month to share a doghouse-sized apartment with some random Craigslist dipshit to prove my worth. I want to live like a goddamn human being."
"You see this?" added McQuade, pointing at a real estate listing for a duplex in Hagerstown, MD. "Two bedrooms, two baths, a den—a fucking den—and a patio. Twelve hundred a month. That's total, not per person."
According to residents, the mass exodus was triggered by a number of normal, everyday New York City events. For Erin Caldwell of Manhattan, an endlessly honking car horn sent her over the edge, causing her to go into a blind rage and scream "shut up!" at the vehicle as loud as she could until her voice went hoarse; for Danny Tremba of Queens it was being cursed at for walking too slow; and for Paul Ogden, also of Queens, it was his overreaction to somebody walking too slow.
Other incidents that prompted citizens to pick up and leave included the sight of garbage bags stacked 5 feet high on the sidewalk; the realization that being alone among millions of anonymous people is actually quite horrifying; a blaring siren that droned on and fucking on; muddy, refuse-filled puddles that have inexplicably not dried in three years; the thought of growing into a person whose meanness and cynicism is cloaked in a kind of holier-than-thou brand of sarcasm that the rest of the world finds nauseating; and all the goddamn people.
In addition, 3 million New Yorkers reportedly left the city because they realized the phrase "Only in New York" is actually just a defense mechanism used to convince themselves that seeing a naked man take a shit on a park bench is somehow endearing, or part of some shared cultural experience.
Slideshow
New York City
"I was sitting on my stoop, drinking coffee, and out of nowhere this crazy-looking woman just starts screaming, 'I am inside all of you,' over and over," Bronx resident Sarah Perez, 37, said. "Then, we both had this moment where we looked at each other and realized, okay, we have to get out of here."
"This place sucks," Manhattan resident Woody Allen, 74, told reporters. "It just fucking sucks."
When fleeing New Yorkers were asked if they would miss the city's iconic landmarks, most responded that Central Park is just a pathetic excuse for experiencing actual nature, that the Brooklyn Bridge is great but it's just a fucking bridge, that nobody goes to the Met anyway, and that living in a dingy, grime-caked apartment while exhaust fumes from an idling truck seep through your bedroom window isn't worth slightly bigger bagels.
"This is no place to raise a kid, that's for sure," said 32-year-old Brandon Rushing, a lifelong New Yorker. "I grew up here and I turned into a giant asshole. Why would I want that for my son?"
"Plus, we're the place most likely to get nuked by a dirty bomb in a terrorist attack," he added. "So that's great. Also, it smells like shit here, and I'm not exaggerating. You'll just be walking around and it starts smelling like human shit, and it just fills your nostrils and you breathe in shit for like 20 seconds."
Before departing by private helicopter, Mayor Michael Bloomberg spoke with members of the media to address the situation.
"You know what the greatest city in the world is?" Bloomberg asked reporters. "Scottsdale, Arizona. It's clean, it's not too big, it's got a couple streets with shops and restaurants, and the people there aren't fucking insane. This place is fucking insane. And by the way, that's not a reason to like it. Anyone who says that is a delusional dirtbag."
By Tuesday night, New York was completely abandoned. At press time, however, some 10 million Los Angeles–area residents, tired of their self-centered, laid-back culture and lack of four distinct seasons, and yearning for the hustle and bustle of East Coast life, had already begun repopulating the city.
Now that I've calmed down a bit, here's the City Council Action Center link for you to write angry letters to.
I don't have any easy answers, because there aren't any. I do know that I'm going to civilly disobey this preposterous ban.
And thank you igloo, that post is awesome. The Onion, I'm guessing. :mrgreen:
I don't have any easy answers, because there aren't any. I do know that I'm going to civilly disobey this preposterous ban.
And thank you igloo, that post is awesome. The Onion, I'm guessing. :mrgreen:
What a crock. One would hope that New York would be one of the last places to fall for this kind of bull. I'm sorry - ban smoking indoors in public all you want, mass transit, any kind of enclosed space whatsoever, fine. But outdoor public spaces, THE COMMONS, should be left undisturbed. It's sad how much time, money, and effort is wasted on this kind of nonsense and the junk science that spawned it.
I wonder if Bloomberg ever saw the cop I saw on duty standing guard at one of the main entrances to the Citycorp Center with a 60 ring guage cigar to pass the tour of duty. I propose a smoke free zone in every NYPD radio motor patrol car and on the sidewalks within 500 feet of every police precinct station house. That would put an end to nonsense.
I just love to cup my lit pipe in my hand if there are smoking complaints and then just put it in my pocket. Smokin??? Who might that be?
I just love to cup my lit pipe in my hand if there are smoking complaints and then just put it in my pocket. Smokin??? Who might that be?
