Senator arrested; Large town mayor as well; others investigated.

[Gumboy]

This story caught my attention earlier, it seems to be flying under the radar quite a bit on the national news; I agree that it is more pertinent to the areas they are representing, but this type of spurt of arrests seems to warrant some attention, especially in this case:

http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-y...,3801978.story


The main part sticking out for me is this:

"For instance, he is accused of seeking an official state Senate proclamation in the spring of 2013 praising the Ghee Kung Tong Freemason lodge in San Francisco. Yee sought the proclamation, according to the court complaint, in exchange for a $6,800 donation to one of his campaigns — a donation that was paid by an undercover FBI agent."

Which leads to this:

"The organized crime figure known as Shrimp Boy, whose name is Raymond Chow, identifies himself as the "dragon head" of that Freemason organization on his Facebook page. The indictment says that Chow, 54, whose criminal history includes racketeering and robbery, has a position of "supreme authority" in the Triad, an international organized crime group."

It seems incredibly sordid to be involved with someone of that nature, especially given the crimes that Mr. Chow has committed over the years, and now he is involved with a senator.

From http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/201...ss-california/

"The charges against Yee include conspiracy to deal firearms without a license, conspiracy to illegally transport firearms, six counts of a scheme to defraud citizens on his services, and wire fraud. A handcuffed and shackled Lee was released on a $500,000 unsecured bond Wednesday evening and was scheduled to return to court Monday to revisit the terms of his release."

"In exchange for campaign contributions, according to the affidavit, Yee would "facilitate a meeting with the arms dealer" so that the donor could buy a large number of weapons. The firearms would be imported through a port in Newark, N.J. At one meeting, the affidavit said, Yee and the prospective donor discussed "details of the specific types of weapons.""

Those are some incredibly serious charges, (And quite hypocriticial; Mr. Yee is quite Anti-Gun)



Others recently arrested included the Mayor of Charlotte: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/charlott...ption-charges/

And an article talking about several more that were all raided on the same day: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/...-three-states/


I personally am happy to see the FBI doing there job, I am sure there is a LOT more of this crap going on and it would be great to root it out. It sounds like this could go pretty deep, both parties up to no good.

[Deleted]

Corruption is like gangreen, cut of the limb that is infected.

[Vizardlorde]

I know this is completely random but when i saw "especially given the crimes that Mr. Chow has committed over the years, and now he is involved with a senator." I immediately thought of Lesley Chow from the hangover lol.

[Wilian]

There's forms of corruption that are still illegal in US? O.o

[Gumboy]

There's forms of corruption that are still illegal in US? O.o

I know, it came as a shock to me as well :P

Not sure why this is being basically ignored by everyone, from the media on down. Maybe it just seems like a big deal but it isn't?

[Reeve]

I know, it came as a shock to me as well :P

Not sure why this is being basically ignored by everyone, from the media on down. Maybe it just seems like a big deal but it isn't?

Ignored? It's been front page on Google News for like the last 2 days, with tons of major news outlets carrying the story.

It's important to point out, by the way, that Mr. Yee is a state senator, not a US senator.

[Denkou]

Ignored? It's been front page on Google News for like the last 2 days, with tons of major news outlets carrying the story.

It's important to point out, by the way, that Mr. Yee is a state senator, not a US senator.

^this, state senator and US senator is a pretty big difference

Also, this is all I see on the news where I live at least, so people around here all know about it.

[Gumboy]

Ignored? It's been front page on Google News for like the last 2 days, with tons of major news outlets carrying the story.

It's important to point out, by the way, that Mr. Yee is a state senator, not a US senator.

Hm not sure why its not really showing anywhere for me, I saw it as like a tiny byline on some obscure website.

It is still a pretty big deal, considering he was trying to become the sec. state of a very large, important state while doing shinanigans such as this.

[Tierbook]

isn't he the third big Democrat arrested since January 1st?

[Twotonsteak]

This story is full of so much irony.

However...

...this IS largely a "local" story as Yee is a state-level senator.

There are plenty of national problems to be concerned with. The corruption of one state senator is, well, really only worth one or two mentions and that's about it.

[Deleted]

The best part about this is that the state senator was a very prominent figure for gun grabbers within California and the rest of the country.

