Man you are so right. You really have to be around it to understand though. It was just a way of life for a lot of people. Especially the older guys who are long dead some of the guys who were mainly doing shit like making book could be the nicest most solid guys you’d ever meet. A bunch of them never took a serious pinch and the shit they were doing is now legal and the government gets a piece. Payday loans? Plus there used to actually be thousands of wiseguys around. Everybody knew who they were. And most were very well liked.
In my view, there are rackets, and there are rackets. "Vice" type rackets; gambling, borrowing money, pornography (NOT child porn of course), after hours clubs, etc., are no big thing. Hell, most of em are legal nowadays anyway so how bad could they have been to begin with??
SOOO many poor guys went to the can for shit that the government now "deems" legal. Why?? Because they now control it and reap ALL the profits, or heavily "tax" the industry which is really nothing more than what the mob did with a "Mob tax" or shakedown of gambling operators, etc., in their perceived territory. But before it was legalized these "businesses" were labeled "rackets"by the government, and the "businessmen and operators" were then labeled "racketeers' and "gangsters".
Basically the Government is usually full of shit in regards to things like this...... What's that old adage? "DO AS WE SAY, BUT DON'T DO AS WE DO"
That saying perfectly applies to what the government does to its populous. And I love this country, but that doesn't change what the truth is.
Anyway, as you said Southshorekid, when you have the opportunity to grow up with guys in "the life", go to school with them, hang with them, or maybe even have members of your family in that life as I did, your viewpoint becomes different because you really get to know the "person", not just the reputation or what the newspapers have to say about them. Which is usually sensationalized anyway to sell papers.
