Little-Acorn
Gold Member
Eric Garner was selling cigarettes.
And not even packs of them. Individual cigarettes. ("Loosies")
WTF? Why was he even doing that? And why was it a crime?
Answer: Because New York City had hugely increased TAXES on cigarettes. So much that the city had nearly tripled the price on them.
In a low-tax state like North Carolina, cigarettes can be bought for $5 a pack.
In New York City, the same cigarettes are anywhere from $11 to $15 a pack.
Garner's "crime"? He hadn't paid those extra taxes.
Unsurprisingly, NYC's crushing taxes created a huge black market. People like Eric Garner regularly drive down to North Carolina, load up on $5/pack cigarettes, come back to NYC, and sell them for "only" $8 or $9.
NYC's government had driven prices so artificially high, that Eric Garner even sold individual cigarettes. Because many people couldn't afford even a single, whole pack. Or he did, until NYC's police killed him.
Used to be, that government only made laws to protect people's rights. That was their whole job.
But more recently, big-government liberals have decided that government's job was to save people from their own mistakes, whether they were violating anybody else's rights or not. Places like New York City have gone so far off the rails, they even made laws against selling soft drinks that were "too large".
And they have a law that you are forbidden to sell a pack of cigarettes for under $10.50.
NYC Mayor DiBlasio issued an edict not long ago, telling NYPD cops to crack down on those terrifying hardened criminals who were selling individual cigarettes. The memo didn't mention exactly how those sellers were violating people's rights, or which rights were being violated. But the local government was missing out on some tax revenue (the taxes that tripled the price of cigarettes). And that could not be tolerated.
Garner had been busted for doing this, a number of times before. Of course, if the govt hadn't hiked taxes to such ridiculous levels, he probably would have never been busted for it at all. Nobody would have bothered to buy North Carolina cigarettes from him, so he never would have gone into business selling them in the first place.
An Obama official once remarked, "If you want to make an omelet, you have to crack a few eggs." The "eggs" that got "cracked" in that case were U.S. Border Patrol agents who were killed by Mexican drug cartels with gun illegally sold to them by the Obama administration.
Looks like another egg got cracked, this time in response to New York City government raising taxes on cigarettes, creating a whole new group of criminals who tried to evade those taxes. This "egg" was named Eric Garner.
Oops. Oh, well.
The NYC govt wanted to make an omelet, protecting people from their own faults (smoking cigarettes). Hope they enjoy it.
And not even packs of them. Individual cigarettes. ("Loosies")
WTF? Why was he even doing that? And why was it a crime?
Answer: Because New York City had hugely increased TAXES on cigarettes. So much that the city had nearly tripled the price on them.
In a low-tax state like North Carolina, cigarettes can be bought for $5 a pack.
In New York City, the same cigarettes are anywhere from $11 to $15 a pack.
Garner's "crime"? He hadn't paid those extra taxes.
Unsurprisingly, NYC's crushing taxes created a huge black market. People like Eric Garner regularly drive down to North Carolina, load up on $5/pack cigarettes, come back to NYC, and sell them for "only" $8 or $9.
NYC's government had driven prices so artificially high, that Eric Garner even sold individual cigarettes. Because many people couldn't afford even a single, whole pack. Or he did, until NYC's police killed him.
Used to be, that government only made laws to protect people's rights. That was their whole job.
But more recently, big-government liberals have decided that government's job was to save people from their own mistakes, whether they were violating anybody else's rights or not. Places like New York City have gone so far off the rails, they even made laws against selling soft drinks that were "too large".
And they have a law that you are forbidden to sell a pack of cigarettes for under $10.50.
NYC Mayor DiBlasio issued an edict not long ago, telling NYPD cops to crack down on those terrifying hardened criminals who were selling individual cigarettes. The memo didn't mention exactly how those sellers were violating people's rights, or which rights were being violated. But the local government was missing out on some tax revenue (the taxes that tripled the price of cigarettes). And that could not be tolerated.
Garner had been busted for doing this, a number of times before. Of course, if the govt hadn't hiked taxes to such ridiculous levels, he probably would have never been busted for it at all. Nobody would have bothered to buy North Carolina cigarettes from him, so he never would have gone into business selling them in the first place.
An Obama official once remarked, "If you want to make an omelet, you have to crack a few eggs." The "eggs" that got "cracked" in that case were U.S. Border Patrol agents who were killed by Mexican drug cartels with gun illegally sold to them by the Obama administration.
Looks like another egg got cracked, this time in response to New York City government raising taxes on cigarettes, creating a whole new group of criminals who tried to evade those taxes. This "egg" was named Eric Garner.
Oops. Oh, well.
The NYC govt wanted to make an omelet, protecting people from their own faults (smoking cigarettes). Hope they enjoy it.
