NJ cracks down on state competitors
Posted on March 26th, 2008 by bile Categories and Tags: Uncategorized, asset forfeiture, Bergen, Bernard Duffy, Brian DiGuilmi, Cliffside Park, confiscation, crime, drugs, economics, Emerson, freedom, Freehold Regional High School, gambling, Hasbrouck Heights, Hudson, James J. Skinner, James W. Skinner, Jerry Maietta, John Prato, liberty, Mark Iafelice, Monmouth, New Jersey, North Bergen, North Bergen High School, Ocean, Paul Swibinski, police, police state, politics, prohibition, property, raid, Ralph Marino, Sandy Hook, your rightsA gambling ring that took in $1 million a month in bets was cracked yesterday with the arrest of 45 people, including four reputed associates of the Genovese crime family as well as a high school athletic director and a teacher from another school district.
Authorities also seized more than $5 million, about 5 pounds of marijuana and five vehicles during raids that began at 5 a.m. in Bergen, Hudson, Monmouth and Ocean counties.
The investigation was dubbed “Operation Off-the-Hook,” because two of the alleged leaders of the gambling ring, James W. Skinner, 69, of Allenwood, and his son, James J. Skinner, 40, of Hazlet, lived in towns just south of Sandy Hook, the prosecutor said.
The other ringleaders were identified as Mark Iafelice, 49, of Edgewater; Brian DiGuilmi, 48, of Emerson, and Bernard Duffy, 63, of Hasbrouck Heights. All are charged with racketeering, conspiracy and promoting gambling, which carry penalties of up to 10 years in prison. Molinelli described the Skinners, Iafelice and DiGuilmi as “associates” of the Genovese crime family.
Others arrested included a North Bergen High School athletic director, Jerry Maietta, 37, of North Bergen; a North Bergen school aide, Ralph Marino, 52, of Cliffside Park, and John Prato, 36, of Brick, a teacher at Freehold Regional High School.
North Bergen spokesman Paul Swibinski said, “Certainly everyone is innocent until proven guilty.”
Oh of course: “Innocent until proven guilty.” I’m sure none of their property was taken by force or anything. Really awesome stuff. A pig can murder a woman and maim her child and get max 8 months yet a group of people provide a gambling service and harm no one face up to 10 years.
10 Responses to “NJ cracks down on state competitors”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
March 27th, 2008 at 12:39 pm
I think your argument loses some effectiveness when you use the term "pig".
March 27th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
How about fucking douche bag? He murdered someone who was holding their infant son. They posed no threat to him. They invaded their home because the man sold some kids some joints? Even if the boyfriend had done something violent it in no way excuses the SWAT member. These people harmed no one. This gang of hired guns took part in the property infringement, maiming and murder willingly… "pig" is hardly an appropriately harsh term for such a person.
March 27th, 2008 at 2:34 pm
If you will indulge me, and you are welcome not to, why did you write this blog post?
March 27th, 2008 at 2:45 pm
Are you really unable to see the comparison I made here? 8 months for murder, 10 years for providing a service people wanted, which harmed no one. As if they don’t provide the very same service. Two stories back to back… I think it was a worthy and appropriately made comparison.
March 27th, 2008 at 3:18 pm
I’m not saying I disagree with you. All I’m saying is I think your argument lost some effectiveness when you used the term "pig".
I’m wondering why you wrote the blog post. There are several situations in which using the term pig is understandable, but I don’t think you run this blog for those reasons.
March 27th, 2008 at 3:30 pm
The man is a "pig." He’s worse than a "pig." I’m not making some grand argument here. I don’t think calling an admitted murderer a pig is all that damaging to my point. Even if it is I really don’t give a shit. If someone is not able to understand that the only important part of that sentence was that a murder will get max 8 months and a gambling ring runner will get 10 years and that’s seriously fucked up then you aren’t worth my time.
March 27th, 2008 at 3:37 pm
Thank you for answering my question. Your position is now clearer to me.
March 28th, 2008 at 11:54 am
Bosco, correct me if I’m wrong, but I think what you are getting at is that using the value judgment "pig" or "saint" or whatever makes the reporting come off more subjective. But I totally concur that peppering in some emotional hyperbole is appropriate, especially in a blog medium.
March 29th, 2008 at 11:03 am
invisipunk: you are correct that it makes things come off more subjective and that it may be appropriate in a blog medium. I’m more concerned with the purpose of this blog and determining whether or not the language helps reach that goal. When I write stuff, I usually have one of two intentions. I either want to clarify my own thoughts or I want to educate and inform others. If I’m aiming to educate I usually steer clear of words that may cause people to stop reading, or that others deem overtly offensive. Unless of course I’m using them to illustrate a point. Bile informed me that he doesn’t care about the kind of people who would be put-off by the usage of the word because they are stupid. That’s fine, I understand that. To me those are the people I want to reach out to the most because they are the ones who really need to hear this stuff.
March 29th, 2008 at 1:57 pm
Why not read what I actually said? I didn’t say stupid. I said if your morals are such that you can’t understand why "pig" is appropriate or understand the 8 months for murder vs 10 years for gambling thing then they are not worth my time. I’m not a remedial morals teacher. If you want to sit those people down and hope to change their beliefs go for it. I’ve got more reasonable people to work on. "Pig" is a very well know term for bad cops. Most people would consider a cop who murdered a young mother and maimed her child a bad one. Therefore the usage is both understandable and justifiable. Those people who don’t get that, who shut down because of "pig" being used to describe an appropriately bad cop… is not worth my energy. There are are more reasonable individuals out there who understand that the situation is fucked and will be far easier to educate and inform. I’d really like you to quantify this belief that people will just stop reading when they see something like that. I can point to cable news and talk radio to show that people in fact get a kick out of inflammatory talk. Just spend some time reading the comments of news blogs… see what stories get the most posts. Check out sites like Stuff White People Like.
This blog, like the millions of others, is mainly for venting. I’m not here to recreate the millions of books and videos and other media which are already available covering all aspects of my beliefs. I provide links to plenty of educational media. Blogs are a median to combine sources of info with commentary… otherwise what’s the point? There are thousands of libertarian blogs which cover these very same stories. If anyone comes to this site on any regular basis it’s not because of the source content but the commentary and/or the mix.