Seattle Parks Superintendent Tim Gallagher has banned all forms of tobacco use in Seattle parks. Gallagher made this rule despite protests from the city’s parks board. Even worse, he openly admits that this is being done to protect people from their own decisions, not to protect people from second-hand smoke (even chewing tobacco is banned). As far as I can tell, this rule applies to Seattle’s three municipal golf courses, so if you want to smoke a cigarette while playing a round at Jackson Park, make sure none of Gallagher’s foot soldiers are watching.
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I’d ban chewing tobacco. Spitting is icky.
You all wanted a mommy state, well this is what you get…
Cigs are disgusting and dangerous.
Look at Roger Rabbit.
Years of smoking and now he has an oxygen tank and a serious, debilitating lung disease.
His choice to smoke.
However WHERE to smoke is another issue.
Seeing kids smoking in parks…or immature adults like Lee, is not why we go to a Public Park.
That said…what are the consequences of being caught smoking in a Park?
Probably nothing.
Lee is gettin’ all torqued about next to nothing.
Interesting however that the Left-wing Lunatics who believe in Bag Taxes are the ones to create this new RULE.
Seems like everytime I look, the Democrat Party is alienated more of it’s own.
Seperate the Democrat Loons from the ones who believe in jobs & small government.
Good.
Welcome to the Tea Party.
@4
That said…what are the consequences of being caught smoking in a Park?
Probably nothing.
Read the linked article. You’re banned from the park for successively longer terms. On the fourth offense, you can be arrested.
Interesting however that the Left-wing Lunatics who believe in Bag Taxes are the ones to create this new RULE.
That’s not interesting at all. In fact, it makes no sense. A bag fee is not an attempt to make people’s decisions for them. It’s a fee for using a resource that we all have to pay to clean up later. If you banned plastic bags altogether, then that gets closer – but even that’s not the same thing because there’s an environmental impact aspect.
Seems like everytime I look, the Democrat Party is alienated more of it’s own.
And every time they do it, people like you remind me why I still have no other choice but to vote for them. Congratulations, you’re the Democratic Party’s most valuable asset, the person who makes Republicans look too crazy to vote for.
@2
You all wanted a mommy state
Who exactly is “you all”? Please reference comments #3 and #4. The people who want a mommy state tend to be the ones who hide under their beds and wet their pants over terrorism and drug use. For the most part, those folks ain’t liberals or Democrats.
The tobacco ban in parks is just stupid. Unlike the gun ban though it is less clear the courts would smack it down if it is challenged.
My real worry is we’re going to be soon like some places in California, that while tobacco use is technically legal there are almost no places one can legally light up. Can’t smoke in bars and restaurants, can’t smoke on a public sidewalk, can’t smoke in a park, can’t smoke in your car if someone under 18 is present, can’t smoke inside or outside a multifamily residence, where can you smoke?
I’m wondering what’s going to happen to those who “live” in the downtown Seattle parks.
(Excerpt from future police report):
“As I entered the park on my regular patrol duties, I noticed a group of three men standing together, with what appeared to be cigarettes in their mouths and the smell of tobacco smoke eminating from the group. As I and my partner approached, the group noticed me and three cigarettes were discarded, one being thrown approx. 20 feet away.
While my partner stood back and covered me by watching two of the men, I seperated the third person to question him. Being concerned for my safety, I first submitted him to a standard pat-down search for weapons. These did not find any weapons, but did reveal an opened pack of cigarettes containing 16 unused cigarettes, with four missing. I took a picture of the evidence with my camera, a copy of the photo appearing attached to this report.
I informed the suspect that he was being arrested for violating Seattle Public Ordinance # (omitted). He swore at me and made what I interpreted to be threatening gestures. At that point I placed him in a “compliance hold”, and cuffed him. Fearing that his accomplices would intervene, my parterner ordered each of them to lie face down on the ground, at which point one of them was handcuffed, and the other was restrained with zip-ties (both of our handcuffs being used at that point). I called for backup.
While waiting for backup to arrive, I did a preliminary search for weapons on the two other suspects (# 1 & 2). No weapons were found, but both possessed tobacco products (see attached copy of photo). In addition, suspect # 2 had a small bag of leafy material believed to contain marijuana, which was sent to the lab for analysis.
All three suspects have been held pending charges of participating in a conspiracy to distribute controlled substances (marijuana). As none of them had a verifiable address, a request was submitted to the prosecutor’s office that all three be held without bail pending trial.”
Smoking killed my grandfather and then my father, so I have no use for tobacco in any form. But such an absolute ban is just creeping nannyism, and I’ve just about reached my limit.
I’m a regular user of Seattle parks and never once have I been forced to inhale second-hand smoke. The few smokers I encounter don’t create a problem because (duh) we’re outside, in the breeze.
At our next family reunion, the few smokers won’t be wandering to the edge of the group to light up, rather they will huddle in the middle to be out of sight of passersby and whatever enforcement they might bring to bear. Not an enhancement of the park experience, Mr. Gallagher.
oh, now you dont like it when the government tels you what to do? i bet you love mandatory seat belt laws.
Emily: “Spitting is icky.”
So are wingnuts. Let’s ban them from parks too.
KLOWN spews: “Seeing kids smoking in parks…or immature adults like Lee, is not why we go to a Public Park.”
No shit?
http://www.republicanoffenders.com/Pedophiles.html
Errrr ahhhhh
Anopther example of a law mthat serves no purpose.
