Reasons to join the Mob in 2014??

What would compel a young man to pursue a career with the mob in an age where most Italian-Americans have all the advantages to go to college or find a trade and pursue a legitimate career?

Learning difficulties and some Italian families are actually in lower class still

Why the good families sons become criminals?
Many Italian-Americans or have fathers,brothers,cousins etc in the Mafia and then have a future just written, or simple criminals with a Italian surname try to make the jump and become made men.
Others simply think that the easiest way, is the best.

Not all Italian-Americans have the opportunity to go to college. As Philip Lombardo stated above: a fair amount of Italians in the USA are probably still working class people. The Italian-American working class population is the largest in New York City and probably will remain for years to come. Wherever there's a more or less impoverished working class, there will be organized crime. It's only natural for some people to long for more wealth and power, wealth and power other opportunities will not give them. So until the Italian-American working class in NYC fully disappears or at the least shrink to a near-extinction level, the Five Families will be around.

And organized crime from the white working class isn't a solely Italian thing. The Italian-Americans are just known for the large organization called the 'American mafia', but the Irish also always had and still have their own gangs in the USA as well as back in Ireland. The British working class in the UK has traditionally also been an emergence pool for organized crime. And when you ask yourself the question "and how about the Dutch? The Germans? The Danish? The Anglo-Americans? The French Canadians?...", they all have their criminal organizations as well, mostly in the form of outlaw motorcycle gangs. You could argue that they don't carry the same cloud the mafia does, but there's no denying in the fact that there's an amount of bikers (especially in Europe and Canada, as well as Australia) that are as vicious and feared as any of the traditional 'mafia'-type groups, and in some cases just as organized.

Not anymore. Most Italian Americans have bolted for the suburbs. There are far more "working class" Latinos actually living in New York City today than Italians. Look no further than the 2010 census. But if you meant the "New York City metropolitan area," then your statement certainly has merit.

And I agree with the rest of your post. It will be some time before assimilation completely diminishes the mob's recruiting pool .

Well it was your poor and want to make a lot of money or die trying.

If you have money then no.

Some dig the power you get over people including women just like a politician

Good pension.
Good union.
Company car.
Free healthcare.
Benefits.
Don't work Sundays.
Maternity leave.

I meant that since NYC still has the overall largest Italian-American community in comparison with other cities (Chicago, Philadelphia, Detroit,...) with a historically large Italian community, that there will be a bigger Italian working class population in NYC than in other cities. The words in my previous post were pretty confusing lol
You are right, in general the Puerto Rican, Dominican, African American and Albanian communities are nowadays probably far more impoverished than the Italian community is.

or until they stop snorting crank and realize bosses give up their underlings

I can imagine a kid from a good family being influenced by movies and TV shows and saying "Hey, I could be like that" but frankly, most kids from my generation, I'd imagine, wouldn't cut it in the mob... they'd be like AJ Soprano in season 7.

Well, if I had the opportunity..I would probably level as an associate. I mean it's pretty badass, let's be honest.

if someone looks at non-hispanic white working class then Italians do stand out along with the Irish and the ever growing population hailing from Eastern Europe and the Balkans.

It's not like it used to be (duh!) but it's still there and should not be underestimated.

Implying that all of today's Italian-Americans are doctors, lawyers and PhDs is as discriminatory as saying they're all connected.

Let's leave these sorts of racist remarks to Italian-American Anti-Defamation societies.

I guess if you're already a career criminal, becoming an associate of a family is a step up.

a cool wiki page ? lol

Why would you want to be a degenerate scumbag and associate with mentally deranged people who would probably laugh if you caught fire?

It's not badass.

Being a boxer is badass.

Extortion, why didn't you get The Arm to hook you up? He was a big shot. He could have sponsored you.

Australian, The number one reason to join the Mob is so they can do 20 years at Butner and watch The Snake try to muscle in on Madoff's no show laundry job while Bernie tries to scam Little Nicky out of his Jell-O with fruit. I can't imagine anyone, fully armed with the realities of mob life, would willingly sign up in this day and age, sadly though it continues to happen.

