Tribal Defiance

We've been fighting the intransigence of Indian cigarette sellers for over a decade-and the timidity of elected officials who collude with their law breaking-so it comes as no surprise to us that, according to yesterday's NY Post, the Poospatuck Tribe on Long Island, led by Chief Harry Smith, is acting defiantly in the face of NYC's law suit: "The sovereignty of his nation, Smith says, is not in dispute; Bloomberg "needs a reality check. But he got good press out of [this suit], because cigarettes are a demonic product. And he has to deflect the fact that his cronies on Wall Street have f-ed up this economy, and somebody has to take the blame. Why not us brown-skinned people? "We know this suit is going to fail, and he knows it's going to fail. You just can't impose your will by force. It won't work. Even [Governors] Paterson and Spitzer came to realize that. It's much more complex than they initially thought."

It's long past the time to continue the coddling of these miscreants-Indians who aren't even recognized as a tribe by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Here's the Post's description of the tribal milieu: "This is the reservation that houses the eight smoke shops Mayor Bloomberg sued last week, claiming that their sales of untaxed tobacco have cost the city and state nearly $1 billion in revenue. It is hard to reconcile that figure with the abject poverty on display. As recently as 1988, indoor plumbing on the reservation was not common, and potable water was so lacking that Suffolk County set up a pipeline to provide it."

What this all means, friends, is that the "tribal" business is nothing but a criminal racket-run by shady characters who not only deprive the tax payers of significant revenues, but at the same time rip off those tribal members they're supposed to be helping. It's time to take these folks out-and allow the legal retailers to earn a legitimate income.