Eric Garner was not killed by police in New York City because he was black.
He was killed by police in New York City for selling individual cigarettes to pedestrians in a city that has declared all-out war on smoking.
While liberals say they favor choice and freedom, they clearly do not. While they are busy decriminalizing and legalizing smoking pot around the country, they are taking an increasingly harder line against smoking tobacco.
In New York, you can’t smoke inside any building open to the general public – no matter what the business owner might prefer.
More and more, you can’t smoke outside either.
This is the trend in cities throughout the U.S. where liberalism reigns supreme.
But the war on smoking doesn’t end there.
A pack of Marlboro Reds costs less than a $5 in Kentucky. In New York City, with state and municipal taxes, it costs $14.50!
And that profit motive for New York is what killed Eric Garner.
The father of six was standing on a sidewalk selling individual cigarettes to pedestrians when local merchants, forced to charge New York’s exorbitant taxes for every pack they sell, reportedly called the cops to complain about this “unfair competition.”
The response came in the form of six cops.
Did Garner have a police record?
Yes.
Was Garner morbidly obese?
Yes.
Did Garner resist arrest?
Maybe.
He paid the ultimate price. He’s dead. The coroner ruled the death a homicide. He was choked to death – for selling individual cigarettes to passersby.
But the grand jury decided, for whatever reasons, not to indict any of the police officers.
And now it’s another example of “racism” by police. In New York City? Is there a city in America under the leadership of people more liberal than New York? Come on. This is not a problem of racism. It’s a problem of liberalism.
When will blacks and other minorities discover liberals are not their friends?
When will lovers of freedom and choice discover that?
And what is this war on smoking all about it?
Is it about the tax revenue cities and states like New York make? If so, you would think they would not be so restrictive about where you can smoke.
Or is it that liberals love to pass laws restricting freedom and demonstrating the awesome power of government in all its hideous forms?
Think about it.
Where do most killings of civilians by police take place?
Do they take place in urban communities or do they take place in suburban and rural communities?
The answer is obvious – or should be.
They take place in big cities.
They take place in urban areas run nearly exclusively by liberal Democrats – progressives, the very people expressing outrage about them.
They take place in municipalities in the vanguard of more restrictive behavior, whether its anti-smoking laws or restrictions on the size of your soft drink or the kind of food you can be served in restaurants.
They take place in locales with large police departments – the kind necessary to enforce all the laws the big-government leaders impose on their people.
The only problem is few are making the connection between the kind of government they elect and the results those governments produce.
No one likes to see citizens killed by police – especially when those citizens aren’t behaving in a threatening or menacing way.
It doesn’t matter whether those citizens are black or white.
But it’s time to look at where they are happening and figure out why.
Maybe it’s not race.
Maybe it’s the leadership of those cities that needs to change.
Maybe it’s the governing philosophy that is to blame.
Maybe the people out protesting police shootings have no one to blame but themselves.
Media wishing to interview Joseph Farah, please contact [email protected].
|
