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> On the closer-to-respectable side of organized crime in Chicago, even the "Democratic Machine" is largely dead. When did that happen? I have a buddy of mine
by RajT88 3y ago
> On the closer-to-respectable side of organized crime in Chicago, even the "Democratic Machine" is largely dead.
When did that happen? I have a buddy of mine who attends community action groups run by local alderman out of churches on the south side. As of maybe 2017 he was telling me about how "The Machine" was alive and well and aldermen were still afraid to speak out about it (even if they move across the country afterward).
- tptacek 3y agoAs exemplified by the story we're commenting on, in the heyday of top-down large-scale organized crime, mob hits were a commonplace. We have RICO today because he violence, over the preceding 50 years, had gotten way out of hand. We have violence in Chicago today --- more than we had in the 1970s! --- but we don't so much have mob hits. An organized crime operation, protected by violence, run out of the Cook Country Democratic "Machine" would be one of the best kept secrets in the country. People would semiregularly get killed to keep it. But that doesn't happen. I'm sure there's a lot of graft and corruption. There is everywhere we have single-party rule. But the "Democratic Machine" is not an Outfit-style criminal organization.
- pjc50 3y agohttps://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/feb/24/chicago-police-detain-americans-black-site https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/feb/24/chicago-poli... The conflict between mob and police seems to have gradually resolved into organized crime as policing.