Bar Owner Blames Smoking Ban For Rape

The Denver Channel ^ | March 15, 2004 | The Associated Press.

[qam1]

PUEBLO, Colo. -- A Pueblo bar owner says the smoking ban that forced his female employee outside is directly responsible for her rape.

When the woman went outside the Irish Brew Pub for a cigarette break last month, a 33-year-old man attacked her, dragged her into an alley and raped her.

Owner Ted Calantino says people like his employee wouldn't be exposing themselves to dangerous situations if it weren't for the recent smoking ban.

City Councilman Bill Sova says it's inappropriate to blame the ban. He says it should be Calantino's responsibility to ensure his employees and patrons are safe.

That could mean hiring more security and putting up more outdoor lighting.

The two men have been butting heads over the smoking ban since it became an issue.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

OK. Smoking bans are stupid. But the rape is the fault of the rapist.

Bingo. We could also blame her employer for not paying her enough that she could afford to buy a gun to defend herself.

This is really stretching it.

[Moonman62]

You smokers will be happy to know that CA is now going to ban smoking ON THEIR BEACHES. I saw some clown from the Lung Assoc. on TV today - stating second hand smoke "falls" back down to earth and "poisons" the air of non-smokers, thereby putting them in serious danger!

If it wasn't so idiotic and absurd it'd be laughable.

That is laughable, because the bans on the beaches have more to do with the butts that the pigs leave behind.

[reg45]

If the female employee had been carrying a gun, would there have been a rape?

[E Rocc]

Councilman Bill Sova who is VERY anti-smoking suggested that if the bar owner is "unhappy" then maybe the council should look into starting to close the bars!

Perhaps the voters should look into ending some council careers.

-Eric

[E Rocc]

This sounds like a good issue for the "O'Reilly Factor."

I dunno, he seems to like nanny state laws.

I think some guy was killed in NYC a few months ago due to the smoking ban. And now this...

Yeah, a bouncer got knifed trying to enforce it. With Bloomberg's stupid laws, if the smoke police find someone smoking in an NYC bar they don't cite the smoker they cite the bar. So the employees this is supposed to be "protecting" are stuck enforcing it.

-Eric

[CSM]

From your own profile:

"To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors, is sinful and tyrannical." --Thomas Jefferson: Statute of Religious Freedom, 1779

Seems to me you should go and review your own profile!

[CSM]

Yep, she deserved it! She should know that just because she is a woman she had it coming. Or is it because she is a smoker? Wake up! You are as evil as the rapist!

[verity]

Actually, her nicotine habit was responsible for the rape!

[Conspiracy Guy]

Take your childish insensitive remarks someplace else. Whether you agree or disagree with smoking bans is not the point of your remark. Rape is serious and not a subject for some snot-nosed moron to make light of.

[international american]

Amen, brother!!

[Conspiracy Guy]

Popped in but leaving again. Happy Birthday.

[international american]

Thanks, CG

[Old Professer]

A woman, whether she be puffing away on a Marlboro or scanning the skies for the big dipper outside a bar alone at night makes a mighty tempting target for a nutcase; more than likely, the guy was stalking her.

[citizen]

...here in Washington, the state announced it is going to ban smoking in all 12 of its state prisons

That's utterly insane....where's the ACLU when there's real injustice?

[Core_Conservative]

What ever happened to the Police and the Cities responsibilites? I thought that's a couple of the reasons we pay taxes - to "be protected" by our government.

[citizen]

Sure enough the perp was an Illegal, a crime the Liberals choose to ignore. So what if the Illegal is a rapist felon?

Alejandro Sanchez-Villanueva, a 33-year-old illegal immigrant from Mexico, was arrested in connection with the crime at about 1:15 a.m. on Feb. 4. Police found the victim lying in the alley with Sanchez nearby, his pants hanging below his waist, according to an arrest affidavit by Pueblo police officer Jeremy Mathews.

OTOH, the smoking ban must be strictly enforced.

This idiot Councilman SOva blames the bar/bar owner for the rape, not the Illegal or his unconstitutional (IMO) ordinance.

[citizen]

oreilly@foxnews.com

[citizen]

OK, I just emailed an excerpt from the article from THE PUEBLO CHIEFTAIN to O'Reilly, along with the articles web address.

[af_vet_1981]

a 33-year-old man attacked her, dragged her into an alley and raped her.

Interruption ...

Find the perp. Give him a fair trial and a fast hanging.

Resume smoking ban debate (I am antiSmoke) ...

[Humidston]

>>the bans on the beaches have more to do with the butts that the pigs leave behind.<<

Umm, I beg to differ. The man, a representative of the American Lung Assoc., specifically made the pronouncement that the second hand smoke from the beach "drops" down out of the air and infects innocent victims.

Yes, cigarette butts were mentioned, but that doesn't cancel out his moronic proclamation about second hand smoke dropping from the sky.

I saw him on TV and I stand behind my statement that he's a moron.