Playing gangster a ridiculous choice for politicians

By Patrick Tamayo

The Guardsman

Rights and freedoms of Americans continue to be taken away and changed in the name of safety or whatever other façade the government decides to spin with their public relations.

Luckily for us, terror suspects and random other groups aside, we are still innocent until proven guilty. Well, in most cases anyway.

With the population continuously increasing, and with the abundance of problems mounting not only locally but worldwide, one of the last things people should have to be worried about are wolves in sheep’s clothing.

A federal investigation may have very well exposed such a wolf, after state Sen. Leland Yee was arrested on March 26 on weapons trafficking and corruption charges.

According to an affidavit filed by San Francisco’s U.S. District Court, the former City College student and his co-defendants “were involved in a conspiracy to traffic firearms.” Yee was also charged with six counts of scheming to defraud citizens of honest services.

Yee is out on bail and technically innocent until proven guilty. Details of the investigation have continued to emerge and allegations of Yee’s role continue to all but end his political career.

As more information comes to light, it appears that evidence against Yee goes back years and involves taped conversations with people who ended up being undercover federal agents.

With all of the political smoke and mirrors in play the wolf will likely have to sleep in the bed he’s made all by himself, as political allies wasted no time in distancing themselves.

“The allegations against Senator Yee are shocking. It has become clear he has lost the confidence of his colleagues and for the good of his constituents should step down,” Sen. Dianne Feinstein said in a released statement.

You see, after Feinstein, Yee has probably been the biggest backer in the state of additional gun control legislation, going so far as to co-writing a bill that would require new semiautomatic handguns to be equipped with micro-stamping, a ballistic identification technology that would identify the gun from which a bullet was fired.

If the federal government’s allegations turn out to be true, Yee, while championing for stronger gun control laws and putting on the guise of working for the people of San Mateo County and parts of San Francisco, was also putting countless lives of people everywhere at risk with his involvement in shady gun deals.

Yee was arrested along with 25 others, including several with ties to criminal organizations.

It comes as no shock when gang members commit crimes. After all, you can’t blame a snake for biting you because, well, that’s what snakes do.

However, the shock, shame and disappointment that is felt when the first Chinese American elected to the California State Senate ultimately turns his back on the people who trusted him to make a difference makes the sheep’s clothing difficult to conceal the wolf.

Yee has already made the decision, or has been pressured or forced, to withdraw from the secretary of state race.

On March 28, Lee was suspended, along with two other members who are now having to deal with their own bribery and corruption and perjury and voter fraud charges by the state Senate. It was the first time that a vote to suspend Senate members has occurred.

With Yee being termed out at the end of the year anyway, and his secretary of state ambitions being driven off course, he will likely have to wear the clothing of goat, as he becomes the poster boy for everything that is bad with politicians.

If, in fact, an elected official as well-known as Yee was playing gangster in sketchy meetings at coffee shops with undercover agents, as recounted in the federal indictment, there are conjectural reasons to believe how far corruption may run.

How many other wolves are running around fooling the flock while fattening themselves up on the very constituents who were taken in by the mockery of government?

According to an October 2013 press release, Yee said, “California’s Assault Weapons Ban has protected the public for decades. … We must work to make sure that it is capable of dealing with new threats that face California.”

Yee apparently did not consider himself a threat, as he allegedly told an undercover agent how much money they could make while inquiring about the agent’s desire for automatic weapons. He also did not forget to mention his preference of not going to jail.

It’s difficult to fathom how far allegations like this might run, but it should come as no surprise as our very own government recently participated in their very own questionable gun investigation that likely didn’t end up exactly as it had been drawn up.

Operation Fast and Furious, which was run by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives allowed for thousands of weapons to make their way into Mexico in an attempt to follow them all the way into the hands of high-level cartel members.

Great plan. However, along the way, they managed to lose hundreds of the weapons, which ultimately ended up in the hands of criminals who used the hardware to commit murders throughout Mexico, including the slaying of a border patrol agent.

It’s not far-fetched to see that—just like the government attempting to take away freedoms in the name of safety, while playing fast and loose with thousands of guns they eventually lost the majority of—Yee’s dog-and-pony gun control show was likely just a cover for his alleged gun-brokering shenanigans.

It becomes harder and harder to show support for candidates or elected officials when they feel as though they should be held to different standards.

With this kind of delusion from our elected officials, it’s no wonder the wolves of our world feel it is okay to abuse the power granted to them by the people who voted them into office. Allegedly.