New York State Blotto & Lotto.

This post contains part six and seven in a series of posts on Crime & Punishment in New York State.

BLOTTO! When the going gets tough, Tuffey gets going, but will Glenn Goord?

It’s time for Glenn Goord, the Commissioner of the New York State Department of Correctional Services (DOCS), to adopt a tough anti-alcohol policy for his department, similar to the one Jim Tuffey (also spelled Tuffy by the local media) just adopted for the Albany Police Department. (Indeed, we recommend that this policy be adopted by all law enforcement agencies within New York State.)

After years of problems with officers drinking before going to work, Tuffey’s new policy is simple. Officers cannot consume any alcohol within eight hours of reporting for duty.

DOCS has been plagued by the same alcohol problems that Albany’s PD has. Goord recently admitted to drinking and driving while on duty, although he was not legally drunk. Or so he says, since he was never administered a breathalyzer test when pulled over for talking on his cell phone while driving.

A DOCS corrections officer was arrested just a couple of weeks ago for killing a girl while driving drunk.

DOCS officials spend hours hanging out at OTB and Duffy’s Tavern in Albany. You can bet they aren’t drinking lemonade there.

If Goord is lacking Tuffey‘s manhood and cannot make the policy change, then maybe he needs to step down.

LOTTO! Corruption in the Schenectady PD? You betcha!

Just as it was being announced that Michael F. Hamilton, Jr., one of the Schenectady gang of four corrupt cops sent to prison in 2002, is to be released on June 18, we find out that Schenectady police detective, Christopher Maher is under investigation for telling a gambling friend that two bookies were under electronic surveillance. The friend then passed the information on to the bookies.

If Hamilton did what he is alleged to have done, then he deserves discipline.

But there is another story here.

WHEN ARE WE GOING TO STOP ARRESTING PEOPLE FOR BEING BOOKIES, WHEN THE STATE RUNS THE BIGGEST BOOKIE OPERATION IN NEW YORK STATE?

The state either should shut down the lottery and OTB or open up the gambling business to all who wish to participate. Except for Native Americans, New York State has a monopoly on gambling.

Gambling is the only vice that is legal for the state to make money from, but illegal for everyone else.

There are no state run whore houses and no state run crack houses.

And the state is a merciless bookie compared to the illegal bookie.

Every little store in Amsterdam used to have its backroom where gambling took place. An old timer told me that if a man lost his whole paycheck to a bookie, his wife could appeal to the bookie. The bookie would give the wife all of her husband’s money back, and then her husband was blacklisted by that bookie.

See if New York State will do that for you, the next time your spouse spends the grocery money on lottery tickets?

And the idea of lottery money going to pay for education is a joke. It’s the other way around. Many parents are spending money that should go into the bank for their children’s college on the lottery.

Stop the hypocrisy now!