Senator Leland Yee Arrested On Corruption Charges

[Andy Chalk]

Senator Leland Yee Arrested On Corruption Charges

Leland Yee, the Senator behind California's failed anti-video game law, has been arrested by the FBI and indicted on charges of public corruption.

California Senator Leland Yee has long been a crusader against violence in video games, and was a driving force behind the state law banning the sale of M-rated video games to minors that was ultimately overturned [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/75762-California-Game-Law-Struck-Down] by the Supreme Court of the United States. But now he's headed for a different kind of court, as he's been indicted on charges of public corruption by the FBI.

KCRA.com [http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/local/san_francisco&id=9480515], and a raid was conducted on his office; FBI agents removed computers and documents while California Highway Patrol officers remained stationed outside.

Corruption among public officials isn't something that normally falls on our radar but Yee is an exception thanks to his dogged crusade against violence in video games. In response to the SCOTUS decision to strike down the California video game law, Yee said [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/111315-Leland-Yee-Decries-Supreme-Court-Decision], "Wal-Mart and the videogame industry will continue to make billions of dollars at the expense of our kids' mental health and the safety of our community" and added that the court had "put the interests of corporate America before the interests of our children."

Details of the charges against Yee haven't been revealed, but he's scheduled to be arraigned at 1:30 pm PDT (4:30 pm EDT). We'll update as more information becomes available.

Sources: NBC Bay Area [http://blogs.sfweekly.com/thesnitch/2014/03/sen_leland_yee_arrested_on_bri.php]


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[Imperioratorex Caprae]

Oh how interesting. Deliciously interesting. I love and hate being proven right that politicians are for the most part corrupt scheming jackasses who believe word zero of anything they say and use language only to their own advantage.

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

See, video games have been linked to corruption and bribery. Wheres fox when you need them. lol

 

[King of Asgaard]

he's been indicted

Spoiler

OT: This tickled me to no end. Good to see the guy full of shit getting his just desserts.

 

[synobal]

See, video games have been linked to corruption and bribery. Wheres fox when you need them. lol

Well he's a democrat so fox will be here for certain. Also I'm sure they will some how link this to Obama and get a mention of Benghazi and/or the IRS "scandal" as well.

But this guy is a state senator so he isn't that big of a deal one way or the other. There is bribery and corruption at every level of the government regardless of the political party the only difference between the local state and federal levels is the guys at the federal level have many more legal ways to be bribed and corrupted. If they do mess up they are far more shielded from the consequences as well.

As for his "Hate" on video games I doubt it is real, it's just a hot button social issue that polled well in his district and so he used it to keep his numbers up and or when he went to get reelected. Morals and values are the first thing that goes for politicians, you do what polls best and or gets you the most funding and damn the rest.

 

[Deathfish15]

But think of the children!......the children that go into foster homes thanks to their parents being killed (and/or drug addicted) by these mob figures that this guy is taking corrupt money from. Think of all the laws that have been swept under the rug because they would have interrupted the criminal activities of his money-buddies. Please, please, think of....how funny this is!

 

[rasputin0009]

Huh, how 'bout it, a politician who uses a lame platform of "anti-game violence" to grab voters' attention arrested on corruption charges. Seriously, he doesn't give a fuck if your games are violent or not, he just found a hate-train that old people will vote on. A liar is a liar, and this one has been caught.

You know what would be more hilarious? If he was caught taking bribes for pushing the anti-game violence agenda. Wait, that's totally legal in the States. Never mind.

 

[RA92]

KGO-TV [http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/local/san_francisco&id=9480515] in San Francisco reported that the FBI executed a series of search warrants this morning in a "widespread sweep involving suspected gang members."

Can someone elaborate more on that? Was he involved in gang-related crimes?

Maybe he could be the next GTA protagonist.

 

[CriticalMiss]

He'll never get locked up, he has the best lawyer in all the lands to defend him. Jack Thompson!

 

[Jarl Gullberg]

I bet his defense is going to be "My research led me to play GTAV for one hour, and I suddenly felt an inexplicable desire to jump in cahoots with some gangs. Blame the games!"

 

[UNHchabo]

Leland Yee also tried to ban all magazine-fed rifles under the Assault Weapons Ban, by claiming that the literal text of the law was a "loophole", after getting sick of everyone pointing out that the current ban only affects cosmetic and ergonomic features [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhC8LpHPbRQ].

He also tried to claim that California's ban on Shark Finning [http://www.kpbs.org/news/2011/oct/07/calif-bans-sale-and-posession-shark-fins/] was an attack on Chinese culture.

I'm not sad at all to see him leave office.

 

[Ferisar]

Interesting. Would be interesting to know more details as to the nature of his arrest.

Also confused about all this "man this guy tried to make a policy against games so good thing he gets to go to jail"

There's pretty much zero correlation here Even less so considering I doubt his crime has anything to do with games. (And if it does then this could be easily disregarded)

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

Almost every Senator, Congressman and elected official in the US is corrupt. That's how the good US of A works nowadays. This one was just dumb enough to get caught.

 

[username sucks]

I can't stop laughing about this. As a Califonian, this just made my week. I would have been happy with any politician being caught for corruption, but it's so much better that its this guy.

 

[Tiamat666]

I'm not surprised. I firmly believe that the human mind has a subconscious desire to establish "equilibrium" to perceived personal defects. People who openly talk about sex a lot are usually those who are lacking sexuality in their lives. Same thing applies to money, popularity, etc. Therefore the biggest moralizers are often people that are hiding a few skeletons in their closet.

 

[WhiteTigerShiro]

KGO-TV [http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/local/san_francisco&id=9480515] in San Francisco reported that the FBI executed a series of search warrants this morning in a "widespread sweep involving suspected gang members."

Can someone elaborate more on that? Was he involved in gang-related crimes?

Maybe he could be the next GTA protagonist.

Well if you read more than the first two paragraphs, or at least skimmed them, you'd have seen that the article says that details of the arrest (ie: what he did) haven't been released yet.

 

[RA92]

KGO-TV [http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/local/san_francisco&id=9480515] in San Francisco reported that the FBI executed a series of search warrants this morning in a "widespread sweep involving suspected gang members."

Can someone elaborate more on that? Was he involved in gang-related crimes?

Maybe he could be the next GTA protagonist.

Well if you read more than the first two paragraphs, or at least skimmed them, you'd have seen that the article says that details of the arrest (ie: what he did) haven't been released yet.

Which is why I asked whether anybody can.