Don't you just hate it when you try to get arrested and the police won't comply?

;)

The smoking ban ordinance was reviewed by Atty. Andrew Salzman, the City Attorney and was approved for passage according to his interpretation of the entire ordinance, not just the section quoted in the article. Several other beach cities have similar ordinances. A legal challenge might be interesting, but even if successful might only postpone the inevitable. Tossing a butt is still littering and is subject to a fine of about $150. Until the state law is changed, if necessary, the fine should curtail smoking on the beach. Whether we like it or not, the dangers and nuisance of public area smoking are so significant that the people through their government have spoken.

At the last city council meeting Hastings scolded the chief for not focusing on litter violations. It must be hard to enforce the “no smoking” if the police are busy busting the hardened criminal litter violators. How many police officers look forward to talking about the number of litter and/or no smoking tickets they wrote that day? I am hoping ZERO.

I am sure this article is putting a smile of the face of ''John E''...anyone remember him? Dare I even say his name or he may magically appear...gulp...I tremble at the thought of that troublemaker.

The following quote from this article caught my attention:
"It takes people to stand up for something that they believe in.''

That was a quote from one of the ''smokers''. Until ''non-smokers'' (ban supporters, etc...whatever you want to call us) stand up to smokers, they can't complain if the smoker's get thier way. You may make an enemy along the way. Oh well...how big of a loss will that be?

As a ''citizen'' you have to do what is necessary to make sure the ban is honored by the police and also contribute help on getting the State issues solved. Write your Mayors, State Representatives, Police Chief, Judges, etc, etc and ''fight'' for the ban...like these violators are doing. Fight back.Bring it on. This ''ESPECIALLY'' means that if 2 or more people (so you have another witness) view a violator...they need to call the police and follow through ''COMPLETELY'' assisting to prosecuting the violator. Go to court. Mandatory bond, towing and/or impouding vehicles...whatever wroks...but ''fight'' for your cause. Hit violators in the wallet. That's what they to to the rest of us, by creating all the clean-up after them.

OK...the police stood by and let the protesters have thier protest.

Now let's see some tickets written. Cars towed. Bond set. Haul some people off to jail...even lawyers.

The protestors had the opportunity to speak out against the ban. Those days , for this phase of the agument, are over. They lost. The ban was put into effect by the people we voted into office.

The State law debate is going to be fought and won and bans will stand. Sooner or later. The smokers days of rampant disregard of others are numbered.

I will say this: I used to be a smoker. I smoked as much as anyone. If i wanted to smoke, nothing was going to stop me. Not bans, not signs..nothing. ''But'' I chose my place and time to smoke wherever I wanted to. I certainly did not smoke in a way that would challege a police officer or created attention from others. For smokers to get away with flagrant violations right in front of people, and where signs are posted..is unacceptable.

If we are going to have the bans, the signs, etc for smoking and littering..then let's start seeing tickets and arrests...or take the signs down.

The protestors are not protestors..they are violators of the law.

Arrest them.

Let the dumb smokers go somewhere else to spread deadly cancer, may they all die from cancer, how stupid are tese people anyway??? They want to use the beach as a giant ash tray, they want to spread cancer to non smokers when in fact they are all killing themselves slowly, too bad they all just don't die and go away.....

City Attorney Salzman has stated numerous times that the city laws of Gulfport supersede both the Florida Constitution and the United States Constitution, and as long as citizens refuse to do anything about it, those interpretations will continue. If it takes people willing to go to court to challenge Gulfport codes as UNCONSTITUTIONAL then I think they should. Chief Vincent made the right decision to not cite those in violation of the city code, so as to keep the issue out of court where both the city's time and money would be wasted.

Like I sai before let the DUMB ASS SMOKERS go somewhere else if they want to kill themselves slowly, the kids and adults should not have to breath in smoke at the beach or any place there should be a law state wide to ban smoking everywhere. They (the dumb ass smokers) should be cited.....for smoking at the beach, good going Gulfport for enforcing the ban, while your at it you should make it legal to smoke pot too....... this town is becoming one big joke.... kid of like the wild west No Laws, and people do what they want to, drinking while walking around and smoking when and where they want to, no wonder it's becoming a dead end town....... drunks, bums, and no one cares if they kill people with second hand smoke...... and less and less tourist and more businesses going out of business... rename it to DEAD END. Chief Vincent is a poor leader, if there is a ban on something then cite those who break the ban.... or fire him and hire someone who will impose all bans here .....simple. I can honestly say now I am ashamed to admit I live here, no art galleries here, no chain restaurants, no tourist want to come here to spend money and no class.

