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Riel’s Smoking Ban Proposal Is Misguided
August 11, 2007
According to an article in the Bradford Era, City Councilman Tom Riel is floating a proposal to ban smoking in Bradford, PA’s city parks.
This is only a thinly veiled attempt to drive a small group of loiterers out of Veteran’s Square on Main street. Granted, this group is generally loud, crude, and considered undesirable. Mr. Riel is trying to find a solution to the problem. However, since he can’t find other legal means to accomplish his goal, he has taken the next easiest way, target a minority. In this case, smokers. Smokers are an easy and popular target for politicians. This proposal will only place an additional burden on law-abiding citizens and law enforcement.
A smoking ban would require the city’s police force to patrol our parks in the same way high school teachers patrol the schools’ restrooms. That is, uless City Council decides to hire a Smoking Enforcement Officer. In order to beautify our city parks would the ordinance mandate prominent “NO SMOKING” signs in the Square and other parks? Of course littering by inconsiderate smokers is a problem, so why not enforce the littering laws? Does it justify criminalizing another class of otherwise law-abiding citizens?
The article quotes Mr. Riel:
“Part of the reason I’m proposing this ordinance is to clean up the public square,” he said. “The people who hang out there keep the people from Emery Towers from going there. The purpose of the city parks is not to be a smoking lounge,” he said. “Let them sit on their front porches and flick the butts in their own yards.”
Again, we all know who the proposal is targeting, and they don’t have yards. If the attempt is made to enforce the ban, this group will simply move on to our sidewalks and the benches in front of businesses. Can we expect an ordinance to ban smoking on sidewalks next? Why not enforce the loitering / vagrancy / littering laws? Will a smoking ban be any easier to enforce?
“People say ‘why don’t you just put up ash trays?’ We’ve tried. They get destroyed, and people use them for projectiles,” Riel explained.
That’s true if you use ashtrays created for indoor use. What about the black tower-style ashtrays businesses put in front of their stores? They are practically indestructible and when they are chained down make poor projectiles. While not everyone would use them, many would. This seems a much more reasonable, and cost-effective approach if the problem is discarded cigarette butts.
“It’s a health and safety issue. The public square is the centerpiece of downtown Bradford. When you are stopped at the light there, you can see the square is riddled with cigarette butts. Something has to be done.”
Yes, littering is a health and safety issue, but we already have laws on the books if they were enforced. I’m surprised Mr. Riel didn’t add, “It’s for the children!”. If he proposed a solution to the problem of illegal immigration, would it be to ban Latin music?
What’s your opinion? Please let us know in the comment form below.
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August 11th, 2007 at 11:02 pm
I think it is an idea way past due, there is no reason the city should be forced to provide discard containers specifically designed to hold refuse generated by a minority population engaging in a practice which is not only unhealthy for them but also for those around them.
August 16th, 2007 at 4:17 pm
Coming from Mr. upright and outstanding citizen who basically strong armed the city into paying him not to not open a strip joint on Main street! I wonder if the mayor seat desiring councilman will have his volunteer police and fire department enforce his prohibition? Tom Reil is a laughable hypocrate, I wonder if he’d have banned the same group of people from smoking in his sleaze hall? LOL
Prohibition doesn’t work, never has. Anyone who argues to the contrary has a very limited understanding of history and basic human behavior. Furthermore if you want to ban smoking in city parks you need to ban dog walking and a whole host of other liberties that people enjoy as basic liberties in our “Free” society.
August 16th, 2007 at 9:37 pm
Why don’t the people who want to use the city parks keep them clean by not littering…there are trash cans. And what about the continuing vandalism and destruction of the gazebo in Veteran’s Square…the Boy Scout had his Eagle project repairing and painting it only to have it destroyed! With so many senior citizens living nearby in the Emery Towers and Hi Rise on Bushnell St, it seems as though nobody cares…and what about the Veterans who have served and are still fighting and dying over in Iraq and Afganistan? Doesn’t RESPECT mean anything to the people who rip down the American Flags and the brackets holding them around the gazebo! SSGT Goodnoe who just died tragically in a car accident early Saturday morning and had his funeral Tuesday didn’t deserve the DISREPECT shown by the people “loitering” around SACRED GROUND! Shape Up or Serve Your Country…the USA gave you what you don’t deserve or respect, so get over it! An Angry VETERAN!!!!!
August 18th, 2007 at 6:23 pm
Banning smoking in parks because of certain people loitering and littering, simply isn’t fair to the rest of us. I like the ash tray suggestion, I am a smoker, but when I’m out, Either I don’t smoke, or I use the bottom of my shoe to put the cigarette out and throw the butt in the garbage, and if there isn’t a garbage can around, then I put the butt in my pocket and throw it away at home..It’s simple.
Now the people hanging around the square, they are not pleasant, when I have to walk that way, I hear nothing but filth spilling from their mouths, I get nasty looks, and there’s always someone using the gazebo for a bedroom, it’s really quite disgusting. It’s unfair to the people living at Emery Towers.
The Square used to be beautiful, maybe it could be now if we got rid of the trash.
December 4th, 2007 at 4:11 pm
In response to Mr. Rimer’s comment, I would like to point out that Mr. Riel’s possibility of opening a strip joint was a joke. Only after being aggravated by City Hall did Tom play hardball. It was the towns own choice to pay as much as they did for that building.