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Is the mafia taken seriously anymore?
#1054202
03/18/23 05:25 PM
03/18/23 05:25 PM
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Joined: Sep 2013
Posts: 732 Great Britain
British
OP
Underboss
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OP
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Joined: Sep 2013
Posts: 732
Great Britain
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Does anyone take them seriously anymore, obviously I am in the UK so only talk as someone looking in from the outside.
Obviously Cosa Nostra had a huge amount of power years ago.
But now, they seem a bit of a laughing stock, they don't even deal with rats.
Other crime groups are now more violent and deadly, so who would take them seriously?
British is best....
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Re: Is the mafia taken seriously anymore?
[Re: jace]
#1054229
03/18/23 10:58 PM
03/18/23 10:58 PM
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Joined: Oct 2001
Posts: 19,696 AZ
Turnbull
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Joined: Oct 2001
Posts: 19,696
AZ
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Movies and tv shows kept them in the public spotlight way past their prime. Law enforcement wants to keep the public feeling safe, so they keep Cosa Nostra propped up. The public wants to see the documentaries, and the indictments. Also the majority of new gangs are made up of minorities, prosecuting them or having frequent mass arrests leads to pushback from their communities. The public shares some of the blame for being suckers. All true, Jace. Plus: Americans are obsessed with "secret societies." In the early days, it was the Freemasons. Then the KKK. In the 1940s and 50s it was the Communist Party USA, Now (and for a long time) it's the Mafia. Thanks to mass media, movies, TV, Internet, etc., the public won't let it alone. Mafia has the dubious distinction of being a :"secret society" that isn't secret. If "Mafia" were a brand, it'd have more recognition than Apple and McDonald's combined.
Ntra la porta tua lu sangu � sparsu, E nun me mporta si ce muoru accisu... E s'iddu muoru e vaju mparadisu Si nun ce truovo a ttia, mancu ce trasu.
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Re: Is the mafia taken seriously anymore?
[Re: British]
#1054234
03/19/23 05:28 AM
03/19/23 05:28 AM
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Joined: Jun 2011
Posts: 1,526
LuanKuci
Underboss
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Underboss
Joined: Jun 2011
Posts: 1,526
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They seem like a laughing stock according to whom? Internet dwellers? Which family?
The reason why they don’t go after rats has been discussed a lot on this site. No need to repeat it.
Violence doesn’t always equal to power. Street gangs kill hundreds of people annually in the northeast alone, but they don’t have the influence that the LCN still carries in the same area.
The American Mafia would have disappeared for real if they kept acting like they did up until the early ‘90s. The worst mob takedowns happened *because* of violence. Violence doesn’t pay for our mobsters, this isn’t Canada. It was a smart move on their hand to take the quiet road. Their #1 skill is how adaptable they are.
Obviously there are people out there who take their cues from dumb action tv shows where you see guys getting gunned down every five minutes and think that’s how a serious OC should be. It’s just pathetic really. If these people were in the life they’d be gone (arrested) in a week time.
As for your claim of them being a “laughing stock” I have yet to meet an individual in real life who thinks that. And I live in a traditionally mobbed up area. I know cops, p.i.s, civvies that work in mafia influenced industries (construction, food distribution), and a few felons. They’d say the mob isn’t what it used to be, which is obvious!, but they admit they’re still fear them, would never deal with them and god forbid cross them.
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Re: Is the mafia taken seriously anymore?
[Re: British]
#1054249
03/19/23 09:30 AM
03/19/23 09:30 AM
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Joined: Jun 2011
Posts: 1,526
LuanKuci
Underboss
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Underboss
Joined: Jun 2011
Posts: 1,526
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2019 article about NY mob https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/article/the-five-families/ampInteresting part: “Allon Lifshitz is deputy chief of the criminal division of the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York. Together with his colleague Kristin Mace, the current chief of the Organized Crime And Gangs Section, Lifshitz is responsible for prosecuting the mob. ‘The mafia today is a significant presence,’ he told GQ, ‘no less than in the past’ Lifshitz said their drug operations are probably more formalised today. “There’s always been a rule against selling drugs in the mob, but more of our big cases involving the big moneymakers involve drugs, including importing drugs, such as heroin and cocaine, from overseas or selling opioids domestically. “What you think of as their traditional bread and butter – loan-sharking and extortion – are,” he said, “going on every day in New York City.”
