Should You Be Fined If You Throw Away Food?

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SEATTLE LIBTARDS PASS LAW TO ASSESS $50 FINES ON FOOD FOUND IN GARBAGE

SEPTEMBER 30, 2014 EDITOR TPP CONSTITUTION, FOURTH AMENDMENT,JUDGE NAPOLITANO, PRIVACY, SEATTLE, WASHINGTON

Just when you think liberals can’t pass any laws that are dumber than those that already exist, they find a way to do it.

Such is the case in Seattle where a new city ordinance allows garbage collectors to assess fines up to $50 if 10% or more of a person’s trash is wasted food.

Let’s talk about some of the problems with this law…

• First of all, sometimes food goes bad and it has to be thrown out because it’s no longer safe to eat. Mold sometimes strikes food just a day or two after being purchased at the grocery store. I have to think this is common in a wet place like Seattle where mold spores are everywhere.

• Secondly, food biodegrades… which is to say, it breaks down naturally in landfills. Are the politicians in Seattle suggesting they want their citizens to throw away more plastics and things that don’t biodegrade?

• Thirdly, there is a law called The Law of Unintended Consequences. It is easy for a person to reduce the percentage of food being disposed of by throwing away more non-food items. Don’t be surprised if the people of Seattle start throwing away more non-food items just to avoid fines.

• Fourthly, is it Constitutional for garbage collectors to go through another person’s garbage? I think not. We have another word for going through a person’s trash: stalking.

• Fifthly, do garbage collectors even have the time or desire to search through garbage before picking it off the curb?

• Fifthly… how does this apply to restaurants where patrons regularly throw out half their meals?

There so many problems with this law that it truly is unbelievable that it passed. Who knew there was such a high concentration of idiot legislators in Seattle?

Judge Napolitano roundly criticized the new law:

[He] said this law should be trashed, because it is unknowable, for example, how much of a partially eaten hamburger remains, making the ordinance almost impossible to enforce.

Judge Nap added a second problem is that officials have no ability to go through a citizen’s garbage, unless they have reason to believe there is evidence of a crime there.

“To pick through a garbage can looking to see how much food is in there? Absolutely prohibited by theFourth Amendment,” Judge Nap said. “The Fourth Amendment covers all privacy, and you have a privacy interest in your garbage, unless the government has probable cause to believe there’s a crime scene there.”

Judge Nap said this is “nanny-stating to the extreme,” adding that Seattle is making Mike Bloomberg look like Ron Paul.

“The subjective nature of going through somebody’s garbage and deciding what’s edible and where it came from makes this law unenforceable,” Judge Nap concluded.

The Constitution has never stood in a liberal’s way before, so why now?