WA - Man draws gun, threatens eight-months-pregnant smoker

[wfgodot]

Armed man gets 20 days for threatening pregnant smoker. (Bellingham Herald)

BELLINGHAM - A Sudden Valley man must serve 20 days of jail time for threatening a pregnant woman because she was smoking a cigarette.

Justin Dain Palmer, 25, pulled over his blue Dodge pickup truck to confront the smoking woman around noon Sept. 12, 2012.
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Through the open passenger window, Palmer yelled something to the effect of, "Who the heck smokes when they're pregnant?"

"Obviously," the woman replied, "I do." She was eight months pregnant at the time.

In the heated exchange that followed, he called the woman a "white trash" prostitute, and told her she "better put the smoke out now," according to charging documents.
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She ignored him and kept walking. Then, the woman told police, Palmer pulled out a handgun and pointed it at her from a distance of about 10 feet.
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the rest at link above

 

[Mom who cares]

Good grief

 

[josie1986]

Well he deserves more than 20 days IMO.

Who is he to judge someone else's life choices. I doubt he would like it if someone came up to him and said 'who drives a stupid azz truck like this and pulled a gun on him

Sent from my 'alternate reality' using my hippocampus

 

[txsvicki]

How scary. Twenty days doesn't seem very long for doing such a thing. I once had a man start something with me for tossing a butt out the car window because my husband would have had a fit over smoking in the vehicle if I'd left evidence in the ashtray. I retorted back about his dog hanging out the window unsafely and slobbering all over. Men need to leave women alone and mind their own business because they're probably doing worse things.

 

[Kaliste]

Well he deserves more than 20 days IMO.

Who is he to judge someone else's life choices. I doubt he would like it if someone came up to him and said 'who drives a stupid azz truck like this and pulled a gun on him

Sent from my 'alternate reality' using my hippocampus

While I absolutely would never pull a gun on anyone (and I'm in no way defending his actions) I would judge too. Probably silently but ,yes, I'd be judging a pregnant woman for smoking.

 

[Krisy]

While I agree with him on the smoking while pregnant....it's quite ridiculous that he thinks its okay to threaten her and the baby with a gun.

He is upset she's putting the baby in harms way, and then does it! DUH!

 

[LadyL]

he deserves way more than 20 days
he can't control his rage over a total stranger's bad habit
we'll be reading about him murdering someone in the future and it'll be a minor neighbour disbute or a road rage incident IMO

 

[Ausgirl]

I like being old enough to remember what it was like before everybody became everybody else's police.

 

[Schuby]

Years ago I worked in a cigar store and we also carried a variety of English and European brand cigarettes. One day a young couple came in, the woman of which was European and quite pregnant. She asked if we carried some Euro brand, can't remember which, but we did and she bought a pack. They left and she immediately lit up in front of the store windows. I remember my co-worker shook her head and said, "That really makes me mad." I told her that in Europe it's not as taboo to drink or smoke when pregnant so give her a break, but looking back on it, what I really should have said is, "why?, what has she done to you?" If she had said, "Seeing a pregnant woman smoke makes me worry about the health of the baby," I could get with that. But mad? Get a life.

 

[Gardenlady]

O/t but Schuby I loooove your sig! :wave:

And yeah, this azz needs more than 20 days. Wth?!

 

[Schuby]

Thanks!

 

[jjenny]

Well he deserves more than 20 days IMO.

Who is he to judge someone else's life choices. I doubt he would like it if someone came up to him and said 'who drives a stupid azz truck like this and pulled a gun on him

Sent from my 'alternate reality' using my hippocampus

Smoking is not good during pregnancy. I don't see why one can't judge. I can judge somebody else bad choices.
Of course pulling a gun is going overboard.
But there is a lot of information on smoking and pregnancy. It is harmful to the fetus.
http://www.babycenter.com/0_how-smoking-during-pregnancy-affects-you-and-your-baby_1405720.bc

 

[Schuby]

Smoking is not good during pregnancy. I don't see why one can't judge. I can judge somebody else bad choices.
Of course pulling a gun is going overboard.
But there is a lot of information on smoking and pregnancy. It is harmful to the fetus.
http://www.babycenter.com/0_how-smoking-during-pregnancy-affects-you-and-your-baby_1405720.bc

I don't think anyone here is arguing that smoking while pregnant is medically desirable.

 

[popsicle]

he deserves way more than 20 days
he can't control his rage over a total stranger's bad habit
we'll be reading about him murdering someone in the future and it'll be a minor neighbour disbute or a road rage incident IMO

Or domestic violence.

 

[jjenny]

I don't think anyone here is arguing that smoking while pregnant is medically desirable.

Yea, we are just arguing that nobody should be able to judge someone who smokes while pregnant.

 

[brighidin]

Yikes.
Whatever happened to judging someone silently and then going about your day smugly knowing you are better than 99% of the population.

 

[RoseRed]

Well I guess I an telling my age but' I smoked through two pregnacy's. No one condemrd me in the late 60.s middle 70's. Smoked through both and NOW have a healthy 44 year old Son and a beautiful , healthy 37. year old Daughter. THANK GOD I do not always believe the government theories. My God how are all these 60's and earlier babies living today????????????????

 

[cuffem]

I have seen a book written in the early 50's about pregnancy. It said it was best to let a woman smoke while pregnant because of her bad mood. I think the author was a doctor.

 

[MadamReporter]

When I was in high school I worked at Walgreens. You could buy a pack of Marlboro reds for $1.99+tax. (I'm not THAT old; that was in 1993). A woman that lived across the street from the store came in several times a week to buy cigarettes. When it became obvious to me that she was pregnant I would slip into the office when I would see her walking over to ask for cigarettes because it would make me so upset to have to sell them to her. My manager caught on to me, especially when I was the only cashier on the floor, and I remember having an argument with her over it, with me on the losing end, of course. I thought I was valid in how I felt. I didn't want to be a part of it.

If a pharmacist can refuse to fill an Rx for birth control simply because of their personal beliefs, why can't a cashier refuse to sell an 8-month pregnant woman cigarettes?

 

[MadamReporter]

I have seen a book written in the early 50's about pregnancy. It said it was best to let a woman smoke while pregnant because of her bad mood. I think the author was a doctor.

Didn't they used to also say it was okay to let mothers take doxycycline while pregnant ... until they realized it turned their children's teeth permanently black.