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Anti-Game-Violence Legislator Arrested, Faces Gun Trafficking Charges

Posted by Soulskill on from the should-have-stayed-home-and-played-GTA dept.

Several readers sent word that California State Senator Leland Yee was arrested today. He's accused of conspiring to traffic guns and commit wire fraud, to defraud citizens of honest services, and bribery. The complant (PDF) also names 25 other defendants. Yee is known for pushing legislation that would ban the sale of violent video games to minors. "Federal prosecutors also allege Yee agreed to perform official acts in exchange for the money, including one instance in which he introduced a businessman to state legislators who had significant influence over pending medical marijuana legislation. In exchange, the businessman -- who was actually an undercover FBI agent -- agreed to donate thousands to Yee's campaign fund, according to the indictment. The indictment also describes an August 2013 exchange in which [former school board president Keith Jackson] told an undercover officer that Yee had an arms trafficking contact. Jackson allegedly said Yee could facilitate a meeting for a donation."

11 of 234 comments (clear)

  1. Well actually he's pretty solidly anti-gun too. by Noishkel · · Score: 5, Informative

    There for a while he was pushing for a ban on a bit of a work around that 'gun-nuts' in California came up with to get around it's ban on so called 'Assault Weapons' A weird little device called a bullet button that makes it so that the magazine in a firearm can't be easier removed. Pretty clever work around for a completely asinine law.

    1. Re:Well actually he's pretty solidly anti-gun too. by NotQuiteReal · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Well, yeah... making stuff illegal makes it more profitable, e.g. See "drug trade".

      --
      This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
    2. Re:Well actually he's pretty solidly anti-gun too. by Immerman · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Great, so you're not a drug addict. Congratulations. Neither am I. But I nonetheless have a serious problem with the ridiculous expenditures on police and prisons, not to mention the militarization of the police force and increasingly invasive anti-drug measures being taken around the country. All of which is a direct consequence of the asinine and completely ineffective "war on drugs". That money comes straight out of my taxes, and could be spent on so many more socially productive endeavors. And it's my rights that are being potentially trampled on when police in military assault gear march on peaceful protestors, or kick in the wrong door in the middle of the night and start shooting.

      --
      --- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
    3. Re:Well actually he's pretty solidly anti-gun too. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      All freedom should be important to everyone. I'm not a drug user either, not even alcohol, but the war on drugs is anything but. It is a war on victims and it is destroying our neighbor Mexico.

    4. Re:Well actually he's pretty solidly anti-gun too. by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 5, Informative

      Could we please stop with the endless pro-drug commentary? Not all of us are drug addicts, and it's tiresome when people like yourself have to bring up drug issues in nearly every thread. I know it's important to you, but normal people don't care about such matters.

      You don't have to give a damn about drugs, pro or con, to admit that they are a useful example to bring up in the context of the effect of prohibition on the available margins in a given market.

      If you prefer a classier example, from a (not actually more civilized; but definitely better dressed) age; we can talk about booze. Same effects were seen under the Volstead act.

    5. Re:Well actually he's pretty solidly anti-gun too. by jcr · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It makes perfect sense that a smuggler wants to outlaw whatever he's smuggling. The cocaine cartels don't want drug legalization either.

      -jcr

      --
      The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
    6. Re:Well actually he's pretty solidly anti-gun too. by Kirth · · Score: 5, Insightful

      > Could we please stop with the endless pro-drug commentary?

      It's not "pro-drug". It's "anti-prohibition".

      --
      "The more prohibitions there are, The poorer the people will be" -- Lao Tse
  2. What party was that again... by SuperKendall · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Rule of thumb:

    If it don't have a letter,
    It's a Democrat matter

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    1. Re:What party was that again... by shizzle · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Try again. The summary says nothing about party affiliation. The linked article in the LA Times says nothing about party affiliation. I looked at the top seven articles from a google search on "senator yee", and none mention his affiliation in the headline, while only three mention it within the first two paragraphs. Three others mention it near the bottom of the article (interestingly, all in the form of a transition sentence like "Yee's arrest would make him the third Democratic state senator fighting charges this year", leading into a discussion of other Democrats in trouble), and one (from CBS, not the LA Times one again) doesn't mention it at all.

      Show me a similar sampling of articles on a Republican corruption case where the party affiliation is not mentioned at or near the top of the article in anything approaching half the examples, and then we can talk.

      Again, you throw around the term "lie" pretty loosely. Ahem indeed.

  3. Prohibition keeps the competition down. by Ungrounded+Lightning · · Score: 5, Insightful

    [Parent poster talks of ONE of his many anti-gun (i.e. anti-gun-in-private-hands) projects.]

    Prohibition of something means the illegal providers of it have less competition and can thus sell for a higher price. So it's very convenient for those sellers. Thus, for instance, drug lords are just fine with keeping the drug laws strong and complex, and opposed to legalization of their product (which would put them in competition with efficient conglomerates who could compete the pants off them).

    (Incidentially: I suspect Yee's opposition to video games was a spinoff of his antigun agenda.)

    By the way: Pro-gunners are celebrating tonight. (The call from a friend a few hours ago with the news made both my wife my own day. B-) )

    --
    Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
  4. Re:Of course marijuana is involved. by Applehu+Akbar · · Score: 5, Interesting

    If you want to make anything and crime go hand in hand, make that thing illegal. This has worked more times than there are rivets on the underside of your bridge.