The Mafia is NOT a Helpful Learning Tool
Different from the blasé stance represented in Position 1, the many stakeholders of this group firmly argue that the Mafia offers no insight to solving the modern organized crime epidemic...
The Mafia is NOT DeadThrough this perspective, stakeholders firmly believe that since the Mafia has not been entirely defeated, then drawing on "successes" of prior involvement would be fruitless, resulting in continued failure with regards to a possible modern application. They argue that very few, if any, of the implemented tactics and legislation to combat the Mafia worked, hence they would not be effective if implemented on modern Cartels or Gangs either. To get a better insight on this idea, try reading Selwyn Raab's book, "Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia Empires." In his discourse, Raab highlights how some tactics, like "bottom-up elimination", failed and would continue to fail in modern America.
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Exclusionary CompetitionThis principle promotes the idea that, even if the Mafia has been weakened, that it had nothing to do with law enforcement involvement or community activism. In an attempt to contest the credibility of the Mafia, this side argues that the decline in Mafia presence was brought on by “exclusionary competition” with the appearance of rival organizations. They point out that the Mafia was unable to adapt to a shifting market and was simply pushed out of business by the arrival of these new enterprises. The Central and South American Drug cartels cornered the cocaine market and forced the Mafia into retirement as they no longer had a marketable product or service. This was aided by demographic shifts where countless Hispanics entered the country and began to take over the urban areas where the Italians, who have been assimilated at this point, once roamed.
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Over Represented?A final argument posed by the dissenting side of this argument, as an attack on the credibility of the Mob, that, in truth, the Mafia was not ruthless, large, or notorious, rather, it was simply an over represented and glamorized entity which can “barely hold a candle to the modern threat of organized crime.” They say that, through the various forms of media spanning the last eight decades, the American perspective of the Italian Organization has been construed and the truth about them obscured. With films like "The Godfather", "Goodfellas", and "Scarface", the public view of the Mafia has forever been altered. Glorified as only Hollywood can, the real Mafia is but a shadow of its fictionalized self. This could cloud judgements and would prove to be a waste of time and resources in trying to counter a perceived entity instead of the actual entity.
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