I'm just curious what all you guys think about modern street gangs (Blood, Crips, Vice Lords, etc.) as compared to the Italian Mafia. I.e. are they legitimate organized crime? Could they rise to the levels of influence power as the Mafia?

"Our enemies grow strong on what we leave behind."

They are legitimate organized crime. Their interest is drugs, generating huge profits, and achieving in real life the same success that Tom Hagan feared when he voiced his concerns to Vito just prior to the Sollazzo meeting.

And I believe they have penetrated all social strata of society, and that they have achieved the level of influence necessary for them to accomplish anything they want.

Just as maifa associates and made guys walk freely in the world of legitimate business, so too do the street gang members.

In the mafia, the social stigma of drug dealing coupled with the threat of long jail sentences made this business too much of a risk. Street gangs were willing to take that risk and it has paid dividends as they use their profits and their influence to control the jails!

Where the money goes beyond that is anybody's guess. But based on the volume of business generated by the drug trade, they have the profits to become involved in any business at any level.

I had bookmarked a couple of sites about street gangs because you really can't tell the players without a scorecard in Chicago.

Here\'s a great series from the Chicago Sun Times with a special section (scroll down) on gangs, including their enormous reach, wealth and connections to organized crime.

The Chicago Crime Commision Gang Handbook is also a good resource.

Also, Crips and Bloods, which are primarily West Coast/LA affiliations, would be similar to the "nation" affiliations, Folk and People, which started in the Illinois jail system. Vice Lords are affiliated with People. (Think Major League Baseball with an American League and National League. Sorry Plaw...there is no fantasy league!)

tony b.

I really don't think so. Sure they're making money from selling drugs, stolen property, ect. But I can't ever see them having the ambition to become legitimate. I think that they would rather shoot at the cops than to pay them off, or rob businesses rather than extort them. I don't know, I may be wrong, but I doubt they'll ever come close to having the power or mystique of the Italian mafia.

look at the mafia now its gone they have no power think to wires Rats and undercover agents the mafia now is a street gang and the blood and the crips are be comeing bigger.


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The street gangs are pretty "stong" right now in that there's a lot of them. But they dont have the influence that the Mafia once held. They dont approach a politician for protection,they draw attention to themselves by driveby shootings and the like.The only places they really have any "power" is in thier crack-infested ghetto.

Bloods just don't be in the ghetto, they in white hoods to

Street gangs were huge in the 90's, shrunk a little bit in the late 90's, and are now becoming big again. There's A LOT of Spanish gangs in Reading. If you ever come to Reading, you don't mess with the Puerto Ricans. They mean business. Just last year, they fucked up this black kid after school. About 8 or 9 of them jumped him and started kicking the shit out of him. -Pat

Back where I used to live in Western Colo. there were a lot of Mexican street gangs.They wouldnt necessarily pull a gun on you (well, most of them wouldnt) but they were always fighting each other.Still they were nowhere near the Mafia in any aspect.

Street gangs are "primitive" forms of gangsters, Mafia of any kind is on a whole nother level, mentally and economically, they are just a bunch of poor thieves from a neighborhood that team up to steal and kill, nothing more.