How can a mobster rule a city? (assassin, USA, government)

[ciceropolo]

At their peak of power it was not that they are 'running' many it is that they learned to control choke points and distribution channels in narrow lines of business that they could mask with legitimate business fronts and in turn use strategic constituencies (blocs of vote swaying populations) of recent immigrants (dependency minded) and those ignorant of how systems within which they lived actually worked and purposefully install compromised leaders in the legal, political and law enforcement agencies to stay ahead of their pursuers.

Couple that with 'dead men tell no tales' and for a few generations you can see how in smaller defined geographies that they could wield disproportionate influence.

Note, many of the earliest 'organized criminals' did have their own criminal code of honor which, in some ways, endeared themselves to those lower socio economic populations whom they preyed upon, but whom they 'farmed' effectively. In some areas they served as the local 'law enforcement' and kept order for those who could not get it or were exploited in other ways.

It is much akin to how 'sanctioned' organized criminal governments provide just enough to the animals on the farm and they stay docile. If they show any signs of independent thought outside the constructs made for them, then make them be docile and distracted by a variety of means: saturating and bathing them in a narrative filtered by the predominant mass media, the educational system to undermine critical though processes and keep many heavily medicated or so busy trying to survive and be safe from their more needy neighbors and elements of all types.

It's because the 'many' often don't know who to direct their efforts towards as life becomes more complex. So they chase their tail like a dog made to run in circles by circus performer. Or the many do not have a big enough club / resources to aim in a focused manner.


I hope this helps.

[thedwightguy]

The Chinese refer to it as "GANG GROUP". Any number of people no matter where they operate that you have to deal with: Military and police, the town govt. office, a bureau you have to work your way through. Any crowd of people that work together for their own self interest.

Todays' "Capones" are just a little more slick and usually not so in the open. And they steal billions instead of millions, and do it all legally. Or change the laws to make it legal.

[JONOV]

Originally Posted by ukrkoz

Correct. This is exactly what was meant by "rule".
You basically do as you please, extort, collect, loan shark, whatever, and crowd keeps quiet and pays. Law is either unwilling to interfere or is blind (reasons various) or is corrupt.
Either way, word out in "us, the people" is "don't mess with those guys, you'll get hurt". So crowd complies.
I mean, I get it, in case of a small town somewhere in Wild West times, with mostly gullible folk fearing a bunch of armed desperados. That I do get. A good mob of 20 can easily terrorize several hundred population, that being children, women, cowards and dimwits. That I do see. But Chicago? Not ALL police were corrupt. Not ALL judges. Not ALL agents of this or that. That'd by itself likely add to about the size of say Capone's gang. yet, he basically "stuck it" to the Chicago face for years.

Well, you have to remember that from the top down, the Democratic Machine ran Chicago off and on for many, many years, to a certain extent it still does. You wanted a job in streets and sanitation? In the Fire Department? You better get recommended for it. And, you better stump for your alderman's precinct, sell tickets for the Policeman's ball, etc...

"We don't want nobody that ain't been sent" was the old alderman line. So, simply to get in to these positions, they had to be reasonably sure that you would at least keep quiet and look the other way, if not participate

You don't have to corrupt all the judges...Just the clerk that assigns the cases.

You don't need all corrupt policemen, just the Superintendant, or Chief of Detectives, or Commander (in charge of of one of the 20 something districts in the city.)

Look up William Hanhardt. This allows your hoodlums to operate mostly unmolested, and if your underlings get out of line (don't pay their tribute) the police arrest them.

The corrupt policeman, meanwhile, often has an uncanny knack at solving the crimes the public cries out to solve...Because he gets the tip from his "silent partners." His career may soar and he gets promoted...meanwhile Dudley Doright is assigned a boring beat with no chance to prove himself.

Also, while violent, they provided things the public often wanted, like gambling, liquor, and loans. People needing short term loans didn't have access to payday lenders, credit cards, etc...So they went to the shylocks.

Originally Posted by ukrkoz

Well, though there are many apparently that ruled, posts still do not explain one thing - how is it possible that in civilized world FEW can run so MANY.

You have to remember that these were immigrant, or first generation communities, often distrustful of outsiders, or otherwise unable to call on law enforcement for one reason or another. They didn't know that they didn't have to put up with it. Cosa Nostra came from Italy, where they were used to it. Most people weren't directly affected by it. They were masons or truck drivers or worked in a factory. Corruptions direct effect was separated by a couple of layers.

Also, people, go along with a lot, especially if it doesn't effect them. How were so many otherwise regular German Citizens complacent with the Holocaust?

