What a waste of resources. I could leave my house at noon and come back by 5pm and legally buy some bud, go play table games, bet on my Bucs, play my numbers, hang out with naked women while being served alcohol, and go get a cash advance and it's all legal! The feds need to go tackle real problems. They're still cracking down on gambling? The Fuck?
I agree 1,000,000%...but the government are a bunch of lazy jerk-offs who know its easier (and makes bigger headlines) to bust a bunch of middle-aged and elderly Italian guys with funny nicknames who don't attack police or shoot at them as they make arrests, than it is to investigate and go after REAL dangerous criminals like armed robbers, rapists, muggers, wanton murderers, terrorists, and nut jobs.
The cops and feds like it nice and easy. Smooth and silk, and they look like hero's for taking down bookies, gamblers, and shylocks. It's a very fucked up judicial system to say the least....but thats nothing new. It's been that way since the alleged "Mafia" came on the scene.
You are so amazingly full of shit on so many levels it's crazy.
If you think gambling should be OK (like me) then call these RATS just what they are. THEY were the ones ratting on people and setting up busts. They are not victims. They're Snitches. Total scumbag assholes.
I don't "think" gambling "SHOULD" be legal. It "IS" legal, in nearly every town and city in America nowadays as Bensonhurst pointed out in his post. The fact that there was a corrupt policemen who worked hand-in-glove with these guys warning them about impending police investigations while targeting their competitors for arrest doesn't take away from that fact.
The New York City Police Department, the FBI, Nassau and Suffolk County Police Departments, and so many other law enforcement agencies across America spend WAY TOO MUCH time and energy, investigative resources, and taxpayer dollars essentially going after "gamblers" instead of targeting dangerous violent crimes (again as Bensonhurst so succinctly pointed out).
Why is that you ask? The answer is twofold. #1: Law enforcement does that because it is "sexy" to go after the Italian Mob and it garners them major newspaper headlines and greatly helps to boost their careers for higher promotions within the department (all self-serving bullshit). #2: Now that the government is "in the same business," our good-ole "Uncle Sam" doesn't want the competition that they view Cosa Nostra to be. So why not "knock out" the competition so the government can better control the "playing field" so to speak. And what better way to do that than to arrest and imprison competing gamblers under the guise that so-called "ILLEGAL" gambling is bad, while "LEGAL" gambling is good? Lol
It's a very classic case of "Do as I say, don't do as I do!"
PS: On another note, the utilizing of policemen to do their "dirty deeds" of knocking out the competition by "ratting" out their competitors is nothing new. All across America since the Prohibition Era of the 1920s there have been certain gangsters who would use this tactic.
Is it right? Do I agree with it? Definitely not! But it's nothing new thats for shit sure. History is replete with instances of mob guys bribing cops to knock out rival alcohol stills and gambling joints, while those same hoods enjoyed a certain indemnity from arrest and prosecution. Chicago, NYC, Philadelphia, etc., all had "illegal alliances with corrupt cops and law enforcement."
Classically New York's "Irish Mob," certain elements of the so-called "Arsenal Gang" were known for that. Under the auspices of Hugh Mulligan (who I just did an extensive bio on only weeks ago), they had tight-alliances with half of NYC's Police Force back in the 1940s-1960s era. Mulligan ran a huge bribery "pad" that paid off dozens of corrupt policemen monthly for decades to protect his gambling operations while asking them to "raid" the gambling establishments of his competitors. Thats another well known documented fact.
