I don't think they're going to send anyone to jail over it - they're just going to keep increasing the age restriction on buying them each year, so that it'll never be legally possible to buy them in a shop for people born in a certain year.
Maybe so, Will (re: "I don't think they're going to send anyone to jail over it."), but we are talking about the USA, a country in which you are arrested for driving on a suspended driver's license or for not having a driver's license) or arrested for "reckless driving" - which in an ever-increasing number of states, includes driving 10 or more miles per hour over the speed limit on ANY road, including Interstate Highways. I find it to be absolutely criminal on the cop's part to actually arrest someone for driving 80 mph in a 70 mph speed limit zone on a 16 lane Interstate highway. That's petty, awful and I highly doubt a scenario that lawmakers had in mind when drafting the reckless driving legislation.
Another example of extremely overzealous police misinterpreting the spirit of a law -- arresting people for extremely petty and ridiculous reasons - like the very sad and tragic case where an older black man was selling loose cigarettes (buying a pack of 20 cigarettes for ~$14.00/pack, then selling them one at a time for $1.00 each), police observed him selling a single cigarette for $1.00, then approached the defendant to arrest him, a scuffle ensued between several cops and the 300+ pound defendant, then one of the cops placed the defendant in a chokehold, the defendant could be heard 10+ times saying "I can't breathe" as they all hit the ground, cops ignored his pleas and ended up
killing murdering the man -- all over a single stupid cigarette he sold for $1.00.
The transaction was illegal primarily because the defendant was not registered to collect sales tax and did not charge and collect the ~11¢ sales tax.
[The New York City cop] D’Amico erroneously charged [defendant] Garner with a tax-avoidance felony that normally applies to people in possession of at least 10,000 cigarettes, 22,000 cigars, or more than 400 pounds of tobacco.
After his death, [defendant/victim] Garner was found to possess four sealed packs of cigarettes, and a fifth pack that was opened and contained 15 cigarettes [meaning he likely sold 5 loose cigarettes]. That quantity of cigarettes was far fewer than required by the felony statute D’Amico cited in his report. Under state law, Garner could not have been guilty of more than a misdemeanor.
“This was your job, to address untaxed cigarette conditions, and you didn’t understand the charge?” asked Oliver.
“I didn’t understand the specific charge,” replied D’Amico.
He [the cop] said he mistakenly accused Garner of the felony because he was stressed.
“That was a total mistake,” D’Amico explained of the charge. “Due to the circumstances, I wasn’t thinking clearly. I may have rushed the paperwork a bit."
The officer then admitted to another error in his paperwork. D’Amico wrote that cops had used no physical force to arrest Garner.
NYPD cop admits filing report after Eric Garner chokehold death claiming his sale of loose cigarettes was a felony was ‘total mistake’
The hell the cop made a simple mistake by stating that no physical force to arrest Garner was used. That was no mistake. That was admitted to/said
after the cop learned that there was a full video/audio recording of the police first assaulting Garner, then murdering him.
So the murdering cop was 'stressed' "due to the circumstances" (what circumstances, I wonder?), the cop was not thinking clearly, and he states to superiors that he MAY HAVE rushed the paperwork a bit -- so much so that he charged the defendant with a felony instead of a misdemeanor? I can't even believe the sale of 1 loose cigarette would rise to the level of a misdemeanor. I don't even think the sale of a 'loosie' cigarette rises to the level of a traffic ticket, yet whatever breach of the law it was was good enough for him to get the death penalty as punishment. As I recall, I am reasonably certain that NYPD had outlawed the use of chokeholds by this time due to their often lethal outcome.
Obviously, the now-deceased defendant was 9,999 cigarettes short of the intended 'spirit of the law'/average/minimum for the upgrade from a misdemeanor to a felony to apply. What the hell were all of the cops present thinking that day when they individually then collectively decided to arrest this 'bad actor'?
Unfortunately, police in this country are well known to stoop to levels way and well below those of just about every other country on Earth, whether the other country has a "western style" of law enforcement or not. WHY this is the case is unknown to me, but stats tell us that the USA locks up more people than any other country on the planet, assuming level population playing fields.
That is the level at which
some asinine, stupid cops stoop to - just to make an arrest, which is why I firmly believe that
some cops (very, very few) would actually arrest someone caught smoking or possessing a cigarette once possessing or smoking cigarettes is someday banned.
I agree with you, Will, that an arrest would in general be very highly unlikely, but the USA's history of stupid, moronic arrests by all levels of sworn law enforcement personnel says otherwise. These cops defy logic.
NYPD cop admits filing report after Eric Garner chokehold death claiming his sale of loose cigarettes was a felony was ‘total mistake’
John
