Eric Gardner's Crime: Selling Illegal Cigarettes Funds Mafias and Even Muslim Terrorists...

Reaganite Republican ^ | 04 December 2014 | Reaganite Republican

[Reaganite Republican]

A textbook example of unintended consequences is provided by the heavy cigarette taxes levied in some US states-- each sets its own rate, and they vary wildly:
Missouri's state cigarette tax is 17 cents. It's $4.35 in New York...

Thus, the ATF says the federal gub'ment loses $5 billion in tax revenue every year from the trafficking of illegal cigarettes. Worldwide, it's a $100 billion problem, and it's the No. 1 economic crime in Europe.

Couldn't be any simpler:

cigarettes are purchased by organized crime types in a low-tax state,
who then truck them in for sale back in a high tax state. Most of the delta is pure profit for the smugglers.

A carton of cigarettes in Virginia is $30, but in New York City or other high-tax states, it can be $90 or more. That's just one carton.

One 18-wheeler full can quickly translate into $1 million in cash. And it all couldn't happen without people like Eric Gardner on the retail end.

Rand Paul thinks the high taxes on cigs in NY state can be blamed for the death of Eric Gardner, who was killed by a chokehold while resisting arrest for selling illegal smokes on the street.

Well, Paul's got a point about the effectiveness and fairness of 
(highly regressive) 'sin' taxes, but HEY, I thought libertarians were all-into personal responsibility? 

What about his fault for doing business with the mafia... or worse?

Of course, the crime has long been a revenue source for the Italian/Russian mafias in this country. BUT these days the $ is so big, the perps range from gangs to terrorist groups.
There are cases of illegal cigarette sales with ties to groups like Hezbollah and the Irish Republican Army.

One example would be the Charlotte Hezbollah case, where a
(radical, Islamist) cell out of Lebanon was trafficking cigarettes from
North Carolina (low-tax) to Michigan (high-tax).

They were using the proceeds to buy military armaments in Lebanon.

Did Gardner deserve to die for his illegal sales, like Rand Paul thinks he did? 

Of course not... but that ain't what killed him, resisting arrest is. 

Don't get physical with a cop, and nobody gets hurt (or killed). Capeche?
And perhaps not breaking the law in the first place would be good for one's health, as well.

[molson209]

His Family smells Money now ,$75 Million worth

[TexasFreeper2009]

Black Proglodytes and their Racially Stockholm Syndromed White serfs all willingly suffer from Black Libtardation Mythology Psychosis...These unstable, feral imbeciles should ALL be heavily dosed with Lithium, and carted off to Obamacare’s Soylent Green Cracker Company

[Reaganite Republican]

***ping***

[dfwgator]

That’s what happens when you don’t give the cops their cut of the action.

[MUDDOG]

A carton of cigarettes in Virginia is $30, but in New York City or other high-tax states, it can be $90 or more. That's just one carton.

Used to get a carton for less than $2 in NC in the 1960s.

[Vinnie]

I haven’t seen it determined where Garner got the cigarettes.
IMO the police went waaaay over the line in his arrest. What happened to Tasers?

[Reaganite Republican]

Of course- they hit the lotto

Makes you sick- attack a cop and set up your kids for life (or at least until they blow it all in the stupidest ways possible).

[JRandomFreeper]

Paying taxes supports the shakedown racket known a 'government'.

/johnny

[Reaganite Republican]

I paid $9.35 for a pack in Manhattan, and that was 8 years ago

(note: quit 6 years ago)

[Tijeras_Slim]

I think Eric Gardner was funding Eric Gardner.

[MUDDOG]

Prices like that make a grown man holler!

[Sacajaweau]

The guy has a history of “crimes” according to one article I read.

[Reaganite Republican]

Or quit...

[NorthMountain]

Your $2.00 (baseline: 1960) carton of smokes should, by inflation, cost $16.04 today. Looks like the real price of cigs has approximately doubled.

[PGR88]

The nanny state bans and controls everything - selling individual cigarettes, 20 oz sodas, lard for frying. When everything is controlled, everything you do is potentially illegal. Eric Garner was killed by a random, bureaucratic nanny-welfare state and one of its thousands of ridiculous rules.

When the cost of a pack of cigarettes vs. taxes paid make the potential profit $5 per pack, criminals of every sort will get involved. No different from prohibition

[Vendome]

New York taxes, on cigs, created the market.

I pay $7 buck in California for a pack.

But, New York thinks they are worth double?

I just bring my own, when going to Manhattan and if there were a more reasonable outlet to purchase them, you bet I’d shop there.

Even if it was on a street corner.

[Reaganite Republican]

“Paying taxes supports the shakedown racket known a ‘government’.”
____________________________________________________________________

I’m with you in principle but even I would rather it go to DC than Hezbollah!

[DoodleDawg]

Eric Gardner's Crime: Selling Illegal Cigarettes Funds Mafias and Even Muslim Terrorists...

OK so this is by far the craziest reason I've seen trying to justify the killing of Gardner. Now he had to die to keep money from the Mafia and Muslim terrorists?

[JRandomFreeper]

A shakedown racket is a shakedown racket. DC just has nicer suits.

/johnny