2014-12-06

Governor And Mayor Not Blameless In Garner Killing

"Those policies, whether they work or not, are aimed at protecting property and people. In the case of Garner, police were enforcing a law that has nothing to do with violence—not in the short or long term. It exists to shield people from their own lawful habit. High cigarette taxes were cooked up, for the most part, to artificially inflate the price of a product politicians and voters dislike so that others would not be able to afford it. For their own good.

New York has by far the highest cigarette taxes—over 5 bucks a pack. Unsurprisingly, the policy has spurred a black market. In March, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced the formation of the "Cigarette Strike Force" to crack down on illegal tobacco trafficking. A strike force. As writer Robert Tracinski has pointed out, the Garner case should remind us that "government is force" and that more government has predictable returns. If you believe cops are racists or generally out of control, why give them more opportunity?

Last month, a man was arrested on Staten Island with 500,000 untaxed cigarettes in his van. (Don't worry; New York state resells most of the cigarettes for revenue.) The more profitable circumventing taxes becomes the more dangerous this mini-prohibition will be. Garner was selling singles, incidentally. Does anyone believe that isn't a waste of time for police and prosecutors?

Even if your position is that government has an important role in deciding what you should ingest, cigarette smoking has been dropping for decades around the country. It was dropping before sin taxes. It's dropping in places where there are no sin taxes. Other than inconveniencing poor people, sin taxes offer us nothing. Well, maybe a little tax revenue. A bit of social engineering. And sometimes a death." David Harsanyi - Reason.

Not mentioned above is New York (socialist) Mayor De Blasio- whose leadership is anything but stellar at this point - also supported this crackdown. De Blasio is a seedy sort not above blaming others for his troubles as he recently blurted he 'worries' for his daughter's life (she's biracial) in the aftermath of the Garner event.

Basically, he through NYPD under the bus.

A man loses his life over....FRICKEN CIGARETTES.

We never learn.

Government should not be involved in dealing with our personal choices and habits. Only bad things happen. Ironic given the purpose is to help but in the end people get hurt in an avalanche of unintended consequences.

 

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