It pains me to see it. I'm used to a nanny state, but of late it seems the Washingtonians and New Yorkers are trying to out-Canada Canada. I don't ever intend to relocate to the Big Apple, but it's a sign of the times. I quote your own Benjamin Franklin back to you:
"Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
There's a whole generation who don't want any risks.
Simon
"Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
There's a whole generation who don't want any risks.
Add a good pipe to that, and I'm in.
Simon
It figures another BS law being brought about in NYC.
Before you know it,the rest of the state will follow suit.
Why can't all the liberals and do-gooders find some happy happy place to live and leave us all alone to live our lives the way we choose.
I'm sorry to say it this way but I REALLY HATE FUCKING LIBERALS!!!
Before you know it,the rest of the state will follow suit.
Why can't all the liberals and do-gooders find some happy happy place to live and leave us all alone to live our lives the way we choose.
I'm sorry to say it this way but I REALLY HATE FUCKING LIBERALS!!!
This was a News item on the BBC yesterday. Even non-smokers over here in the UK that I have spoken too, think this ban is rediculous. Some even asked if this was an early April Fools Day joke!!!
Problem is, how many other cities are going to follow suit?
It seems they are waiting for The Mayor to sign it before it becomes law.
You might want to contact him and put your views to him
New York Mayor
Problem is, how many other cities are going to follow suit?
It seems they are waiting for The Mayor to sign it before it becomes law.
You might want to contact him and put your views to him
New York Mayor
Today, Feb 12 2020, a Pipe Smoker was shot by New York City Police Officer while attempting to evade arrest after being caught having a ‘sneeky bowl’ in Central Park.
Officer Tom O’Doodly said “I was on routine patrol in the area of Central South Park when I was alerted to smoke appearing from behind a tree. Now being a New York cop, I know damn well that trees don’t smoke so I became more than a little suspicious. I drew my service revolver and proceeded with caution to investigate. Man, what I saw behind that tree was so horrific. There was this little old man, must’ve been about 65 or 70, crouching there smoking a pipe. Well, I haven’t seen anything like that in all my years as a cop. This little old man smoking in 838 acres of clean air. You know, cos the Mayor told us that traffic pollution can’t get through the trees, anyway I pointed my revolver at him and shouted “Police, you’re under arrest”. Well, the look on this little old man’s face was one of complete horror at being caught. At that he dropped his pipe and high-tailed it off across the Park, at a fast hobble. Now I am no Ben Johnson when it comes to running, what with eating all those doughnuts an’ all, and I didn’t want to burden the New York Hospital Queens with an overweight cop with a dodgy ticker, so I shot that little old pipe smoking man. My Lieutenant says the Mayor is gonna give me a medal next week”.
Figures show that this was the 100th death in the Park this year, but WHO have stated that since the man was smoking then it is counted as a Smoking Related Death and further evidence for the need of a Worldwide ban on tobacco.
Officer Tom O’Doodly said “I was on routine patrol in the area of Central South Park when I was alerted to smoke appearing from behind a tree. Now being a New York cop, I know damn well that trees don’t smoke so I became more than a little suspicious. I drew my service revolver and proceeded with caution to investigate. Man, what I saw behind that tree was so horrific. There was this little old man, must’ve been about 65 or 70, crouching there smoking a pipe. Well, I haven’t seen anything like that in all my years as a cop. This little old man smoking in 838 acres of clean air. You know, cos the Mayor told us that traffic pollution can’t get through the trees, anyway I pointed my revolver at him and shouted “Police, you’re under arrest”. Well, the look on this little old man’s face was one of complete horror at being caught. At that he dropped his pipe and high-tailed it off across the Park, at a fast hobble. Now I am no Ben Johnson when it comes to running, what with eating all those doughnuts an’ all, and I didn’t want to burden the New York Hospital Queens with an overweight cop with a dodgy ticker, so I shot that little old pipe smoking man. My Lieutenant says the Mayor is gonna give me a medal next week”.
Figures show that this was the 100th death in the Park this year, but WHO have stated that since the man was smoking then it is counted as a Smoking Related Death and further evidence for the need of a Worldwide ban on tobacco.
NYC has been hurting for money for over 40 years. I'll bet that they'll use the NY State Department of Parks employees to catch culprits.
Case in point: A bunch of us were tailgating at a parking garage accross the street from Yankee Stadium and the garage was patrolled by Park Police! We had to drink our beer out of cups or we were liable for a $35 fine. The garage was considered park of the NY State park system!
That state is as insane as California
Case in point: A bunch of us were tailgating at a parking garage accross the street from Yankee Stadium and the garage was patrolled by Park Police! We had to drink our beer out of cups or we were liable for a $35 fine. The garage was considered park of the NY State park system!
That state is as insane as California
- Status