Did Italians (whether LCN or nor) get heavily targeted by NY cops? I've often wondered about that.

When I lived in Detroit, you could say that African Americans will get treated the worst, but the majority of Detroit cops are black, so why would they target African Americans unfairly? (I can't comment on other parts of the US, so I wouldn't know.)

The Italians have long been way more heavily targeted by the FBI and Hollywood and the media. The police in cities tend to focus more on street gangs. I come form a small town where I was taught to be suspicious of all Italians being in the mafia. The big cities are different, as I have learned. Not very different in that regard, but less so.

They also say that blacks are killed more than any other race by police however statistics show that the claim is false

Goodfellas was directed by Scorsese. The Godfather was directed by Coppola. The Sopranos was created by Chase (DeCesare). All Italian Americans. A lot of the same actors are in all the mob related movies and TV shows, look at their IMDB profiles and you will see they are rarely in anything else. Yes, they are pigeonholed. But is it Hollywood, or these same actors, who propagate the myth that all Italians are mobbed up? If they felt strongly about it, don't select those roles. A lot of the best actors are Italian American (De Niro, Pacino, Brando); acting in mafia related movies at the start of their careers never harmed them.

As for the FBI, I don't know if I agree with that. The reason why the mafia became so strong, and the reason why the Feds cracked down on the mafia in the 80's, is because they were allowed to become strong because, for whatever reason, J. Edgar Hoover didn't pursue them and allowed them free rein.

Here we go....

The mob had evidence that Hoover liked to wear the old panties from time to time. Literally.

Bobby Kennedy was the first high ranking cop at the federal level to go after the mob.

i think the freemasons has sure something to do with the fact even americans (hoower etc.) denied the existence of the mafia
american mafia existence was discovered when? 1970s?
the sicilian mafia existence was showed for the first time in 1992, and it existed since 1830s at least

First time in 1992? Everyone knew for mafia,but it was "public secret",when maxi trial started in 1986,that's when it was showed.

I think Italians were discriminated because they were Catholics, years before that the Irish were treated the same way.

Interesting question. I would think in the early days cops did target Italians. (Many of the police were Irish) I don't think that was really true in later years as Italians assimilated and many went into the NYPD.

I don't know for sure about the panties, but I know that there was a conversation recorded (Angelo Bruno, IIRC) where some mob guys said Hoover was a so called "fairy". Their word, not mine. So the rumors about him and Clyde spread far outside of Washington, D.C. In any case, Hoover was too busy chasing (mostly imaginary) Communists to give a shit about organized crime.

Nowadays I would say muslims and blacks, in the us but also in europe.

I'm just making an observation here, but where I live a lot of young Muslim men are casually dealing drugs.

As I said, just an observation, I haven't seen any black men dealing, but I've witnessed transactions happening pretty much out in the open several times with these guys. Wouldn't be surprised if there are some illicit trading practices going on in terms of their businesses either..

Of course, this situation is going to exacerbate.

Italians were treated poorly and subject to racial discrimination and profiling from the police during the first half of last century. That being said, blacks have always been treated the worst. As bad as new Italian immigrants had it, compare how Italians were treated 100 years ago with how blacks were treated 100 years ago. It's not even up for debate IMO.

I recently worked with two northern Italians (from Rome). They live on the upper west side (doing well, financially). I tried to strike up conversation about the Italian presence in Queens and some of the neighborhoods. I was trying to segwey into discussion about Parkside, my favorite restaurant ever. They laughed. They don't even consider anything south of Naples to be true Italian. So there are differences in identity even within Italy.

It's not the first time I've worked with people from northern Italy. The last time a woman declared that if anyone mentioned the words "spaghetti" or "mafia" that she would take her shoe off and throw it at them. Just saying.

Don't know if this ties in with the topic but discrimination is ubiquitous. There is discrimination within families (parents favor one child over the other). Dating is discrimination. Shopping is discrimination.

