What is racketeering? Its a conspiracy. Simply. Its coercion with others to commit a crime.
Now (IMO) the system mistakenly views racketeering as the primary misconduct not the crime itself. Racketeering is merely the systematic application of the crime.
Its application of the crime in an organised, systematic way.
Now this behaviour is obviously much more socially detracting than individual non organised, random breaches but its simply an application of the crime.
My point being, its the crime itself which is the presiding factor.
Eg: You can have Racketeering in Poker Machines, and Racketeering in murder.
So was it organised? Yes. Was it in aid of a criminal enterprise? Yes. Was it Racketeering? Yes.
But was it just Poker machines? .....Yes.
You seem to
understand the theory of RICO, you apparently just don't
agree with it. It doesn't matter so much that the individual predicate charges may seem relatively harmless to some people. The fact that it's a criminal enterprise, and Ligambi was the leader of it, provides sufficient grounds for stiffer penalties.
2. You dont believe that prison reforms criminals?
Some it does, others it doesn't. It's obvious what category Massimino falls into.
