Sikap Terakhir RICO Organized Crime?

Februari 14.1929,

Hari Santo Valentine di Chicago, Illinois. Kota Berangin memang berangin hari ini; angin kencang menyediakan suplemen kasar sampai suhu musim dingin sangat dingin. Tujuh orang laki-laki sedang berada secara gugup di di dalam S-M-C Cartage Perusahaan gudang di 2122 North Clark Street. Mereka sedang duduk secara gugup karena mereka sedang menunggu pengapalan minuman keras ilegal dari seorang pedagang gelap Detroit. Delapan manusia berlari terlambat. Dia berbelok di tikungan untuk mengepalai untuk gudang, lalu dengan cepat melalui dengan cepat jauh. Kapal penjelajah polisi sudah menarik di samping gudang. Empat orang laki-laki clad di seragam polisi, diiringi oleh dua lagi orang laki-laki di busana penduduk sipil, jalan keluar mobil dan kepala di dalam gudang. Mereka mengumumkan kepada tujuh orang laki-laki terperanjat itu bahwa ini adalah gropyokan dan untuk menentang tembok. Dilakukan tujuh orang laki-laki itu dengan patuh sebagai mereka diberi tahu-dan ialah lalu dengan cepat dihukum mati dengan sub-senapan mesin Thompson.

Pembantaian Masal Hari Santo Valentine adalah klimaks mengerikan yang terakhir ke apa yang akan menjadi dikenal sebagai "Bootleg Wars", perjuangan sialan yang panjang di antara Chicago 's dua paling sangat kuat mafia pemimpin, Al Capone dan "Bugs" Moran (laki-laki kedelapan yang berlari terlambat), untuk kontrol perusahaan minuman keras gelap Chicago yang menguntungkan sangat. Larangan, Amandemen kedelapan belas, sudah melontarkan orang Amerika mafia dari organisasi bawah tanah yang sekeliling ke dalam mainstream masyarakat. Orang Amerika sedang pergi untuk minum entah melawan hukum atau tidak, dan mafia hanya terlalu bahagia menenangkan mereka. "Speakeasies", perusahaan minum yang ilegal dengan cerdik tersamar sebagai perusahaan sah, muncul di seluruh Chicago serta sisa country. Colorful mafia peran, seperti Capone Chicago dan Charles "Lucky" Luciano, dari New York, muncul, menjadi lebih terkenal daripada tokoh terkemuka yang mana pun.

Pada tahun-tahun awal ini, mafia cantik banyak mempunyai bebas pemerintahan di kota yang diperintah oleh mereka. Serta minuman keras, mafia juga menjadi sangat terlibat di sifat buruk lain, seperti pelacuran dan penjudian. Mafia menyediakan publik dengan akses mudah sampai aktivitas mereka terus nyambung meskipun ada ketidaksahan mereka, dan demikian mafia tidak mesti mengenai sendiri dengan kegeraman umum. Polisi dan politikus juga memperlihatkan sedikit atau tak ada campur tangan. Penyuapan berkuasa hari di 1920s. Polisi dan politikus, banyak di antaranya yang menikmati ilegal bertanding dengan sendiri, mudah untuk membeli. Begitu mudah, sebenarnya, pernah sesal Kepala Polisi Chicago itu: "Enam Puluh persen dari polisi saya di membuat bajakan bisnis." Jika penyuapan mudah, tentu tidak murah. Luciano, untuk kejadian, bekerja untuk mendapat dua belas juta dolar di keuntungan satu tahun dari pembajakan sendiri, enam juta di antaranya bermaksud menjamin keamanannya dari pelaksanaan hukum. Sistem keadilan kejahatan pada saat itu patsy. Di sangat paling tidak, tak berdaya untuk berhenti mafia dari terlibat dalam aktivitas mereka. Di sangat paling buruk, itu ialah complicit.

The St. Valentine's Day Massacre finally transformed the public's perception of the mafia. For the first time, Americans became disgusted with the bloodshed and demanded governmental action. The mafia's violence was bad enough. The cost to the economy was even worse. The mafia's infiltration and demands for protection money from almost every conceivable business in a particular city was dramatically raising the price of the products they sold. In short, Americans were fed up with the mafia lining their pockets with dirty money while they had to struggle just to break even.

These demands for legal action continued for many years, especially after the narcotics trade sparked a bloody mafia renaissance in the 1960s. It was easy for the public to pester the government-but much more difficult for the government to carry out. Mafia prosecutions were rare, even impossible, due to lack of evidence. Potential witnesses were reminded that it might be in their best interest to keep quiet. Another problem for law enforcement officials was the practice by mafia bosses to distance themselves as much as they could from the activities they were ordering. For example, a mafia boss could order a murder in New York, then quickly whisk himself away to Florida to provide a rock-solid alibi. On the rare occasion that a mafia member was brought to trial, convictions were rare due to jury tampering, and the convictions that were handed down were for far lesser crimes than what the government had sought. Capone, for example, despite his widespread reputation as a ruthless killer, was convicted of tax evasion and sentenced to only eleven years in federal prison.

In 1970, however, that all changed. That year Congress passed the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. Most commonly referred to as RICO, the act gave the government a wider spectrum in which to investigate and successfully prosecute members of the mafia. Instead of having to focus solely on the individual mafia member, the government now had the ability to target the "fronts", or legitimate businesses that they operated.

Simply put, RICO "makes it unlawful to acquire or maintain a business or enterprise through a pattern of racketeering activity." "Racketeering activity" involves the many crimes that the mafia has engaged in for decades, such as murder, gambling, arson and extortion. For example, if a business owner was delinquent on payment to a loan shark, the loan shark may demand the victim's business in exchange for letting him live. The victim, in obvious fear for his life, transfers his business to the mafia, who assumes control over that business and collects all income on the business while the victim remains the owner "on paper." The mafia has acquired and maintained a business through a pattern of racketeering activity and is thus in violation of RICO. Under RICO the government can criminally prosecute and imprison a mafia leader even if that particular mafia boss had never directly committed a crime. The mafia boss can be sent to jail simply for operating a business or enterprise that engages in criminal acts.

RICO can also be utilized to bring civil suits against the particular mafia in an attempt to recoup the money that the mafia had extorted from him. For example, an extorted businessman can sue a mafia boss under RICO for the money that was extorted from him. If the victim is victorious, he can be awarded three times the extortion amount. If the victim was extorted for five thousand dollars, the court would award him fifteen thousand. However, to prevent frivolous RICO actions, the plaintiff must prove that he was a victim of the mafia and a pattern of racketeering activity.

While RICO has been successful in eradicating many higher echelon mafia members such as John Gotti, it is still a work in progress. Many critics of RICO contend that RICO simply puts a dent into the mafia rather than destroy it. Establishing a pattern of racketeering activity is extremely difficult because the mafia is very good at covering its own tracks. Even if a mafia boss is convicted and imprisoned under RICO, he can still control his mafia family from inside. Another problem with RICO is that the triple damage rule for extortion violations created an explosion of frivolous lawsuits from non-government entities that had nothing to do with the mafia, such as the suit filed by Greyhound Bus Lines against its union, the Amalgamated Transit Union for "extorting wages and benefits from Greyhound", even though the union was engaged in a lawful strike.

It's difficult to gauge the true impact that RICO has had on the mafia. While sometimes resoundly successful, RICO has thus far failed in its intended goal: the destruction of the mafia. Although crippled, the mafia still exists in America and is still the subject of much public fascination (The Sopranos,etc). The mafia has been evolving for generations to avoid the wrath of the federal government. The federal government will have to continue evolving too.