Italians I have come to know hate those directors and actors for taking part in those films and tv shows. Many say they had no choice, others don't care. The Godfather and The Sopranos had Italian groups condemn those films. As for Hoover he went after them heavily after 1957.

Wrong as usual. Dewey went after them, and other prosectors did too. Hoover and cross dressing is not believable. When he had agents harass Giancana and kidnap Marcello the photos would have come out.

I work very close to that area, it is a mostly Mexican area, with Italians last in numbers behind Columbians and other South American groups. They say the last time it was Italian in Corona was way back in the 1980's or earlier.

Corona and Spaghetti park still had a sizable population of Italians in the 90's. The Corona Park Salumeria moved a few neighborhoods over to Whitestone.

In Corona: The Bakery boys is still on 104th street, as is Mama's restaurant (they have a satellite branch within Citi Field and probably making huge bank), Parkside, Lemon Ive King, the Genovese "members only" club next to parkside, the Bocci Courts across the street which are filled with ex-neighborhood people coming from Long Island, Leo's Latticinni on 104th street, and Corona Pizza (which is still Italian). There was an N'dragheta cocaine dealership/restaurant near parkside called 'la cocina' but likely out of business after the big bust.

I ride through on my bike after trips to Flushing Meadows sometimes and still see Italian flags adorning some houses, especially near Flushing Meadows by the science center.

If you knew all this, I apologize. I like that neighborhood and always felt nostalgic there.

Forgot to mention Tony's on 104th street, where Nicky Santoro (Bonanno) meets with Tough Tony Federici (Genovese) on occasion.

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/pillow-carrying-mobster-24-months-jail-article-1.1215812

They have Italian restaurants, but the residents are rarely Italian. A few mostly elderly people live there, mostly on one or 2 small blocks. This is like when people try to call some areas Irish even though they too are all South American and Mexican. I went to a place called Doanvan's in Woodside, an old time Irish pub. I was told there were a lot of Irish in the area. Guess what, all the pool in the street were Spanish and speaking it. Inside it was Irish, and there are few living around there, but look at the numbers.



Corona

http://www.city-data.com/neighborhood/Corona-Corona-NY.html

Watch the opening of this as the man discusses the area. He even mentions it "Used to be Dominican".

Italians didn't just get profiled, the police cracked their heads when they brought them in, and the italians never cried about police brutality, they took their punishment like men...That's what makes Italians stand up people compared to these others !!

You act like the same exact thing didn't happen to other ethnicities during that period. Some of them were murdered in cold blood by the police or rogue mobs and didn't cry police brutality. That's just the way society operated. You must think the Irish were slaves too, huh? LOL.

There is a theory that Irish were slaves. I'm not sure if it was debunked or not. I think it was.

If someone has a genuine source that Irish policemen routinely targeted and discriminated Italian people (and not just hoods) I'd like to see it.

There were still "No Dogs, No Blacks, No Irish" signs in England in the 70's. There are STILL "No Irish Need Apply" signs in Australia. I don't want to get into a dick measuring contest about which ethnicity had it worst after black people and Mexican people, but Irish had it pretty bad. There were still riots against Irish people being introduced into neighborhoods well into the 20th century. Look at the outrage about "the papist presidency" when Kennedy got elected.

If there were a demand for Italian slaves like there was for African slaves, Italians would have been slaves, too.

We're speaking OC profiling not general and it's depends on city for worst attention.
Italians are going to be viewed as guidos/mafiasos, Irish most likely in this time frame as connected to IRA or gun runners, Russian/ East European types generally Vors or High tech racketeers, Mexicans/Columbians/Peruvians/Puerto Ricans/Cubans/ drug cartels dons/kingpins, Haitians the Zoe Pound, Jamaicans the Posses/Massives/Yardies, Nigerians the professional scammers, Germans/English the Bikers or professional freelancers/racketeers, and Blacks the Drug Kingpin/Queenpin

Well said.

The Italians and the Irish were slaves in Africa during the Barbary Coast Wars. Many British subjects were slaves after having been captured off merchant boats near Africa.