You gotta watch those ones with Phil in thier names..they are all rascals. Like John E..well maybe not that bad.

CJ - Thanks for the friendly commensts. My best friend is a smoker...and a former medic - so he knows wht he's doing to his health - he's already on the "puffers" for medication. I don't preach to him...and yes - I can sit down to a meal and a drink with him....BUT - there are times I won't go visit him because I don't feel like hanging around his smoke-filled house. He understands me as I do him. He visits me - he smokes outside. I visit hm - I go outside for fresh air...LOL

Mr. Fish- please don't confuse your personal vendetta regarding property code enforcement issues with the ordinance that bans smoking and how that came about. Readers- It is best to watch the video of the meeting and listen to Mr. Salzman's comments and judge for yourself.

http://www.mygulfport.us/City_Meetings/Videos/2011/100411RegularCouncil.html

This fight by smokers is silly. If you want to smoke at the beach, there is nothing that is going to stop you...just give up trying to smoke at the beach when others are around. Speeding laws don't stop speeders from speeding..but they are fools to be too flagrant about it in many situations..such as around cops and people with cell phones. Same goes for smokers. Cell phones certainly put a stop to people like me when I was a teenager over 40 years ago..when racing cars around and burning tires was rampant. Cell phones broke me of that..and they can bust smokes just as easy.

I told you fools months ago it was against the statelaw and now youve got a lawyer leading a revolt............I also said gulfport would never issue any fines or tickets for fear of being sued in court. The signs are up and the damage has been done,its time to sue the city over their beack and parks ban as its always been against state law.........But poor gulfport smokefree nazis just may have to give back all their stimulus grant money they got for passing the ban!

Current state law:

This legislation expressly preempts regulation of smoking to the state and supersedes any municipal or county ordinance on the subject".:

Sarasota and gulfport along with other communities are in clear violation of state law!

Nord Med. 1994;109(4):121-5.
[Environmental somatization syndrome. How to deal with the external milieu syndrome?].
[Article in Swedish]
Nilsson CG, Göthe CJ, Molin C.
SourceMed Rehabiliteringskliniken, Huddinge Sjukhus.

Abstract
Somatization is a tendency to experience and communicate psychogenic distress in the form of somatic symptoms and to seek medical help for them. Patients suffering from environmental somatization syndrome (ESS) consider their symptoms to be caused by exposure to chemical or physical components of the external environment or by ergonomic stress at work. ESS is distinguished by mental contagiousness and a tendency to cluster. Sometimes it explodes in wide-spread epidemics that may be escalated by mass-media campaigns. Extensive ESS epidemics have been connected to, i.a., arsenic, carbon monoxide ("generator gas poisoning"), mercury ("oral galvanism"), carbon-free copy papers, electromagnetic fields ("electric allergy") and repetitive movements ("repetition strain injury", RSI). The typical patient directs the interest on the external environment, refuses alternative explanations of his symptoms and abhors any suggestion of a psychogenic etiology.

Don't worry or celebrate too much ''JackE''...alias ''JohnE'' and many other identities. It does not matter how we get you, but we will get you. Even the State law issue will soon be settled in favor of non-smokers. It may be true that Florida has not yet taken care of this detour, but other states have , and Florida will soon also. It is just a matter of a little more time. Hogwash only goes so far because the pig is always still dirty. That is the beauty and irony of littering laws and bans right beside smoking laws and bans...they go hand in hand. The beauty part is that it does not matter if you get busted for smoking or not..or whether there is any present enforceaqble law or not...but you can certainly get busted for littering. The irony part is that smokers would likely not have ''anywhere near as many issues with non-smokers'' if they were not also disgusting liter bugs.

JackE..try this one: anyEnamedjackorjohn@iscrazy.org

Instead of beating this dead horse and repeating everything that has been repeatedly repeated...so to speak....let's just let the people that actually walk the walk do what they need to do - let the smokers smoke on the beach and let the law react. It will work itself out.
Posting here is nothing but posing and bickering

And just a summary of my opinions for those interested:

Do I think Gulfport needs a smoking ban on the beach? No.

