Fresh from killing a bill which would protect immigrants from Donald Trump's Deportation Force, because he worried local police departments would lose resources, Nevada State Senate Democratic Leader Aaron Ford crowed that he's working with Sharron Angle pal Don Gustavson as well as Trump-loving Attorney General Adam Laxalt to take resources away from local police departments and school districts on Twiiter.
Senator Ford and Senator Gustavson are working to eliminate the ability of Nevada police Departments to seize assets obtained through criminal means. Last year alone, $3.27 million of local police department funding in Nevada came from asset forfeiture proceedings.
Before anyone gets outraged about police departments seizing property, let's remember that this process is designed to keep criminals like convicted felon, former mobster, and Donald Trump business Partner Joseph "Joey No Socks* Cinque from profiting off of their criminal activities. This law exists to ensure that drug dealers, mobsters, and other racketeers cannot profit off their activities, then use their ill gotten gains to influence the government and continue their cycle of crime.
The Ford-Laxalt-Gustavson bill would benefit racketeers like Joesph "Joey No Socks" Cinque. In 1989, Cinque was sent to prison for dealing stolen art. Last year, Yahoo News described Cinque as an associate of the notorious New York City mob boss and convicted murderer John Gotti,
Cinque’s art stash included two prints by the artist Marc Chagall. He pleaded guilty to felony charges. Anne Heyman, the assistant district attorney who prosecuted the case, told the magazine that the prosecution’s intention was to offer a misdemeanor deal, but that it was rescinded after an informant overheard Cinque in conversation with Gotti . At the time, Gotti headed the Gambino organized crime family, making him one of the most powerful mob bosses in the country. A few years later, in 1992, Gotti received a life sentence for murder and racketeering. He died almost a decade later, in federal prison.
After Cinque was released from prison he partnered with members of the Trump family and close associates of Donald Trump to sell "American Hospitality Association" awards and magazine profiles. The Chicago Tribune also reported on Cinque, and noted he was recently sued for breach of contract:
A decade after that, Trump friend Stewart Rahr, a billionaire pharmaceutical wholesaler, sued Cinque and his organization, saying that they failed to publish a "man of the year" profile of his philanthropic efforts despite being paid a $25,000 fee. A judge ruled Rahr was owed the $25,000.
If any of Cinque's recent activities were found to be illegal, the Ford-Laxalt-Gustavson bill would allow him (and his business partners, the Trumps) to keep their ill-gotten gains because Cinque's American Hospitality Association is incorporated in Nevada.
It's clear that convicted felons like Joseph "Joey No Socks" Cinque are Aaron Ford's political allies. Immigrants with a broken tail light? Not so much.
It remains my hope that either Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson or Mineral County District Attorney Sean Rowe, both front line prosecutors who know that mobsters like Joseph Cinque are a far greater threat to society than immigrants with a broken tail light, will challenge Aaron Ford for Attorney General in next year's Democratic Primary.