Forget the budget shortfall, homicide rate, and flat education outcomes – the City of Chicago has bigger fish to fry: stinky residents! As Fox News Chicago reports, scented products like perfume might soon be regulated.
Sure, it sounds absurd… but remember this is the city that banned foie gras, taxed bottled water, and regularly entertains regulations on elephants. In a city once known for Al Capone’s excesses, it seems pretty much everything is the City Council’s business these days.
Of course, Chicago’s not the first to consider such a ban; as the article notes, the city of Detroit banned its employees from wearing scented products about two years ago, and there’s a similar law on the table in New Hampshire (yes, the “live free or die” state).
I’m fully sympathetic to people who are “scent”-sitive – I’m one of those people, and regularly gag on the metro when my fellow passengers have been overly generous with the Axe Body Spray. (note to those people: you suck.)
But seriously… is this the highest and best use of the Chicago Police Department? Somehow I doubt that this was what Mayor Emanuel envisioned when he promised to put additional cops on the street.
And for that matter – is a regulation going to fix the problem, anyway? Will a city ordinance truly make grandma think “heck, I should only put on two sprays of Shalimar, because a third one might get me a ticket.” Absolutely not!
The trend of having government step in (at all levels – federal, state, and local) is an infuriating result of the nanny state’s infantilization of America. Can’t this just be a matter that’s worked out between individuals, or informal policies set in offices?