Thread: Yes, stupid laws help kill people - Eric Garner

Yes, stupid laws help kill people


By: David Harsanyi
12/5/2014 09:59 AM

After news of the baffling decision by the New York grand jury not to indict a police officer in the killing of Eric Garner, I sent out a (slightly) hyperbolic tweet that wondered why Americans would want to entrust their free speech and health care to an institution that will kill you over failure to pay a cigarette tax.
Since then, I’ve seen numerous tweets arguing that bringing up the tax is preposterous. It’s something akin to blaming jaywalking for the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., touched on the issue in an interview with MSNBC yesterday and was, unsurprisingly, ridiculed for it by liberals — because mentioning the circumstances of a violent act is preposterous, apparently.
Though it certainly isn’t close to being the most important lesson of this inexplicable case, it’s not something that should be dismissed so flippantly.
Garner wasn’t targeted for death because he was avoiding taxes, but nonetheless, prohibitive cigarette taxes unnecessarily generate situations that make events such as this possible. We frame violence in this way all the time. We often talk about unintended consequences. When we discuss how women who immigrated to this country illegally can be the helpless victims of domestic violence, we also blame unfair laws for creating the situation. When we talk about the war on drugs and how it creates millions of nonviolent criminals and needless abuse by the Drug Enforcement Administration and others, liberals have little problem blaming the underlying policy that makes all of that possible. With good reason.
Some pundits have similarly blamed broken-windows policing for Garner’s death. 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 is a senior editor at The Federalist and the author of “The People Have Spoken (and They Are Wrong): The Case Against Democracy.”

http://humanevents.com/2014/12/05/ye...paign=heupdate

I repeat... that all power is a trust; that we are accountable for its exercise; that from the people and for the people all springs, and all must exist.

Benjamin Disraeli

When Officer Frank Phillips, a Knox County Sheriff’s officer, was caught on video choking a white college student, he was fired almost immediately.

Compare and contrast this with the Eric Garner assault, homicide and refusal to indict... Still, neither cop was prosecuted. Whether you think race is a factor in what action is taken against abusive and killer cop...s or not, one thing is clear... The color that matters most to police and prosecutors is BLUE vs. everyone else!

http://goo.gl/I86N7b

Ron Paul

Julie Borowski’s perspective on Eric Garner’s death goes to the heart of the matter.
Do you agree? http://bit.ly/1rWYwb2



Government Overreach, Cigarette Taxes to Blame for Eric Garner's Death?
December 4, 2014—While Michael Brown's death was not caught on camera, Eric Garner's was. Yes, Eric Garner didn't want to be arrested and wasn't complying,...
voicesofliberty.com

by Julie Borowski



Government Overreach, Cigarette Taxes to Blame for Eric Garner’s Death?
December 4, 2014—While Michael Brown’s death was not caught on camera, Eric Garner’s was. Yes, Eric Garner didn’t want to be arrested and wasn’t complying, but he wasn’t acting aggressive or violent. His hands were up. It wasn’t an urgent matter or a situation where the officers had to act quickly. I don’t believe the officers intended to kill him, but when I watched the video it looked like excessive force. It looked unnecessary and unjustified. A grand jury decided not to indict the officer responsible for holding Eric Garner in the chokehold until his death. An indictment is a formal charge, not saying whether or not the officer is guilty or innocent yet.
Here’s the thing. I don’t think Eric Garner should have been stopped in the first place. Why was he stopped? Because of cigarette taxes—a huge pet peeve of mine. The job of police officers is to enforce the laws that the politicians create. You can argue that police officers should not enforce unjust laws, but I think the more reliable solution is to get those bad, unjust laws off the books. Do you agree? Share your thoughts in the comments.

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