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Re: Is the mafia taken seriously anymore?
[Re: British]
#1054263
03/19/23 12:09 PM
03/19/23 12:09 PM
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Joined: Jun 2011
Posts: 1,526
LuanKuci
Underboss
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Underboss
Joined: Jun 2011
Posts: 1,526
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They’d receive funding anyway. They don’t just investigate the mob, but all OC groups in the city. Regarding extortion, it is almost always a case of a person borrowing money and being threatened for not paying it back. It’s extortion no matter how you frame it you think you know more and better than actual investigators 
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Re: Is the mafia taken seriously anymore?
[Re: British]
#1054267
03/19/23 12:34 PM
03/19/23 12:34 PM
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Joined: Jul 2012
Posts: 2,231
TheKillingJoke
Underboss
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Underboss
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Posts: 2,231
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I've got no real life experience with the American mafia since I don't live in the USA let alone NYC, but going by what I read I don't see any other criminal organizations challenging the mob either. Probably that's largely because there's little conflict of interest, but I don't think the mob is disrespected by other gangs.
As far as their lack of violent activity goes...even though it's very unlikely they're gonna whack you these days, the fear that something "might" happen is still more than enough for most people.
I live in a border region in Europe and this area has registered activity from at least one major Ndrangheta clan from San Luca, a mafia clan from Agrigento, a Turkish clan from Trabzon, an Albanian clan from Shköder, a Dutch Traveller clan from North Brabant, an outlaw motorcycle group and a Moroccan gang based in the Netherlands. None of these organizations have killed anyone in this area, but nobody is willing to find out what would happen if they would cross them.
Last edited by TheKillingJoke; 03/19/23 12:35 PM.
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Re: Is the mafia taken seriously anymore?
[Re: LuanKuci]
#1054270
03/19/23 01:02 PM
03/19/23 01:02 PM
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Joined: Jul 2012
Posts: 3,779
jace
Underboss
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Underboss
Joined: Jul 2012
Posts: 3,779
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They’d receive funding anyway. They don’t just investigate the mob, but all OC groups in the city. Regarding extortion, it is almost always a case of a person borrowing money and being threatened for not paying it back. It’s extortion no matter how you frame it you think you know more and better than actual investigators  No, Mr. Giggles. I am saying that they --the investigators--want to keep their jobs and high profile, To do so they play things up. They no more, but when they put stuff out their is no reason not to occasionally question what they say, or to point out their phoniness.
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Re: Is the mafia taken seriously anymore?
[Re: Hollander]
#1054277
03/19/23 03:38 PM
03/19/23 03:38 PM
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Joined: Oct 2001
Posts: 19,696 AZ
Turnbull
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Joined: Oct 2001
Posts: 19,696
AZ
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At the end of his excellent book, "The Five Families," Selwyn Raab noted that, after Rudy Giuliani's success in the famous Commission Trial, Federal prosecutors were falling over themselves to bring RICO cases against Mafiosi, with considerable success. But, 9/11 redirected a lot of law enforcement resources toward terrorists, allowing the Mob to regroup. I'd add: As long as people want to gamble, whore, do drugs, buy stuff that fell off a truck, and borrow money they aren't qualified to have, there'll always be a Mafia.
Ntra la porta tua lu sangu � sparsu, E nun me mporta si ce muoru accisu... E s'iddu muoru e vaju mparadisu Si nun ce truovo a ttia, mancu ce trasu.
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Re: Is the mafia taken seriously anymore?
[Re: LuanKuci]
#1054280
03/19/23 04:54 PM
03/19/23 04:54 PM
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Joined: Jul 2012
Posts: 3,779
jace
Underboss
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Underboss
Joined: Jul 2012
Posts: 3,779
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Again, their jobs and funds are solidly secured because they don’t focus only on the mob, hence the name of their section.
There will never be a lack of organized crime groups in a city like NY so there really is no need to play things up.
Even If their intentions were to “hype” their jobs they would have pushed the Cartels or the Chinese or the Russians to get extra publicity from pundits and making it more “politically” relevant. The mafia doesn’t trigger the same response from nation-wide media because it can’t be twisted into more current, larger and pressing issues such as immigration (Cartels) or geopolitics (China, Russia).