Where is the city attny and the mayor?
First of all: altho I consider myself progressive, I have no use for a “nanny state” mentality, and that’s what this is…excessive intrusion of government where it doesn’t belong (just like the ‘nanny state’ mentality which tries to regulate who I sleep with, marry, and leave SSI benefits to).
What’s especially galling, tho, is that one person–just one person which his own axe to grind–implemented this plan. Why? Because he can.
@6…I was refering to the progressives who seem to need to state to take of every damn little thing for them…
you idiots voted these morons into power, and then they appoint people to run things like the parks dept and so on…..
this is the result of a progressive mommy state.
and lee, you wont find me hiding under my bed….its too hard to get off a good shot.
reap the mommy state, bitches…
Can’t smoke in a park, but you can pack heat! What a city!
Another example of where citizens can use “jury nullification” to show their fed up with silly laws used to punish where there are no victims.
no smoking in parks
no spitting in parks
GO MOMMY STATE GO!!!!!!!
If smokers would just stop littering with their G-Damd butts, I’d be more sympathetic.
So if marijuana possession is the city’s lowest priority for law enforcement while tobacco is banned from city parks, does that mean it will be safer to toke than smoke on city property?
Which leads to the question, “What was Tim Gallagher smoking when he came up with this asinine idea?”.
@19:
Lee’s best “buds”?
Steve @ 11
I think banning wingnuts from parks is an outstanding idea. They don’t want to pay taxes to maintain parks, so why should they get to use them? Moreover, rational people go to parks to relax, recreate, and get some air. Having wingnuts around just creates a toxic atmosphere and produces nausea.
@21..comedy fail
5. Lee spews:
How much bureaucratic cost is related to keeping track of this????
Is this a reasonable use of scarce police resources when there are beatings in the Bus Tunnel and other serious crime.
I’m just sayin’ Lee..
This lunacy is brought to you by Lesser Progressive Seattle.
It’s undeniably YOUR ILKS FAULT!!!
Too Damn Funny.
Progressivism is geared toward controlling more & more aspects of our lives. Pop Tax?? Lunacy? Park Cig Cops? Double lunacy.
The list goes on & on & on..
How can anyone who values the Constitution and wants to live free be a “Progressive”???
America is waking up to the fact that Progressives are ARROGANT CONTROL FREAKS!!
Only THEY are smart enough to decide what is best for us.
That won’t sell Lee.
Welcome to the Tea Party movement!!!!!!!!!!
15. Zotz spews:
Brought to you courtesy of the Lesser Seattle Moronic Progressives!!!
(Roger “OCD” Rodent lights up a smoke next to his oxygen tank and blood pressure monitor in disgust….)
21
I wasn’t trying to be funny. I’m serious. I think wingnut-free zones are a great idea. For instance, I’d be happy to let wingnuts have Oklahoma. We need to let productive, rational people go about their business without facing interference from rightwing crazies.
@26…comedy fail part 2 electric boogaloo
@21 Remember this old ditty?
Rachael, Rachael,
I’ve been thinking
what a fine world
this would be
if the wingnuts
were all transported
far beyond the Northern Sea
Well, I admit that I did alter it just a wee bit.
J.F. Christ. I’m a leftie and no fan of smoking by any means, but really? This smoking ban is ridiculous. Only in the northwest.
Seems like you KLOWNS are so far removed from reality and sooooooooo angry that you and your messiah Obam-Mao blew it, that now all you can do is fantasize about getting rid of folks who disagree with you?
Heil Hitler! Is that the new Progressive mantra?
Getting rid of folks? Someone must talking about those freaky flying monkey wingnut people who are itchin’ to lynch one of our state’s senators.
Steve @ 28
Slight alteration, but consistent with what I’m sure the song’s writer would want to say today.
So much for Lee the fucking lazy, pot-smoking bet welcher enjoying hempfest this year…..haha
Of course, being cognitively limited as a garden variety liberal, Mr. Gallagher backtracked on this proposed “ban” with one stipulation today in the Seattle Times:
It appears that this won’t help Lee, as that park is only so big and certainly stoners can’t even spell “twenty-five feet” let alone judge its distance.
Ah, liberalism on display in its finest hour…a mental disorder indeed.
Shorter Liberal/Controller Tim Gallagher:
…liberals always seek to control others actions. Funny how it’s only when they begin to want to control the behavior of fellow liberals do their fellow ideological travelers speak out.
Ah, Little Ricky, yes, we want to control others’ actions. That’s why we are pro-choice, and don’t give a damn about which adult marries another adult, and could care less if someone wants to smoke some harmless weed. I could go on in this regard, but I know that you don’t pay any attention.
@ 35 ~ Tell it to your fellow “proud leftist”, Tim Gallagher who instituted the ‘ban’. You assclowns should have plenty in common.
Little Ricky Dumbass @ 33
You hallucinated that I cheerleaded Lee as he characterized Anne Coulter as a “cunt”. Something I’d never do. In fact I discourage any other progressive from doing that. Let the right wing do that – right wingers like Roger Stone of Citizens United.
You were wrong of course in accusing me of that and I proved you were wrong.
I don’t know what dope you’re taking but it’s odds on favorite that it’s that most potent hallucinatory drug :
Right wing bullshit.
WWCD–
what would Castro do. Not to mention FDR. And Andrew Jackson, founder of the Democrat party, and a smoker extraordinaire.