Comparing the modern day Chicago Outfit to the street gangs is almost a case of apples and oranges. The Outfit is a relatively small group of middle-age and older Italian guys, plus Italian and non-Italian associates, who's niche is sports betting, video poker machines, bid-rigging for mobbed up companies, etc. I guess you could say that narcotics is the modern day version of Prohibition and certainly other groups have taken over that business.
I don't disagree with you. Everything you said is correct. But from my point of view, the Outfit and the Chicago street gangs both operate in a violent world. Violence, or at least the threat of it, is an enforcement tool. Although their rackets and areas of criminality differ, they are both part of the underworld. And what I was highlighting was the fact that the Outfit used to run Chicago. Under Capone and then later Ricca, Giancana, and Accardo, no criminal gang or element could operate in Chicago without the blessing of the Outfit. If a street gang started committing crimes and failed to pay tribute to the Outfit, that gang would have been wiped out by Outfit gunmen. So, at one time, the Outfit was at the top of the criminal world in Chicago. But look at Chicago today. I'm not extolling the virtues of one crime group or another. But I think I'd prefer to have the Outfit in charge of Chi-town, in a sort of the lesser of two evils kind of thing!