I mentioned that the Cartels and Asian gangs do not draw the public's interest as much, and more importantly, the communities push back strongly claiming racism. Just look at all the books, movies, an tv series on the Mafia. They drew the most attention. At the end of the day, the D.A.s are political hacks. They get funded yearly, and funding can fluctuate. If they go harder after cartels and others, the protests would cause their superiors to tell them to back off. With the Mafia, they can do whatever they want. When we see mass roundups of Black, Hispanic, or Asians averaging age 70 being dragged out of their homes at 6 A.M. on gambling charges, that's when I'll see things as equal. The mafia is not as feared in nay way as they were in their heyday.
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Re: Is the mafia taken seriously anymore?
[Re: British]
#1054300
03/19/23 08:25 PM
03/19/23 08:25 PM
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Joined: Jun 2011
Posts: 1,526
LuanKuci
Underboss
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Underboss
Joined: Jun 2011
Posts: 1,526
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I'm in my 40s, and have lived in Italian neighborhoods in and around New York my whole life and I'll just say this - growing up, every day someone was pointed out to me as being "connected" or "with this family" or "his dad is such and such".... all the mob guys hung out at their social clubs, mob block parties everywhere, mob shootings were weekly to monthly occurrences. Yet in the last 20 years I can only remember a handful of shootings, don't see mob clubs anymore and never have conversations about "who's who." None of that is necessarily a “bad” thing from their prospective. Fewer shootouts equal fewer murder investigations and convictions. Plenty were sent away for good (and many ratted) because of their violent behavior. Not to mention that it’s even harder to get away with murder today. Talking business in and around social clubs/hang outs isn’t the smartest strategy. A quieter approach was generally taken around the time Cefalù was rumored to be leading the Gambinos. Many relocated to NJ/SI/LI/Westchester and elsewhere so that’s also something to consider when it comes to the lack of social life and hang outs in metro NY. I still get the “who’s who” whenever I meet my relatives and friends from LI/SI/Queens but that’s just anecdotal evidence based on personal experience so take it for what is worth. The Italian mob may still be around in small numbers and still doing dirt, but their reach is so nominal that that they lack any significant influence and power. There really is no middle ground on this site: the mob is either as strong as in the 1980s or it lacks *any* significant influence and power.
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Re: Is the mafia taken seriously anymore?
[Re: British]
#1054313
03/20/23 08:35 AM
03/20/23 08:35 AM
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Joined: Sep 2013
Posts: 732 Great Britain
British
OP
Underboss
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OP
Underboss
Joined: Sep 2013
Posts: 732
Great Britain
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Thanks for the responses, interesting comments.
British is best....
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Re: Is the mafia taken seriously anymore?
[Re: Iceveins]
#1054320
03/20/23 01:04 PM
03/20/23 01:04 PM
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Joined: Oct 2021
Posts: 2,176
RushStreet
Underboss
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Underboss
Joined: Oct 2021
Posts: 2,176
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I'm in my 40s, and have lived in Italian neighborhoods in and around New York my whole life and I'll just say this - growing up, every day someone was pointed out to me as being "connected" or "with this family" or "his dad is such and such".... all the mob guys hung out at their social clubs, mob block parties everywhere, mob shootings were weekly to monthly occurrences. Yet in the last 20 years I can only remember a handful of shootings, don't see mob clubs anymore and never have conversations about "who's who."
The Italian mob may still be around in small numbers and still doing dirt, but their reach is so nominal that that they lack any significant influence and power. We have plenty of mob social clubs still located in Chicago, Elmwood Park and the Armour Square neighborhood near White Sox park being the two neighborhoods that have a few of them. But these two areas also still have lots of Italians unlike places such as Cicero. Also in regards to Armour Square, Its a neighborhood that is located next to Bridgeport. Do not go to Bridgeport anymore because even though at one time it was Italian, its been overun by mexicans and white trash. The only good Italians left all live in Armour Square which borders Bridgeport and Chinatown. Its where all the social clubs are located. Bridgeport does not have any left. I'm sure there are neighborhoods in New York that are the same way when it comes to being overun by mexicans and white trash that were once Italian enclaves.
Last edited by RushStreet; 03/20/23 01:24 PM.
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