{"id":15868,"date":"2017-04-25T12:32:53","date_gmt":"2017-04-25T17:32:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sportsfirings.com\/?p=15868"},"modified":"2017-04-25T12:39:23","modified_gmt":"2017-04-25T17:39:23","slug":"new-york-new-york-its-a-hell-of-a-town","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sportsfirings.com\/?p=15868","title":{"rendered":"New York, New York, it’s a hell of a town…"},"content":{"rendered":"

..the cops are crooks and the gun dealers are too. The mimes are food for the bums underground!<\/a> New York, New York!<\/p>\n

(Sorry, had to shoehorn that in somewhere.)<\/p>\n

Anyway, more indictments in the NYC bribes for gun licenses scandal. NYT<\/strong> version here<\/a>, but I prefer the NYPost<\/strong> version<\/a> Mike the Musicologist sent me.<\/p>\n

Paul Dean and Robert Espinel, worked in the NYPD\u2019s Licensing Division before retiring, and allegedly approved permits for kickbacks including cash \u201cfood, alcohol, parties, dancers and prostitutes\u201d from gun expediters, the newly unsealed complaint says.<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So, wait. The cops were being bribed with hookers? Because I’m thinking, if I’m a crooked cop, I can just go out, flash my badge, and get my own hookers. But maybe there’s less risk of an IA investigation if you let someone else procure the hookers for you. Trade offs.<\/p>\n

Dunn and Espinel…<\/p>\n

…allegedly accepted bribes and kickbacks from gun expediters, including Gaetano \u201cGuy\u201d Valastro, 58, a retired detective who owns firearms store Valastro International Tactical Academy in Queens and is also charged in the scandal.<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Should I feel bad for Valastro? On the one hand, he’s a party to a massive scheme to shake down citizens for exercising their rights. On the other hand, he’s trying to run a gun store in Queens: can you blame him if he felt like he had to go along to get along? On the gripping hand, he’s a retired cop who decided to run a gun store in Queens, instead of someplace in free America.<\/p>\n

In a separate complaint, also unsealed Tuesday, a fourth man, John Chambers \u2014 the former prosecutor who calls himself the \u201cTop Firearms Licensing Attorney in New York\u201d on his website touting his legal services \u2014 allegedly bribed NYPD Sgt. David Villanueva, 43, with Broadway shows, tickets to sports game and an $8,000 Paul Picot watch to expedite gun licenses, sometimes as quickly as a day.<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Here’s that website for you.<\/a> Note the URL. I wonder how much that cost him.<\/p>\n

(Also: someone please tell me the “Broadway shows” Villanueva got tickets for included “Hamilton”.)<\/p>\n

Have to go back to work now. Will update later if I see any more revolting developments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

..the cops are crooks and the gun dealers are too. The mimes are food for the bums underground! New York, New York! (Sorry, had to shoehorn that in somewhere.) Anyway, more indictments in the NYC bribes for gun licenses scandal. NYT version here, but I prefer the NYPost version Mike the Musicologist sent me. Paul […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[105,3,23,163],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cops","category-guns","category-law","category-nypd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsfirings.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsfirings.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsfirings.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsfirings.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsfirings.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15868"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsfirings.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15868\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15871,"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsfirings.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15868\/revisions\/15871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsfirings.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsfirings.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sportsfirings.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}