Someone I know was very close to the demeo crew and after it all went to hell was offered to run with another crew. He realized that the mob was just a group of people who would kill you for nothing and take half your money. For an up and comer the mob can help, but if you already have ways to make money and you don't need them, there is absolutely no reason to affiliate with them

There are plenty of ethnic areas here in NYC. There are plenty of poor people in those areas. The kids in these areas have a lot of unsupervised time on their hands. They think up a lot of ways to use that time. They play unorganized street sports like we did as kids. But that leaves them plenty of time to do other things.

Going to regular school is not the answer for them. It was not the answer for me.
They have no rules at home. They don't want to have to follow rules in school.

I may have the record for the most days playing hooky when I went to school.

Some think we should push trade school rather then going to college. I think it is a great idea. But when these kids are of High school age they don't want to go to any school.

get a nice truck route from papa smurf and company. not having your shit torched or destroyed. go steal 100k of cardboard acouple days a week.

Very true.

Way too many people get college or university degrees and then they do not even use them.

A lot more people attend a college or university and take classes either as a part-time or full time student and then just drop out or stop going to classes, and never graduate despite how they or their parents/guardians pay for the classes.

If people do not want to go to school like a highschool then they should just drop out and get a job, or as you wrote learn a trade or go to a trade/technical school.

Well some people don't want to go to school drop out or dont drop out, and do other things like steal. Get money for something you stole it feels like found money. It can become addictive like a drug.

Remember in Goodfellas Jimmy Burke just loved to steal he thought it was fun that is an associate without a gang in the beginning. I guess he had no friends to steal withbasva kid. So he recruit some local kids to steal with him.

That also happened in the Departed. Nickolson recruited poor kids in the neighbor to steal for him and with him.

That is what happens every where.

You can steal by yourself. You can steal with a friend. You can steal with a group of friends. Some people call that a gang or a crew.

Some people don't want to follow others in gang. But if they ever come up with a good way to get money. But they need help to pull it off. That is when they join a gang. If it works and they are making money they can be led. When that happens who ever led the gang before will either become a follower or he will disappear.

That is one of the reasons thieves can become killers.

Also not everyone involved in (organized) crime grew up in poverty. There are more than enough examples of kids from economically and socially advantaged, caring families that grew up to become violent criminals. Some people have just that, an uncontrollable disposition to be attracted to and commit criminal acts.

Well their idiots and they will probably turn into rat who could trust them. If you did something with them what's that old saying. If three people know something and you want to keep a secret two of the three have to die

I can't imagine why anyone would want to join the Mafia. You are under a constant threat of death from your own 'friends.' There are so many canaries in the mob now, it sounds like the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

God only knows how many of the stand up guys offered to rat but whose services were politely declined.

Thankyou Moe that is what I been trying to say for the last year to a small majority of these people on here.. 30% of these people kneed to get rid of their kneee pads.. And kneed to stop watching their mob shows and looking up to these punks.. That's right
Put your shoe shine kits away people.! I am bak.. Again Thankyou very much Moe... you are da man...

that's what I been trying to say for a year.. 30% of these people kneed to put their kneee pads away and stop watching those mob shows.. Put those shoe shine kits away people ... again Thankyou Moe great post..

The Marine always talking about knee pads

You still roaming the streets of phila.

Get money, fuck bitches!!!!!!

I don't think it's a matter of assimilation as by all accounts Italians are fully assimilated into American society. Political power, religious institutions,economic power,civic institutions,military achievement, represented in academia,etc,etc,etc,


Within each group of hyphenated-Americans...there are going to be families and individuals who take advantage of the educational and commercial opportunities available in America and those who don't.

There are poor and working class members of ethnic groups that arrived in America well ahead of the Italians and well after. Assimilation didn't eliminate the 7-8th generation Americans from the older groups and won't wipe out the working class from the newer groups.

As someone else wrote, the "mob" stands out because of of press/hollywood but other white ethnic groups have criminal organizations that are still active and still have young guys joining up.

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Having said that though, what role do you (or anyone) think that the changing demographics in some of the urban centers has played in young Italian men maybe entering criminal world for protection?

Neighborhoods that might have been exclusively Italian before are now flooded with newer immigrant groups...Blacks or Latinos...and as the numbers shift the remaining Italians might feel the need to clique-up to not get pushed around by the Black or Latino street gangs.

