4 ms·

Agreed. The entire concept of "financial crimes" has only been applied in a widespread manner with the advent of the war on drugs, which many of us oppose for

by jnbiche 13y ago

Agreed. The entire concept of "financial crimes" has only been applied in a widespread manner with the advent of the war on drugs, which many of us oppose for a variety of very valid reasons.

rayiner 13y ago
Actually, the Bank Secrecy Act was passed alongside RICO. The target was organized crime, not drugs. Nixon coined the term "War on Drugs" in 1971, but aggressive drug prohibition in the U.S. dated back long before that, and the explosion in imprisonment as a result of drug prosecutions didn't really kick in until a decade later: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_on_Drugs#Arrests_and_incarceration http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_on_Drugs#Arrests_and_incarc.... While "financial crimes" are a key part of the drug war now, their primary use has been to attack the kind of organized crime that turned New York into Gotham City in the 1970's. Watch the movie Donnie Brasco and also the various documentaries about the Mob Commission Trial. National Geographic has some good material here: http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/inside-the-american-mob http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/inside-the-ame....
- alasdair_ 13y ago
  "organized crime" to the level that necessitated the RICO act only came about because of the war on drugs (in that particular case, alcohol was the drug in question).
  - rayiner 13y ago
    While it's true that organized crime grew up during the bootlegging era, organized crime was on the upswing in the 1960's and 1970's, at a time long after prohibition had ended and before the modern drug war had started. Clearly, the fuel to feed organized crime existed without prohibition. Given that fact, it's hard to say that those organizations wouldn't have grown bigger and more sophisticated during that period anyway (just like corporations did, for reasons that had nothing to do with prohibition).
    - jnbiche 13y ago
      The modern drug war was well underway in the 1970s (watch Donnie Brasco again). It just had not yet morphed into the crack epidemic (an epidemic whose roots lay partially in the skyrocketing cost of cocaine due to the war on drugs).
  - jnbiche 13y ago
    Exactly my point. Prohibition was definitely part of this country's long-standing war on "illegal substances".
- jnbiche 13y ago
  Yeah, take a real close look at what led to our needing RICO (another non-sensical law): prohibition of alcohol and gambling. Without those two legal battles, the mob would have still been shaking down the corner grocer for a couple of bucks protection money (which our country's law enforcement should have been taking care of, instead of chasing down bootleggers and betting operations). Watch Ken Burn's documentary on prohibition and soak in all the parallel's to today's war on drugs: http://www.pbs.org/kenburns/prohibition/ http://www.pbs.org/kenburns/prohibition/

by jnbiche 13y ago

Agreed. The entire concept of "financial crimes" has only been applied in a widespread manner with the advent of the war on drugs, which many of us oppose for a variety of very valid reasons.

rayiner 13y ago

Actually, the Bank Secrecy Act was passed alongside RICO. The target was organized crime, not drugs. Nixon coined the term "War on Drugs" in 1971, but aggressive drug prohibition in the U.S. dated back long before that, and the explosion in imprisonment as a result of drug prosecutions didn't really kick in until a decade later: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_on_Drugs#Arrests_and_incarceration http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_on_Drugs#Arrests_and_incarc.... While "financial crimes" are a key part of the drug war now, their primary use has been to attack the kind of organized crime that turned New York into Gotham City in the 1970's. Watch the movie Donnie Brasco and also the various documentaries about the Mob Commission Trial. National Geographic has some good material here: http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/inside-the-american-mob http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/inside-the-ame....

alasdair_ 13y ago
"organized crime" to the level that necessitated the RICO act only came about because of the war on drugs (in that particular case, alcohol was the drug in question).
- rayiner 13y ago
  While it's true that organized crime grew up during the bootlegging era, organized crime was on the upswing in the 1960's and 1970's, at a time long after prohibition had ended and before the modern drug war had started. Clearly, the fuel to feed organized crime existed without prohibition. Given that fact, it's hard to say that those organizations wouldn't have grown bigger and more sophisticated during that period anyway (just like corporations did, for reasons that had nothing to do with prohibition).
  - jnbiche 13y ago
    The modern drug war was well underway in the 1970s (watch Donnie Brasco again). It just had not yet morphed into the crack epidemic (an epidemic whose roots lay partially in the skyrocketing cost of cocaine due to the war on drugs).
- jnbiche 13y ago
  Exactly my point. Prohibition was definitely part of this country's long-standing war on "illegal substances".
jnbiche 13y ago
Yeah, take a real close look at what led to our needing RICO (another non-sensical law): prohibition of alcohol and gambling. Without those two legal battles, the mob would have still been shaking down the corner grocer for a couple of bucks protection money (which our country's law enforcement should have been taking care of, instead of chasing down bootleggers and betting operations). Watch Ken Burn's documentary on prohibition and soak in all the parallel's to today's war on drugs: http://www.pbs.org/kenburns/prohibition/ http://www.pbs.org/kenburns/prohibition/