NYC Can't Help Itself From 'Butting' In...

If there's a group of people in America that we love to perpetually screw with, it's Native Americans. We moved in, stole their land, and sent them off to live in our most undesirable of locations across the country, totally dependent on the country that f'ed them over in the first place. 'I AM FROM THE GOVERNMENT, AND I AM HERE TO HELP'.... Yeah, right. There is no finer example of this than in Long Island. There were 11 tribes here before Europeans came, and the Indian influence is everywhere still: Massapequa, Quogue, Nissequogue, Peconic, Montauk, Amagansett, Sachem, Mastic. All these towns are named after Indian tribes. All that is left now are the Shinnecocks stuck out at the Poospatuck Reservation near the Hamptons.

The Shinnecocks are like the Lumbee Tribe in North Carolina - they're not federally recognized, so they can't organize for gaming , like the other tribes do, and they can't get loans on their property, because banks aren't allowed to foreclose on tribal land - and if you can't take it, you can't borrow on it. All they have are tax-free cigarettes. Problem is, they are only able to sell them to each other tax-free. Of course, some retailers ignored that, and the word was always around that if you went to the Shinnecock Reservation, you could get cigarettes cheap. No small deal here, where a pack of Marlboro's go for about $7 a pack..... I shit you not...

Like I said, word got out about the tax-free butts, and a local store was prosecuted for it. The ironic part is who sued them. It wasn't Suffolk County, where the tribe is located. Nope, it was The City of New York - about 75 miles to the west! NYC felt that they were losing millions of dollars in revenue - as they termed it - and sued the Mom and Pop store. Were they really losing that much? No way. People don't drive 75 miles each way to save $20 bucks on a carton of generic Kools....

So, how did this all happen? My guess is someone from the city went to the Hamptons once, found out about the deal, anf accidentally blabbed it to some jerkoff at Consumer Affairs or the DA's office. Suffolk County never made a move , or even joined in on the suit, but NYC was more than happy to 'protect their consumers' by making them pay the tax. 'I AM FROM THE GOVERNMENT, AND I AM HERE TO HELP'...

.