NYC officials caught up in pay-to-play gun licensing scandal… the Second Amendment only applies to those with the right political connections
02/08/2019 / By JD Heyes
Americans may think they get fed up with ‘divided government’ — when one party controls Congress and the other party controls the White House, or vice versa — but the alternative, which is uni-party government, is worse.
In a uni-party system, where there is no serious opposition, the party with the power is never held accountable. And when its members aren’t held accountable, corruption becomes rampant. As the old saying goes, power corrupts but absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Take New York City, for example. Like most major cities, it’s controlled by Democrats and, in fact, has been for a number of years. The Democrat Party machine has not only taken over the governor’s mansion, known as Gracie Mansion (the official residence of the NYC mayor — currently socialist Democrat Bill DeBlasio), but also NY City Hall and most all of the boroughs, with a few exceptions.
Politically speaking, it’s a pretty sweet deal. It’s an arrangement that allows the party to make up rules as it goes along. Like, for instance, who is “allowed” to enjoy their Second Amendment rights and who isn’t.
As reported by the New York Daily News, Charlene Gayle, a well-connected Brooklyn real estate agent, set up what were called “de Blasio specials” with privileged ‘clients’ — easy peasy gun permits via the NYPD’s “corrupt license division in early 2014,” the paper reported, citing multiple sources.
The paper reported that Gayle was given “VIP treatment” when she accompanied members of NYC’s Jewish Orthodox community as they sought gun permits so they could better protect and defend themselves against potential threats, even as ordinary New Yorkers were either routinely denied similar permits or never bothered to apply because they knew they probably couldn’t get one thanks to NYC’s grotesquely restrictive gun laws. (Related: Recent concealed-carry study shows that relaxing carry laws does not increase violent crime.)
A former NYPD lieutenant, Paul Dean, told prosecutors that the permissively corrupt licensing environment was, in effect, sanctioned by former Police Commissioner Bill Bratton, the Daily News reported in a separate story last month. Some of those who allegedly received special consideration, Dean said, included former NYC resident and now-President Donald Trump, Donald Trump, Jr., the president’s former personal lawyer Michael Cohen, and an unidentified associate of de Blasio.
Reforms are badly needed — even the NRA agrees
According to Dean’s attorney, his supervisor told the lieutenant, “This person takes care of Mayor de Blasio and in return, we are supposed to take care of this person.”
The Daily News reported further:
Sources identified the businesswoman as Gayle, a longtime donor to de Blasio who served on his 2014 inauguration team. She is currently on the board of advisers to the Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City.
It is unclear if Gayle’s alleged role in arranging the upgrades was improper. A spokesman for Manhattan Federal prosecutors declined comment. Gayle did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Dean discussed what was happening at the licensing division over three meetings with federal investigators in 2017, the paper said. He added that ex-Sgt. David Villanueva, another License Division employee, also told the Feds about Gayle.
In April 2017, the NRA reported on its website that the corruption was a sure sign that reforms are needed within the NYPD, mostly because it is ripe for abuse.
“New York City has an incredibly onerous handgun licensing scheme. Under this may-issue regime, law enforcement is granted wide discretion to grant or deny a license. Applicants can be denied for something as simple as ‘a poor driving history,’ or as vague as any ‘other good cause,’” the gun rights group noted.
“The process is also expensive. Applicants must pay a $340.00 application fee and an $89.75 fingerprinting fee.”
It’s bad enough that Democrats are the party of gun control; it’s worse when the party is so corrupt it denies those rights to ordinary Americans while reserving them for friends, allies, and ‘protected’ classes.
But that’s what happens when no one is around to hold Democrats responsible.
Read more about Democrat Party corruption at Corruption.news.
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Tagged Under: big government, Bill DeBlasio, concealed carry, corruption, Democratic Party, democrats, federal investigators, gun control, gun permit, gun rights, guns, Handgun, License Division, New York, New York City, NYC mayor, NYPD, politically connected, President Trump, Second Amendment