Sort of the reverse order of how gangs start I guess.....normally the new group has to clique up to protect themselves from the established ethnic group. Latest example of that real life "west side story" theme ..Dominicans formed gang in NYC metro area to protect themselves from Puerto Ricans.

I think these are the factors that might drive kids who otherwise wouldn't enter criminal life....to go down the path that eventually leads them to maybe go into the mafia.

And that's exactly why the mob is in the shape it's in .

I can't think of a single good reason. An enterprising independent crook can make money on his own although it may be harder in the NYC area. You make a little less but don't have to share it with anyone. These days anyone can dislike you or be jealous of you (In the mob) and spread the rumor that you are a rat, and you're gone. Also with all the rats recently, you could be exposed to arrest because of some shithead. And, as an independent, you can pick up and go to a different area for a while. The downside is that you don't have that network/connections that you would in the mob.

Neither do I. Unless you can't do what you want to do alone or with just one other guy. You take a big chance if you do.

If you are using local fences to get rid of what you stole. Then people will know who you are. But if your stealing small they are making money off you and your safe. Steal big that could be a problem.

If they need help they might approach you if they know you since you were a kid. You still might be safe.

If they don't know you that long. Then leave and go somewhere else to steal.

The advances in electronics nowadays makes it so hard

A cop on a TV show I watched said the only reason the mafia is still alive is because Hollywood has glamourized it. "Otherwise they would have died out like any other street gang".

In large part I agree with this cop. The real mafia probably isn't half as great as the mafia in which your boss is James Gandolfini or Robert De Niro. Who would you rather work for...fat ass Roy Demeo or Robert De Niro?

An addition to my comment above: The mafia would have died out by the 1990s in my opinion had Hollywood not glamourized it. By the 1990s, between the witness protection program, RICO laws and advanced surveillance the government had the mob beat. But the mafia keeps filling their ranks....because Goodfellas and the Sopranos makes it look so fun!!!

Roy he looks like he was more fun if he could make money off you. DeNiro has no personality an introvert He could put you asleep.

There was a black singer I don't know her name who loved DeNiro. Black people call him Robert DeNigro because thry know he loved black women. He wanted her to sing at his birthday party. He had Pesce call Irene cara and asked her to get this girl to sing at his party. She did and he never called her back. she was devasted by that I was told.

Detroit,

Goodfellas maybe though Henry Hill is not someone most people would want to aspire to be like. I have to disagree about the Sopranos.The Sopranos was an advertisement for all thats wrong with that life and the black hearts that participate in it. You guys remember the uproar over the show by some italians feeling they were being unfairly portrayed

I think an adult can see what you are saying NNY89 - that these mob movies end with betrayal, murder, prison - nothing positive.

But just like children can be easily swayed by cigarette ads on television (this is why televised cigarette ads were banned decades ago), kids only see the "highs" of mob life in Goodfellas and Sopranos - the huge stashes of cash, easy beautiful women, hanging out in the social club instead of working 9-5. I'm just saying...these movies must be a big promoter of mob life to kids. I told my parents I wanted to be in the mafia when I was about 13 - this is when I first saw the sopranos. Shortly after this, my parents would no longer allow me to watch the sopranos.

Obviously there are multiple reasons the mafia stays alive and people still want to join them....but I think these movies/shows are one of those reasons.

Like Melfi's husband said in the Sopranos, "Hollywood tries to give these guys a tragic grandeur."

I was forty when "The Sopranos" premiered. I really freaking hate you guys .

Perna went to seton hall and even wrestled so with some of these guys even college degree isn't a deterrent . Easy $ is easy $ I guess

...

Sometimes and I know this sounds weird but it isn't the money. Its the feeling of belonging too something only a few have belonged. It's the feeling of getting over.

Not weird at all. Some of them are attracted to the image and the power as much as they are to the money. But they still like money .

The actor who portrayed her husband was the same actor who portrayed the shy in the movie Mean streets. The guy that killed DeNiro.

One day Hollywood will produce a good and honest mafia film.

Donnie Brasco didn't glorify it at all. Good movie too.

I'll have to give that a watch

A cop on a TV show I watched said the only reason the mafia is still alive is because Hollywood has glamourized it. "Otherwise they would have died out like any other street gang".

Obviously that cop never been to LA nor Chicago. Those gangs never died out.