Finally, there were few truly innocent, separate victims. People who had their knees broken owed money. A guy that was shot was probably not paying street tax. ETC...

[Warszawa]

Originally Posted by aliasfinn

They get cops, politicians and judges on their side.

Exactly. This is how Pablo escobar ruled Medellin. Also he gave out money to the poor that were often ignored by the government to get the city's impoverished inhabitants to his side. He did really well to explot the city's huge economic divide

[Coldjensens]

Depends on definitions. IF you mean a crook with a network of friends paying him off to allow them to steal money fomr the City, Kwame Kilpatrick is a modern example. No indication he ws a crime boss in the mafia sense of the term, but he certinaly headed up a network of criminals.

[SunGrins]

Originally Posted by ukrkoz

Well, though there are many apparently that ruled, posts still do not explain one thing - how is it possible that in civilized world FEW can run so MANY.

If your gang has 400 members, if your gang is based in a fairly lawless neighborhood, if the church looks the other way, if your gang leader is a popular and influential state senator, if the gang is in cahoots with the Police Commissioner to suppress other rival gangs, if the leader's brother is the city magistrate, if you are paid by major business leaders to suppress unions, and if the police force is mahde up of gang member family members....you have a perfect storm. You don't have to control everyone, just the ones that can cause a problem. You essentially have the keys to the city and can shut it down if you want or take what you want. This was Egan's Rats in St. Louis, circa 1900. The city was the fourth largest in the country and gearing up for a World's Fair and Olympics in 1904. The Rats were in the middle of it all robbing banks and and trains, fixing elections, breaking unions, bribing and taking payoffs, and doing what they wanted.

[markg91359]

Capone and other mobsters were successful primarily because of the tactics they employed.

Organized crime generally does not attempt to use violence against public officials. Instead, it co-opts public officials through a system of bribery, favors, and rewards. Chicago policemen supplemented their low incomes by taking bribes to "look the other way" when an illegal shipment of whiskey ended up in their precinct. Every "speak-easy" and bar in Chicago was paying a bribe to operate. The only people who were arrested were those who failed to pay or who paid the wrong officials for protection.

Organized criminals primarily fought with each other over territory. Most other people were left alone as long as they made sure they paid their share of profits from selling alcohol to Capone and other mobsters.

Capone took it a step further. He created soup kitchens for the poor and furnished some relief for impoverished people in his section of Chicago. He even gave press conferences and was charismatic enough that some of the media liked him.

The other factors were critical as well:

1. Prohibition was an enormously unpopular law and most people were willing to "turn the other way" and ignore what was going on.

2. Prohibition was a law that was impossible to enforce because of how easy it was to make wine or alcoholic beverages or import them from Canadian cities that were near our border.

3. There was big money in selling alcohol once in became illegal and this left plenty of extra dollars to pay bribes to public officials.

[madison999]

Watch the movie American Me...inside runs the outside.

[M250]

Today it is things like marijuana, prostitution, white collar crime, arson, murder, extortion, loansharking and racketeering, e.g.. Intimidate a mayor. Remain quiet on goal. . Anonymous business money.

[markg91359]

Originally Posted by ukrkoz

I was thinking...
Say, Al Capone.
Well, had maybe several hundred people. Ok, a thousand. A mob is a mob. It is always limited in numbers. And its capacities.
How does something like this, and some mobs were much less in numbers than that, control entire city and have tentacles places else?
How do you actually accomplish this with limited number of hoods and thugs? In a city that counts hundreds of thousands and still has some sort of a functional government and law?

As others have said, he didn't really rule Chicago. However, Capone had enormous influence there.

The methods of the mafia, and organized crime are more than simply the use of brute force. The mafia was generally smart enough to understand that out and out competition with government and the rule of law that they would lose. So, there strategy involved a sophisticated combination of bribery, coercion, blackmail, and, when all else failed, brute force.

The first Godfather movie with Marlon Brando is very instructive. Brando didn't just send hit men out to wipe out his opponents. He tried to persuade people. Sometimes, he even offered money. He put politicians in compromising situations. When disputes arose with rival gangs, he attempted to negotiate his way out of those disputes. The problem with organized crime infiltrating unions like the Teamsters Union occurred largely because the mafia saw organized labor as a power to be reckoned with. They perceived that it was better to have the union as an ally than as an enemy.

Reputation does part of the job for you. If people realize what your reaction is going to be based on past experience, it will prevent a lot of things from happening.

No question though that in many big cities in the East that organized crime was very powerful. It probably still is very powerful in some limited places.