Was just wondering if we can have a topic about any newest info or subjects from the 5 families or any other mafia family in america. It seems there's not much new stuff out there. Is it because the mob got smart again and keep things quiet. Another thought i had is it very possible that there are alot more members to the five families that are doing buisiness in more quiet towns in other states. Also I figured in today's age there are probally alot of smaller italian crews that maybe do there own thing and aren't connected or answer to anyone else. Any thoughts?
What "new stuff" are you talking about? There continue to be fairly regular indictments in New York, both big and small. And to a lesser extent elsewhere. There was also a recent article in the
Wall Street Journal called "The Mafia is Down but Not Out[/i".
being born and raised in nyc i can't fathom the italian mafia having much power at all these days. nyc has totally and completely been gentrified and transformed as a city; in many ways it's a completely different place than it was 20 or even 10 years ago. crime is down across the board and it is now one of the safest cities in the country, possibly the world.
i can see the mafia being involved in wholesaling drugs or exerting some union control (even though so many laws pertaining to unions were so radically changed in the '90s i can't even imagine this being the case any more) but the more "traditional" money making schemes have to completely dead. loansharking, numbers, book making and small time protection/extortion? lol no way. there simply aren't enough blue collar italians left in the city anymore to make any of this viable, both in terms of actually having people around as muscle to commit these crimes and in terms of actually having enough people around willing to take $10k loan to cover a gambling debt. the blue collar, mostly italian base that the mafia depended on for making money for so long simply doesn't exist in this city any more. what little italians that are left are all 3rd or 4th generation with plenty of money as is from legitimate ventures.
i could be wrong but i don't see the mafia in nyc as anything more than an old boys club that has most of its money tied in legitimate ventures, along with some side income coming from smuggling stolen goods or drugs from abroad into and out of the city.
i really have trouble believing that street level loan sharking or book making is any longer a substantial money maker for them at all. the days of going to your local italian barber shop and asking the man in the back for a bridge loan for $5k simply doesn't happen any more. and if it does it's certainly not being done by the italians of nyc.
union control, white collar crime, drug wholesaling, pump and dumps, fraud, financial and health care scams, yes why not. this is probably where the bulk of their money comes from today...but no mobster in this day and age is making a substantial sum from placing horse bets or lending out cash one thousand dollars at a time...or demanding $200/week from the latest starbuck in town for protection (good luck lol). there simply isn't a demand for any of these services any more strictly from a demographic stand point. not only that but there so many legitimate competitors to these services nowadays like pay day loans or internet gambling that doesn't involved getting your knee caps broken when you can't pay up.
I suppose you're a good example of how simply living in a certain area doesn't automatically afford one extra knowledge of the local mob.
Those who follow ongoing mob cases in New York know that the traditional mob staples of bookmaking and loansharking have not subsided at all. You can go back over the past several years and seen any number of multimillion sports betting and loansharking busts. Their bookmaking operations don't just involve some local Italian bettors but a mainly white clientele in general that can place bets online and pay or collect locally with their bookie.
The mob continues to be involved in other street rackets like drugs, stolen goods, fraud, etc. but none of these bring in the kind of consistent day-to-day money that gambling and loansharking still do.
Power always comes from a Powerbase, and these italian communitys simply dont exist anymore, except maybe in bensonhurst and in soprano town lol
The assimilation of Italian-Americans into mainstream America has certainly been the biggest factor of mob attrition but the lack of Italian enclaves isn't as big a factor as some may think. The Italians spread out across New York a long time ago and aren't dependent on an East Harlem or Little Italy anymore.