That's because black people breed three times faster than whites and 50% of blacks are criminals... that's why negro street gangs don't die out.

Where do you come up with this shit?

I visited compton once.

I am sure your not serious are you? Their might be more crime among blacks it is because of a lot of things.

More poverty among blacks. Family structures have broken down. A lot of street kids that have nothing to do with all the time they have on their hands. Only the unloved hate that line was from Charlie Chaplins speech that he made in the Great dictator. It on YouTube all over the place you should watch it.


The gangs that are out their are actively recruiting through fear. They join for their own personality safety. Then once your in a gang your life chances and not for the better.

Black families and white families have one thing in common. I know this is true and you probably know this is true maybe uou dont? They want a better life for their kids then they have had

I hate to be judgemental, but your posts are becoming trollier and trollier by the minute. Are there black street gangs? Sure, lots of them. But statements like "50% of blacks are criminals" are intentionally offensive and just plain racist.

Adding to that: it's estimated that there're 1 million street gang members in the USA. This includes African Americans, Hispanics, Asians, Whites and Native Americans. There are around 40 million African Americans living in the USA. I guess you're not a math genius, but even if all of these gang members were African American, you still wouldn't even come close to 50%.

My Aussie pal , if you truly believed that disappointing since your chatting with a black person. Don't know how you was brought up over there but I'm here tell right here a quick facts about my people:
1. 50% of us aren't criminals , how would you know ? You met all 40 million of us?
2. We don't bred no faster than any other ethnicity, and if that was the case then we would still be the largest " minority" group.
3. You visit to Compton is right next door to our gang capital which have MORE mexican gangs than black gangs.
4. If you want stay on these boards longer, I suggest you learn more about DIVERSITY in our country. Being ignorant is one thing but being a prick is another.
Peace .

I'm proud to be white, I must be a white supremacist.

This is for our Australian friend


Check out this video on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FMNFvKEy4c&feature=youtube_gdata_player

My trolling was so subtle.

or you have 4 or 5 friends in the same gang

it's easier to join a gang than to avoid them in some neighborhoods

Again. No clue what the fuck you're talking about.

so you're gonna tell me about why people join gangs in the black community?

Because they're savages.

Australian - your racist crap is not acceptable on these boards. Perhaps you can find a board down under that is more suitable for your posting style. Take a week off from here to look for one.

Say it loud ! I'm BLACK & PROUD !

Why would people want to be made? Power, prestige, but mostly that there are always people that want to see the world burn.

And I guess that they either don't give a fuck about what will happen to them or they think that they are smarter or tougher than what will come up against them.

all day, every day

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The irony of a dude who is from a country that was basically a penal colony making that comment. England emptied their jails and sent them to go "colonize" Australia.

Just another new name on the ignore list.

I mean the mob in 2014 is a dying breed with the sophistication of electronic surveillance and computers systems. I mean gambling is legal everywhere basically, every state has a numbers system and there is almost a national one. Its tough for unions in some cases states to squeeze development like they have in the past. I think one of the biggest money makers that the mob may have had their hands in in the past few years was the mortgage crisis and flipping homes because a lot of dumbasses stole tons of $$ in that scam and then the pill mills in Florida and elsewhere that generated a ton of money before the authorities caught up to them. People need to be smarter and not so much streetwise these days to look ahead at areas they can get their money illegally. It seems that the russians and other euros are more fwd looking people into the tech crimes and are getting billions in that industry and not getting caught and probably not looking to share that profit with anyone

Merlino,

Another South Florida pill mill was taken down a couple days ago.


South Florida man ran $15M pill mill that supplied Kentucky drug dealers, feds say


Joel Shumrak, 66, of Boca Raton, is charged with running a $15 million pill… (Handout/Broward Sheriff's…)

June 4, 2014|By Paula McMahon, Sun Sentinel


The owner of a South Florida pain clinic is facing criminal charges — accused of running a $15 million pill mill operation that supplied oxycodone to drug dealers and addicts in other states.

Joel Shumrak, 66, of Boca Raton, was arrested Tuesday after federal agents raided his Broken Sound home and his Fort Lauderdale business, Pain Center of Broward on the 5400 block of North Federal Highway.