Do I think Gulfport needs a litter ban on the beach enforced? Yes

Do I think cigarettes are bad for one's health? Absolutely.

I'm stating this to make my opinions clear - not to engage in an forum flame tournament.
Been there, done that, it's boring and a waste of bandwidth.

Philip Penrose/Gulfport

The Patch is a public forum.

Even though it is the ''Gulfport Patch''..it is still not the private blog for Gulfport Council members and Citizens. Perhaps there is a private Gulfport blog that only has only select, approved, people on it so those people can only hear what they want to hear?

The Patch is also for amusement.

If you back down from the protestors in person or in blogs, then they think they have won...and in acuality...it does provide them with some degree victory. Look at the protestors..see what they got a away with? Sure...they were all behaved..smoking thier pipes and cigars and cigs that day and being sure to not throw anything on the ground...but you can be sure they could not wait to get somehwere so they could simply throw thier nasty litter on the ground again.

JohnE, JackE, Gulfport citizen...anyone on these blogs that try and build thier support for smoking needs stood up to or you hand the ball to them.

''Forum flame tournament''? Uh..what is new about that...and it is obviously not short of contestants? ''Engaging'' is the essense of what a blog is all about. The middle of the road is the worse place to stand and nothings works out very well there.

Phillip hefty debate lets others know whats going on,those stooping to name calling are the ones at guilt here. Ive provided much needed information about the junk science surrounding the shs/ets agenda. water vapor and air how so much hate can be directed at a few burning leaves in a indoor or outdoor venue is just unreal,mythology at its best!

I have to get back to work..if I stick around any longer we will start to hear how J..bs..E is ex Navy, an Astronaut (although he is out there), pro diver, etc, etc, etc...yawn...

CJ - Understand NONE of my comments were directed to you...they were just in general.
By the way - I am innocent of nothing! ;)

Dear mtober!

Perhaps you should read the above mention Florida Statute and see that the protestors are right, The city does not have the authority to pass smoking laws. Litter yes. Smoking no. So once again the city attorney has led the city council astray and in all probability the ordinance will be found in violation of Florida Statutes and declared null and void, if the city chooses to defend it. In all probability they will since its a few extra bucks for the attorneys, they would most likely lose in court. But if the city council wants to say they have hometown rule on this issue. The courts will decide. And the citizens and the city budget will lose. Read the whole Florida Statute 386 regarding Tobacco.

Every point you make is valid until the Statute is changed. This same tactic has been used in other States to slow down the smoking bans until sooner or later they will pass laws that ''will '' stick. It still does not make the present laws useless, though. It will not be cheap for people to fight these tickets. Even if they win..which they very well may...it could end up being ''very'' expensive for them..and the city will still make money. The smokers will win the battle, but lose the war. Even if a smoking ban violator is a lawyer himself, it will be costly to him with his own time. This make these laws a very strong deterant. Personally, I don't expect to see a lot of people getting tickets for smoking unless they are trying very hard to do so. Littering, though, is different. There will be tickets for littering...and they are possibly going to cost violators a lot more than just the amount of the fines if they use a lawyer, time off work, etc. Let's not forget. It is not just smokers that are littering. the other litter is really terrible also. I think the focus is smokers litter is letting the other litter bugs off the hook too much.. Boy...would I just love to see more of these people who thrown entire fast foods bags out on the ground ticketed and/or arrested.

It's obviously very selfish for anyone to smoke near other people, whether it be on the beach, in the street or anywhere else at that matter. Tobacco kills people. Second hand smoke is worse then first hand.People who smoke know this but they do what they do anyway. If your allergic to honey, am i going to put honey in your tea? It's not right to be passive about hurting other people. People that don't have compassion for the well being and health of other people (especially children) are not very nice people. In other words, if you want to hurt yourself that's fine but at least have enough compassion to not hurt others in the process. Very selfish and prideful to do otherwise.

Trying to legislate common decency simply doesn't work. I am a (pipe) smoker. I never smoke indoors and I always make certain that my smoking doesn't offend anyone around me no matter where I choose to smoke. That alone should be sufficient!