A tragedy in the East Village last night:

Bouncer killed in brawl over city's smoking banA brawl broke out after the bouncer, 32-year-old Dana Blake, told two brothers that they were not permitted to smoke in the bar, Guernica on Avenue B. Blake tried to eject them, but one of the brothers pulled out a knife and stabbed him in the stomach, police said. [read all]

Actually, I think it's disingenuous to blame the death directly on the smoking ban, as the victim's brother is quoted as saying in the article. I mean, the perpetrators apparently had a knife and were stupid or hateful or drunk enough to be willing to use it, smoking ban or no. They might have been disorderly enough that they would have been ejected from the club in any event. And who knows exactly how the series of events escalated?

But it's going to be hard not to associate the ban with this murder—a fallacy I'm sure we're going to hear frequently in the coming weeks.