"The amount of money from the pain clinic is, frankly, staggering — $15 million," Assistant U.S. Attorney Brent Tantillo said during a hearing Wednesday in federal court in Fort Lauderdale.

Prosecutors said the South Florida-based drug conspiracy involved more than one million pills and supplied about 25 percent of all of the oxycodone distributed in the eastern district of Kentucky.

A judge ordered Shumrak detained without bond and he is being held at the Broward County Jail. He will remain in custody while he is transferred to Kentucky to face the federal indictment, which was filed there.

Agents seized about $4 million on Tuesday, as well as vehicles and other assets that belong to Shumrak and his wife, a science teacher who works for the Broward County schools district, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors argued that Shumrak was a flight risk and a danger to the community, telling the judge that he has access to some $15 million, including money they said was kept in offshore accounts on the Mediterranean island Republic of Cyprus and the Caribbean island Nevis.

Shumrak is a well-known businessman who often served as an informal spokesman for South Florida's pain management community. He always said that he was operating legally and criticized doctors in other states who he said were unwilling to appropriately treat chronic pain.

For many years, South Florida became notorious as a destination for addicts and drug dealers who drove hundreds of miles from Appalachia, lured by ads and billboards that urged them to take advantage of the region's formerly lax controls on prescription painkillers.

Law enforcement, drug dealers and addicts began calling the well-traveled route to South Florida the Oxy Express or the Oxy Highway.

Shumrak, who wore dark blue jail scrubs with his hands cuffed to a chain around his waist, did not speak in court.

Shumrak's lawyer, Bernard Cassidy, said his client will vigorously defend himself against the allegations, emphasizing that the Fort Lauderdale business was licensed and inspected by the state.


"Joel was a licensed business owner and we intend to fight the charges," Cassidy said.

In court, Cassidy told U.S. Magistrate Judge Alicia Valle that Shumrak has known since 2011 that he was under investigation, but never fled because has done nothing wrong.

If convicted of the drug distribution and money-laundering conspiracy charges, he could face more than 20 years in federal prison. Investigators said Shumrak operated the conspiracy, with a Georgia-based doctor, between June 2008 and May of this year when the grand jury indictment was issued.

Prosecutors said in court that investigators secretly recorded Shumrak talking about fleeing to avoid prosecution. They said that Drug Enforcement Administration agents from Kentucky and South Florida also gathered evidence that Shumrak was photocopying his financial and patient records so that he could continue to commit crimes at a different location.

Cassidy told the judge that there was nothing "nefarious" about Shumrak's copying of records and that Cassidy had instructed him to make copies to use in his defense.

"Mr. Shumrak does joke around and tends to say things like he will flee," Cassidy told the judge.

He said that Shumrak has strong ties to the South Florida community and would never abandon his wife, adult children and two young grandchildren. He also has diabetes, hypertension, suffered a seizure a few years ago and is taking about 10 prescription medications, Cassidy said.

"His clinic has closed down since the raid yesterday," Cassidy said in court. "He's a 66-year-old man in bad health. I don't think he represents a threat to anyone."

Cassidy also said in court that it was misleading to suggest that Shumrak was hiding money offshore. He said that Shumrak used "strategic tax shelters' to operate some of his insurance businesses overseas, but most of the money remained in the U.S.

Community activists, who have picketed Shumrak's business many times over the years and blame him and his employees for the drug-related deaths of at least two people, said they were delighted and relieved to hear of his arrest.

"I hope and pray they've got him this time," said Janet Colbert, a Broward county resident and nurse who was one of the founders of STOPP Now (Stop the Organized Pill Pushers Now). "He's very cocky, with his security guard carrying a Glock in the parking lot when we picket."

"I think the tide is turning and hopefully eventually we won't have this problem any more – law enforcement has done a lot in recent years to shut this problem down," Colbert said.

In court, prosecutors referred to Shumrak's wife and adult children as alleged co-conspirators though none of them have been criminally charged in the case. Court records name Shumrak's wife Amy, and some other family members, as joint holders or signatories on some of the bank accounts that investigators allege were linked to the money-laundering conspiracy charge against Joel Shumrak.

Amy Shumrak attended the court hearing with her adult son but neither of them spoke. She teaches science at Lyons Creek Middle School in Coconut Creek, school district officials

http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2014-06...on-joel-shumrak