My hometown bans smoking! Durango, CO joins the California Nanny/Police State.
11-06-2012, 04:37 PM
DON'T VISIT DURANGO, COLORADO
Effective December 1st, nobody will be able to smoke in any public areas within city limits - not sidewalks, streets, bus stops, parks, or our nice river trail. Bars with designated smoking patios and the one bar that allows inside smoking are exempt.
Of course the pretext is for "public health." It was a our public health department who worked to push this through along with other liberal fascists. One of the key people was an Argentinian born woman. In fact most of the people in favor of this ban are women. Of course, our town council reached a "community compromise" by allowing private businesses to keep their smoking patios.
The real amazing thing about this is that we have a coal powered train that goes through town several times per day. The amount of pollution it generates is 100,000 times the amount generated by the occasional cigarette smoker, but it brings tourist dollars to town so it is untouchable. It does serve to demonstrate, clearly, the motive behind so called "liberals". It is not in fact public health, but controlling and running your life. They dislike the smell of cigarette smoke, and wanted desperately to join other progressive cities, led by so many in California, so they joined the crusade. One or two public hearings, no public vote, a "community compromise" and bam. Done.
Here are some pics to illustrate just how crazy this is:
The train that runs through town several times per day:
![[Image: W9ag8.jpg]](http://i.imgur.com/W9ag8.jpg)
The river trail that smokers are no longer allow to pollute (notice the train):
![[Image: PNI2L.png]](http://i.imgur.com/PNI2L.png)
What "science" has ruled is harmful to others - horrible second hand smoke outdoors:
![[Image: PCVlW.jpg]](http://i.imgur.com/PCVlW.jpg)
1st Offense $100 fine
2nd Offense $200 fine
3rd Offense $300 fine (and all subsequent offenses for remainder of calendar year)
We have a huge police population, especially at night. Never mind that we are a small town, officially around 16,000, with a college population of 3,800 students. There is almost no violent crime here and a murder every few years, but you can't go two blocks without seeing a cop car. In fact, we led the nation one year in DUI's per capita. Think about that.
FBI stats: Durango is heavy on police
We used to have a zombie crawl every year on halloween at midnight. People would moan and walk down the main street having fun. Mostly drunk college kids. Apparently, the police didn't like knocked over trash cans or minor vandalism, so they decided to crack down last year. This year it was officially canceled. You can imagine my surprise last year when there were full cammo fatigued troops (national guard???), german-shepard police dogs, and police tear gassing and arresting people left and right. It was unreal. A lot of kids got roughed up. And I thought to myself, how did this fucking army take over our local police? Why here, in this little mountain town with no violent crime?
The situation is really bad here. A real police state/nanny state. I can only surmise that if it is happening in this small insignificant mountain town, then it has across the entire country - or it will. If so called "progressives" want to ban smoking, or open alcohol containers, or institute leash laws in your town you must stand up! If paranoid old people keep voting for more police, shut them up. If your local police or sheriffs department gets SWAT team funding, then vote to legalize drugs in your state - we have that on our ballot in Colorado (at least for marijuana).
Let us be a warning to the rest of the country. It is not just southern California, it is a "liberal" fascist nanny state and right wing police state developing around us more and more each day.
*Edit with an update from the future: It appears as if it is only enforced in parks, bus stops, etc. and the prior rule of not within 10 or 15 feet of a door or window still applies, so you can still smoke outside a bar for example or on a sidewalk without repercussions.
Effective December 1st, nobody will be able to smoke in any public areas within city limits - not sidewalks, streets, bus stops, parks, or our nice river trail. Bars with designated smoking patios and the one bar that allows inside smoking are exempt.
Of course the pretext is for "public health." It was a our public health department who worked to push this through along with other liberal fascists. One of the key people was an Argentinian born woman. In fact most of the people in favor of this ban are women. Of course, our town council reached a "community compromise" by allowing private businesses to keep their smoking patios.
The real amazing thing about this is that we have a coal powered train that goes through town several times per day. The amount of pollution it generates is 100,000 times the amount generated by the occasional cigarette smoker, but it brings tourist dollars to town so it is untouchable. It does serve to demonstrate, clearly, the motive behind so called "liberals". It is not in fact public health, but controlling and running your life. They dislike the smell of cigarette smoke, and wanted desperately to join other progressive cities, led by so many in California, so they joined the crusade. One or two public hearings, no public vote, a "community compromise" and bam. Done.
Here are some pics to illustrate just how crazy this is:
The train that runs through town several times per day:
The river trail that smokers are no longer allow to pollute (notice the train):
What "science" has ruled is harmful to others - horrible second hand smoke outdoors:
1st Offense $100 fine
2nd Offense $200 fine
3rd Offense $300 fine (and all subsequent offenses for remainder of calendar year)
We have a huge police population, especially at night. Never mind that we are a small town, officially around 16,000, with a college population of 3,800 students. There is almost no violent crime here and a murder every few years, but you can't go two blocks without seeing a cop car. In fact, we led the nation one year in DUI's per capita. Think about that.
FBI stats: Durango is heavy on police
We used to have a zombie crawl every year on halloween at midnight. People would moan and walk down the main street having fun. Mostly drunk college kids. Apparently, the police didn't like knocked over trash cans or minor vandalism, so they decided to crack down last year. This year it was officially canceled. You can imagine my surprise last year when there were full cammo fatigued troops (national guard???), german-shepard police dogs, and police tear gassing and arresting people left and right. It was unreal. A lot of kids got roughed up. And I thought to myself, how did this fucking army take over our local police? Why here, in this little mountain town with no violent crime?
The situation is really bad here. A real police state/nanny state. I can only surmise that if it is happening in this small insignificant mountain town, then it has across the entire country - or it will. If so called "progressives" want to ban smoking, or open alcohol containers, or institute leash laws in your town you must stand up! If paranoid old people keep voting for more police, shut them up. If your local police or sheriffs department gets SWAT team funding, then vote to legalize drugs in your state - we have that on our ballot in Colorado (at least for marijuana).
Let us be a warning to the rest of the country. It is not just southern California, it is a "liberal" fascist nanny state and right wing police state developing around us more and more each day.
*Edit with an update from the future: It appears as if it is only enforced in parks, bus stops, etc. and the prior rule of not within 10 or 15 feet of a door or window still applies, so you can still smoke outside a bar for example or on a sidewalk without repercussions.