[Anyael]

It's just really hard for me to get behind any anti-government conspiracy theories. They are so bad at the things that they were designed to do, it would honestly shock me if they were not utterly incompetent at everything else.

Yeah, some senators may have shady dealings on the side. Hell, it could be a bunch of them. In fact, all of our senators were probably bought out. But I think that just proves their incompetence, and that we have no dark conspiracies to worry about.

[Deleted]

Fucking genius.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/gregorym...-north-africa/

Leland Yee, a California state senator who campaigned against guns and violent video games, is alleged to have led a conspiracy that would send funds to individuals who had no problem, in his words, “kidnapping individuals, killing individuals and extorting them for ransom.” In exchange for those funds, guns would be imported into the U.S. and distributed to unknown individuals in North Africa and Italy.

[Payday]

isn't he the third big Democrat arrested since January 1st?

Who were the other two big democrats?

[karspearhollow]

Charlotte's not a large town - it's a city. 17th largest in the US. But anyway

I'm sad that what's driving the conversation is apparently the fact that Cannon is a Democrat... people are less interested in the issue of a corrupt mayor than they are in slinging mud at parties. Though I do agree that it's a little strange that that CBS piece doesn't identify him as a Democrat, every comment is about it? Losing sight of the larger issue, aren't we? Not that I don't think most liberals would act similarly if he had been a Republican.

I haven't followed Charlotte politics since I moved out of the city last year, so I can't say I'm really up on the issue. Terrible press for a city and state that I love, though. And bad, I think, for the city in general.. now they go through the transition of bringing in a new administration, in addition to the fact that this guy's whole record will be getting combed for a long time. And in the meantime, everything else that the mayor's office has a hand in gets bogged down.

[Gumboy]

Charlotte's not a large town - it's a city. 17th largest in the US. But anyway

I'm sad that what's driving the conversation is apparently the fact that Cannon is a Democrat... people are less interested in the issue of a corrupt mayor than they are in slinging mud at parties. Though I do agree that it's a little strange that that CBS piece doesn't identify him as a Democrat, every comment is about it? Losing sight of the larger issue, aren't we? Not that I don't think most liberals would act similarly if he had been a Republican.

I haven't followed Charlotte politics since I moved out of the city last year, so I can't say I'm really up on the issue. Terrible press for a city and state that I love, though. And bad, I think, for the city in general.. now they go through the transition of bringing in a new administration, in addition to the fact that this guy's whole record will be getting combed for a long time. And in the meantime, everything else that the mayor's office has a hand in gets bogged down.

Well, in my OP I did not mention the political affiliation of anyone. Frankly I don't care what side someone is on, a scumbag is a scumbag.

- - - Updated - - -

Fucking genius.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/gregorym...-north-africa/

Leland Yee, a California state senator who campaigned against guns and violent video games, is alleged to have led a conspiracy that would send funds to individuals who had no problem, in his words, “kidnapping individuals, killing individuals and extorting them for ransom.” In exchange for those funds, guns would be imported into the U.S. and distributed to unknown individuals in North Africa and Italy.

Ugh that is so, so bad.

ALso a bit of humor in all of this, from that article: "would send money to the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (M.I.L.F.)" The acronym for there terrorist org. is "MILF"?

[Noomz]

The comedy of it all is quite good.

[ugotownd]

Who were the other two big democrats?

Democrat arrests

[Payday]

Democrat arrests

Hey! It's u go to wnd!

“It’s like they’ve been doing this for years under the cover of darkness and everything else in a way that is perhaps saving the country.”

Limbaugh speculated that the Democratic Party itself was behind this rash of stings in order to “take out all their bad apples before the next election.”

He asked: “It really is hard to believe that the FBI would be working against the wishes of the [Obama] regime, isn’t it?”

Yes, it really is hard to believe that. Why can't you people just take a good news story and publish it? Everything has to be a conspiracy..

[ugotownd]

Hey! It's u go to wnd!



Yes, it really is hard to believe that. Why can't you people just take a good news story and publish it? Everything has to be a conspiracy..

Thats actually pretty funny. I never go there I just searched on yahoo and that was the first link that had the other people listed.