When Crack Came To Chicago (Washington, Time: sales, purchases, gangs)

[Motion]

This is an article from 1991. It talks about the impact that crack cocaine had once it made it's way into the city.

Unlike drug distribution networks in New York, Washington and other cities with fairly diffuse trafficking systems, the network in Chicago has traditionally been tightly run by a group of major street gangs who enjoyed a longstanding monopoly on drug sales and were not inclined to introduce or -- allow anyone else to introduce -- a volatile new product they could not easily control, criminologists say.

The pact between street gangs, whether formal or tacit, made it more difficult for small-time outsiders to infiltrate the market with crack, a drug that lends itself to independent sales because customers make more frequent purchases of smaller amounts than they do with other drugs. But the agreement did not keep it out for good. No one is certain who was the first to bring crack into Chicago, but now that it has arrived, distributors large and small are angling for their slice.

Crack Hits Chicago, Along With a Wave of Killing - NYTimes.com

[Motion]

Did crack play a part in causing more chicago gangs to break up into the cliques we hear about now?

[Alacran]

No.

[emathias]

Much of the history of the crack "epidemic" has had to be re-written due to a better understanding both of crack itself and of what other socioeconomic forces were in play at the time crack first hit the market. I wouldn't use an article from the mainstream press that's over two decades old as a starting point for learning about the drug trade and it's relationship with a city and the criminal element.

[Motion]

Originally Posted by emathias

I wouldn't use an article from the mainstream press that's over two decades old as a starting point for learning about the drug trade and it's relationship with a city and the criminal element.

That article was reporting on the impact of crack in the city as it was happening at that time. That's what I found interesting about the article.

[mas23]

you might be on to something b/c this was about the same time that a lot of inter-alliance wars began to unfold. But I'm not sure...

mas23

[LeotheOrangeCat]

Originally Posted by Motion

Did crack play a part in causing more chicago gangs to break up into the cliques we hear about now?

The biggest cause was the success the feds had in prosecuting the gangs' leadership. Once the leadership was gone, the sets became more independent and there was no central authority to impose discipline. Before long, some sets started fighting others. Below is an article from 1995 about the arrest of GD leaders (not long after 1991), Also, the pressure that the federal investigation caused in GD leadership can be seen in the book "Gang Leader for a Day".

39 Gangster Disciples Indicted - Chicago Tribune

[williepotatoes]

Originally Posted by LeotheOrangeCat

The biggest cause was the success the feds had in prosecuting the gangs' leadership. Once the leadership was gone, the sets became more independent and there was no central authority to impose discipline. Before long, some sets started fighting others. Below is an article from 1995 about the arrest of GD leaders (not long after 1991), Also, the pressure that the federal investigation caused in GD leadership can be seen in the book "Gang Leader for a Day".

39 Gangster Disciples Indicted - Chicago Tribune

This pretty much is an unheralded and untold story. The feds have successfully taken out much of the leadership of our mega-gangs. And they did it with same surgical approach that they used to take down the five families of NY back in the '80s and '90s.

[Kingofadam]

The dealers aren't honest, the habit has benefits but a lot of poor people won't find out. The police and government just alienate it just how they alienate the legalizing the 1970 drug inheritance.

[Motion]

Since marijuana legalization is happening in various forms in some states I wonder how legalizing marijuana in Illinois would affect street gang's profits and affect violence since weed is probably their number one drug and a lot of violence is over drug turf?

Curious City: WBEZ answers what would happen to the Chicago gang economy if Illinois legalizes marijuana | WBEZ 91.5 Chicago