You know, the old protection rackets (which probably still exist) were easy to make seem non-illegal. If that's a word. One person offers to prevent the consequ

You know, the old protection rackets (which probably still exist) were easy to make seem non-illegal. If that's a word. One person offers to prevent the consequences of ignoring threats, but doesn't make the threat themselves. A person with little or no known connections to the first makes the actual threat and carries them out. The first guy was trying to help a neighborhood business with a potential problem, you see. In other words, if you pay me I'll protect your store from these lawless thugs destroying other people's stores who do not pay for my protection. Now, looking at such things from a common sense perspective makes it quite obvious what's going on. But proving the same in a court of law, which often will have a much higher requirement of proof, may not be so easy.