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chalo said:
I hesitate to point out the obvious, but...
...doesn't this point up the folly of drug prohibition? I mean, folks don't shoot each other over matters of beer and cigs at the corner mini-mart!
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Well, as a matter of fact, shootings over cigarettes is not all that unusual (and we, of course, remember Prohibition in the US--a period in which the murder rate doubled from 5 to 10/100,000 then back to 5/100k in the years after Prohibition was repealed)... In this case, especially when New York raised taxes tremendously...
This article is a bit long--but it seems to cover all of the cause and effects whenever our government try's to both do something for our own good, and get a bunch of revenue at the same time...
DEADLY WAR FOR BOOTLEG SMOKES
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NY Post
December 10, 2003
Two people have been murdered and two others shot in separate acts of violence tied to a surge in cigarette bootlegging that has rocked the Big Apple in the aftermath of the whopping cigarette tax hike.
The allure of easy profit - as much as $50 per carton - has drawn to the lucrative illegal cigarette trade a variety of criminals, from Russian thugs in Brighton Beach to gangs in Chinatown to suspects with ties to the terror group Hezbollah, police and federal officials say.
And now the rival factions are setting their beefs with guns and knives:
* Sherwin Henry, 23, who was re-selling cigarettes bought in bulk from a Long Island Indian reservation, was fatally shot in the head on the rooftop of an East New York, Brooklyn, apartment building on Nov. 19.
* Cody Knox 19, was chased down through a crowd and stabbed to death in broad daylight near Brooklyn's Fulton Mall in a cigarette-selling turf dispute.
* A 25-year-old Bronx man, whose name was withheld, was shot at 1304 Miriam Ave. in another turf war.
* Desmond Jordan, 34, was shot twice allegedly by William Giddens, 45, last May 17 in front of 24 Humboldt St. in yet another battle.
"You can liken this to narcotics trafficking; there are people who buy in bulk, then break it down and distribute to stores or to street dealers who sell them by the cigarette," said Garry McCarthy, the NYPD's deputy commissioner for operations.
The NYPD created a unit called the Cigarette Indiction Group (CIG) to deal with the "anticipated" upturn in "buttlegging" immediately after the city passed a $1.50-a-pack tax increase in July 2002 - an extraordinary 1,900 percent jump from 8 cents a pack.
Since then, the six-member CIG unit has made 146 arrests, seized six cars, $250,000 in cash and 30,000 cartons (6 million) cigarettes - and their work does not include the more than 1,000 cigarette-related collars made by the city's patrol cops, McCarthy said.
McCarthy said the lucrative trafficking and the comparatively modest sanctions suggested the schemes could continue, as could the bloodshed.
"Any money-making scheme will branch into violence," he said.
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Do a
Google search on Cigarettes smuggle +shot and see the world wide ramification of this crime (in this case, I am referring to government "sin" taxes).
I don't care if it alcohol, cigarettes, drugs, integrated circuits, Rolex watches, DVD's, gold, magic mushrooms, whatever... Anytime there is a high potential for profit we seem to have the perfect storm of government, bad guys, and innocent bystanders all mixed together.
At some point, the government greed sugar-coated with trying "to save people from themselves" is going to destroy our current civilization... if it hasn't begun already.
-Bill
