The smoking ban at NY parks, beaches and other public areas took effect Monday. Technically, smokers now face a $50 fine but newspaper reports say the cops are just spreading news of the law by issuing warnings — for now. The law has received a lot of media coverage, but none of the stories I’ve read have answered the basic questions that pop up in my head.
1. The city justifies the ban on public health grounds that are clearly mistaken. There is no decent science that suggests any link between outdoor smoking and the health of non-smokers. Can the law thus be challenged in court? If the premise for a law is demonstrated to be wrong, does the law go away?
2. What established limits, if any, are there on the city’s right to regulate conduct on city-owned land? Presumably the First Amendment would prevent it from banning people from denouncing city government on city property, but could a mayor who really disliked hearing people sing in public ban that? Could the city ban smelly people from public property and, if not, how can it ban smokers? Smelly people are at least as annoying but neither group does any provable harm.
3. How does this law deal with people who refuse to cooperate? How, for example, will the cops give a ticket to smokers who claim to have no ID or decline to provide said ID? Walking the streets is not like driving a car. You’re not required to have ID at all times. Will they arrest people who can provide no ID, haul them down to stations and keep them there until someone comes to the station and furnishes ID? If so, they’ll be committing several hours of police time to dealing with an infraction so minor that it carries a penalty that’s just one tenth as high as the littering fine.