I never understood why people here consider street gangs as not being tough compared to mobsters. I mean one lives on the cold streets and the other in a suburban neighborhood. I'm not saying mobsters are soft, far from it, well criminals in general are mentally and physically tough but to think that a mobster is tougher than a Crip or Blood is really too one sided or biased.
Because if truth be told most of them aren't. Part of the reason there's so much shooting is that most of them are scared to catch a beating. The reason there's so many of them is because they need to associate themselves with a gang that has hundreds, thousands of members to feel safe. Toughness isn't just willingness to shoot at someone.
For example look at this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJZjY6KaEVMDo you see toughness in that? I don't. Look at their mannerisms, the way they act. All I see is fear and insecurity. All that bluster and that gangster talk, but they're scared to look an old white man in the eye.
As for mobsters, I don't know how it is these days, but in the past many of them were very tough, Italian or otherwise. That's because in the past they were getting an "education" in the life, served an apprenticeship, as it were. They were schooled, in violence and in streetmarts.
