Imagine yourself the person who you are by ethnicity and where you live. Imagine if you was a criminal. Like what would you do for a living and how'd you stay off the radar of the authorities?

I live in Upper Darby PA. It is one of the most diverse areas in the Philadelphia area and possibly the United States. I am a white American guy who is 6'4" and pretty in shape. I am of Irish heritage and look like a cop.

In my area if I was a criminal I'd probably run a scam targeting immigrants. Either by using immigrant friends phishing on the phone or by using my law enforcement image to confuse them in person into giving up personal information for my use.

A similar community in Bucks County is going through the same thing.

http://www.bensalemtwp.org/newsone.html

That said I would NEVER do this. I am a registered nurse and have too good a job to ever do this to someone. Plus my mother is an immigrant so it's extra annoying to me.

I know I'm new here, but isn't this why some people don't like when people become infatuated with organized crime?

I can understand how a new poster could have the reaction you did,but I think it's just a hypothetical "for the sake of conversation" type question. At least I hope so! I'm pretty new here too,and these types of questions are not unusual. Actually they can be kind of fun, a change from the norm. Just as I don't think playing violent video games makes otherwise normal people violent,I don't think that a little "what if?" will make a person a criminal.

I am an Italian male, and were I to go into crime as a business,I would stay with gambling, such as sports,numbers,and card games.You can make a very good living,and unless you are a complete nitwit,you won't get much heat from the law as long as you deliver a few envelopes from time to time.

LMAOL I am a criminal of Italian descendent and to stay off the radar is hard . I come from a section in Boston called North End where everyone knows everyone and its very small tight knit neighborhood and come from a family of criminals and the only way you avoid the law is by not getting involved in crime. I'm currently facing pending federal charges and i must say there are too many rats to stay away . You might be able too for a while of time but eventually it will catch up to you unless, you have a very very small circle very discreet clientle or basically just keep everything you do to a minimum at a small time level only way I see anyone avoiding prosecution and rats. And another way i really believe to stay away is avoid a crew and do all the work yourself, no one needs to know what you but the people you are doing with and last but not least learn when to quit while you are ahead.

I am a half russian half italian male from Indianapolis. If I was gonna be a criminal id stick with pump and dump stocks, insider trading, money laundering and tax evasion. Id stick to a third party scenario where one person made the trades and split it into thirds; third for me third for him and a third for the regulatory guy. The other two dont know each other. Id also deal with mortgage fraud having a crew of guys pumping shitty mortgages to poor people that are guaranteed by the government via some low income loan law.

IMO the best way to avoid major prison time would be to avoid crimes that fall under Federal jurisdiction. When you get into anything involving banks,government backed programs, stocks, interstate commerce,etc, you're getting into serious mandatory sentences and unlimited resources on the part of the Feds.

Does Indianapolis have a big Italian population toothpicks?

Okay Lou. Heres what I suggest then since in our hypothetical world we apparently don't want to make any money. Snatch old ladies purses and sell nickel bags of marijuana. You wont make any fuckin money but youll likely stay away from fed minimums.

What do you suggest Lou? Essentially anything that makes money is potentially regulated federally from stock fraud to gambling. Even nickel bags potentially are. Everything the mob does can be charged federally.

Do you recommend a mix of petty property crimes before being thrown in county and being raped? Is that your experience?

Jesus Christ guys! A guy posts a hypothetical question and it seems like a fun topic. I even told a fellow new poster that one of the things I liked was the friendly give and take on this board. I post a reply that in my opinion,I would stick to a primarily local gambling based business. Then in a follow up, I opine that I would stay away from potentially serious Federal crimes. Just an opinion,stated politely and and not directed at anyone.

From this friendly interchange,I get blasted by two posters,one of which is such a sick f**k,that he inquires as to the possibility of being my having been forcibly anally penetrated "in the county". Of course this may be a brilliant debating tactic heretofore unseen in the world. Let someone express an opinion,then unleash your dazzling intellect by
insinuating homosexual sodomy.The Nobel nominating committee really dropped the ball when they passed you over.

Great job of encouraging other new posters.
P.S. To the other posters and the Mods,I apologize in advance. I have kept my posts polite and non-personal and will continue to do so. I just had to let it out on this one.

I am an Italian of the province of naples, in order to make money without suffering heavy sentences, would be the only concentrate on usury, counterfeiting of clothing, and the smuggling of cigarettes, since I live in an area where there are many immigrants both Eastern and Arabs, I could buy small quantities of drugs, (max a kilo), leaving they the drug dealing on the street, and maybe have a little prostitution ring.

I made this thread for just a friendly discussion, good to read your replies.

Anyway, to answer my own question. I'm a Polish/Russian male living in Latvia. If I'd get to crime, I'd start organizing my own criminal group. But I'd better choose to stay in the shadow as a legal businesman and have someone I trust as a street boss. Practically I'd start with everything I can get my hands on to with the resources we'd have. Starting from smuggling cigarettes and alcohol from Russia. Then creating a prostitution ring. The prostitution ring here would bring big money if you aim with it at the tourists. They're ready to pay for a fuck what a normal legal person here earns a month working his ass off in the supermarket. I'd create also tochki(dealership places for alcohol and cigarettes) where'd I'd put some bum to sell the stuff for me. Eventually I'd recruit ex-prisoners who just have came out of prison as they got no other way of good income.
Practically with creating each operation, I'd put a person in charge of it. Like Vasya is in charge of prostitution, Yuri is in charge of contraband. Then I'd move on to scams, like pumping up a bums bank account for a few months and then taking a bank loan on him. Create fake companies on bum names, make fake deals and then ask from the government to pay a part of the taxes back, etc. But actually I'd try to never take any part of actual doing in it, just give out orders to trustable people and take a small percentage of everything and launder the money trough my legal enterprises.

Toe cutting. Let the other crims do the work and take it off them.

id be a columbian (or cuban) in miami selling kilos of cocaine(snorting the shit myself of course). I would have a golden custom made uzi and have an army of killers from columbia working for me. I would chainsaw rivals in a bath tub in the basement of my huge mansion. Do it big.

They still selling those sick ass Fila Tracksuits over there? Alot of the time when I shipped clothing to customers over there they would bitch about the tariff/customs fees which weren't my responsibility as a seller.

Not really. Its an ecclectic mix of backgrounds.

They dont have bookies where you people live LOL

I guess my polite response to that would be to make a few points.
A, No risk no reward. If I was a gangster id want to make the big money, and even though it would be high risk, I think it would be less risky than pumping diesel or blow.

B, When your a legitimate tough guy in a not so tough guy world, you could more easily muscle in than would otherwise be the case in typical rackets. Obviously then leading to a lower chance of getting wacked. Also, I think peoples awareness of your reputation may serve as an impediment to flipping.

C. Your correct, you are looking at fed time in these scenarios. But I also think your more likely to get the benefit of soft time (minimum security) due to the lack of violence invovled in the crimes and the tendancy of those doing these crimes to be of more middle to upper middle class backgrounds.

But then again. I could be completely wrong.