As a non-smoking police officer who believes in liberty, I’d like to applaud Sheriff Rick Bart’s practical assessment of the enforcement priority of Washington state’s latest liberty-grab (Monday news article, “Police say smokers low on list”). Sadly, this time the infringement was not committed by government alone, but by citizens against other citizens. I’m, of course, talking about the new smoking ban.
I’ll never understand this un-American twisted logic: John doesn’t like smoking, so even though no one forces him to patronize Ellen’s business, John votes for a law to restrict Ellen’s private property rights, because John may want to go to Ellen’s tavern some day and John doesn’t like smoke.” And if Bill decides to light up 24 feet from Ellen’s front entrance, busy-body Mrs. Kravitz will call 911. Officer Friendly will race to the scene, slap Billy’s hand, and tell him to be a good boy or he’ll get a ticket.
This is a toxic attitude and has no place in a free society. So, now that we collectively “own” at least a tiny percentage of all of these formerly smoking establishments, are we going to pitch in to help them out when some of them suffer an economic downturn, or go out of business entirely?
Steve Pomper
Brier
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