> it's that organized crime was really a kind of alternative government, serving many of the functions that governments serve, but one whose 'citizens' were mos

> it's that organized crime was really a kind of alternative government, serving many of the functions that governments serve, but one whose 'citizens' were mostly criminals. Criminals, or in the case presented in the opening of the movie, otherwise law-abiding people who seek vigilante justice after the government fails to deliver justice through official avenues. This theme is repeated later in the movie when Michael, until then a law-abiding citizen, commits a vigilante act of murder against a corrupt police captain to avenge his father.