American Mafia

According to Wikipedia the free encyclopedia, The American Mafia especially Five Families has its origins in Italian Cosa Nostra. The American Cosa Nostra underwent many changes at the hands of Black Hand gangs around 1900s, Five Points Gang during 1910s and 1920s in New York City and Al Capone’s Syndicate in 1920s in Chicago. Two factions of organized crime emerged by the end of 1920s leading to Castellamarese war for gaining control over organized crime in New York City. Murder of Joseph Masseria, leader of one of the factions ended the war uniting the two factions.First leader of the American Mafia Salvatore Maranzano established a code of conduct, â€Å"family† divisions and structure. He also established certain procedures to resolve disputes but was murdered within six months. Charles â€Å"Lucky† Luciano took over the reins and set up a â€Å"Commission† consisting of bosses from six or seven families for managing their activities. According to Bind er, Jim Colosimo or â€Å"Big Jim† was considered the most powerful gangster and led a multi-ethnic group, with Italian, Jewish, Irish, Greek and other members. In May 1920 he was probably shot dead by â€Å"Frankie Yale under contract John Torrio.† John Torrio took over and united major local gangs dividing the liquor business in Chicago city to a stable state and profitability. The other major gangs during this period in Chicago were North Siders led by Dion O’Banion, the Guilfoyle gang, the Gennas in Little Italy, the West Side O’Donnells, the Druggan-Lake gang, the Saltis-McErlane gang and the Sheldon gang. Torrio under the guidance of Capone took over brothels in Cicero and managed the largest area covering the South Side and major suburbs occupying the south and west of the city.Problems started when a gang tried to increase its profits by not following the agreement strictly and entered neighboring gang’s territory. Friction between Gennas a nd the O’Banion gang led to the murder of O’Banion in November 1924 starting off prohibition gang wars. The Sheldon gang, the Gennas, the Druggan and Lake, the Guilfoyle and later the Circus Gang were all allies of Torrio-Capone. Chicago Heights joined Capone in 1926 and controlled Joliet and major areas east of Indiana and south of Chicago. Torrio was succeeded by Al Capone in 1925.Gennas under Hymie Weiss surrendered after their leadership was attacked by North Siders and the Gennas rackets such as Unione Siciliana were taken over by Al Capone appointing Tony Lombardo as Unione president. The West Side O’Donnells joined ranks with Capone in 1926 after a short lived gang war. Similarly Sheldon gang too joined Capone after Danny Stanton left the town. Gang wars continued for several years and North Siders lost Hymie Weiss in October 1926, nothing remarkable was noticed until the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre in 1929.Now let us consider organized black gang s during this period run by Italian, Jewish and Irish gangsters operating from Harlem, New York and a few loosely run black gangs concentrated primarily on policy and lottery gambling, prostitution and drugs. Bell stated that over 200,000 blacks returned after World War I to Harlem expecting better pay, better housing and equality. But they realized very soon that whites had not changed and found some of the worst low paying menial jobs such as that of janitors, bootblacks, cooks, houseboys and baggage handlers.They were paid very less compared to a white person doing the same work. The housing situation too was worst; Harlem an overcrowded and segregated community accommodated more than 250,000 citizens in 50 blocks long and 8 blocks wide area with more than 5,000 people staying in one block. The people were compelled to sleep in shifts. Blacks suffered the most with Racism, race riots and labor riots being the order of the day. Things moved from bad to worse with the passage of 18 th Amendment to the constitution banning sale of alcoholic beverages by the Congress on January 20, 1920.Establishments primarily depending on the sale of these products (alcoholic beverages) were compelled to down the shutters across the nation. These developments marked the beginning of the infamous Roaring Twenties – one of the country’s darkest periods when the mob, the crooked politicians and the gangsters ruled. Taking advantage of the fact that consumption of alcohol was a part of American culture and people could not stop drinking due to prohibition, the mob and the crooked entrepreneurs illegally transported the alcoholic beverages from the Canadian border and at times even manufactured beer and liquor.â€Å"The overt exclusion of blacks from the nation's economic, social and political processes only served to foment alternative means toward becoming a part of established idealized factions. † Blacks were suppressed to the maximum possible extent by den ying good jobs, influential political positions, advanced education, nice homes, equal social treatment and benefits. Thus most of the black Americans took to illegal means to compensate for the economic denials.Black crime was independent initially with traditional thievery, gambling, prostitution and robbery, but later two key factors Bolito (the numbers game) and drugs led to evolvement of organized crime. Bets could be placed from any where such as parlors, bars, restaurants, pool halls, barber shops, drugstores and even from their homes, more than 800 runners or bet collectors hurried places to collect and place bets on behalf of customers in 30 policy banks. The policy bankers became the richest and started extending loans and finance to Harlem residents, which the blacks could not expect from whites operated financial institutions.The big time number operators included James Warner, Stephanie St. Clair, Casper Holstein, Wilfred Brandon, Jose Miro, Joseph Ison, Masjoe Ison and Simeon Francis. By 1928 the numbers game became most profitable and the arrests on this count also increased. Profits were reported to the elected representatives through police officials and these corrupt elected politicians had strong links with mob’s syndicate led by white gangsters. â€Å"Corruption ran throughout New York's law enforcement, legal and political systems, including bondsmen, high-ranking police officials, judges, lawyers and politicians.† To protect themselves the night clubs, businesses, bars, pimps, whores, gamblers, bankers and number runners started paying huge kickbacks. Democratic Party boss in Manhattan, James J. Hines had links with mobster and beer baron â€Å"Dutch† Schultz. Schultz and fellow Murder Inc. gangsters â€Å"Lucky† Luciano, Frank Costello, Owney Madden, Bugsy Siegel, Joe Adonis and Meyer Lansky started taking over Harlem’s numbers racket. Short gang wars that erupted due to taking over and syndication led to an estimated 40 murders and 6 kidnappings. By late 1928 a total of 20 policy banks remained out of 40 and most of the bankers retired mysteriously.Dutch Schultz was in total control and called â€Å"King of Harlem Bankers† From the discussion above it is clear that organized crime had flourished in American society basically due to prohibition which was in vogue from 1920 to 1933 and every affluent individual was either directly or indirectly involved in illegal activities such as illicit liquor trafficking, prostitution, maintenance of brothel houses and having ties with mafia bosses. It is now clear that removal of prohibition led to a reduction in one of the evils i. e. , illegal liquor trafficking, but other illegal activities do continue carried out even to this day.References Cosa Nostra. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (2006). Retrieved on September 21, 2006 from: http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Cosa_Nostra John Binder. The Chicago Outfit (2003). Arcadia Publishing. Page nos. 27 to 42. Walter A. Bell. Brief History. Court TV. Crime Library. Criminal Minds and Methods. Black gangs of Harlem (2005). Retrieved on September 21, 2006 from: http://www. crimelibrary. com/gangsters_outlaws/gang/harlem_gangs/index. html Walter A. Bell. The Roaring Twenties. Court TV. Crime Library. Criminal Minds and Methods. Black gangs of Harlem (2005).Retrieved on September 21, 2006 from: http://www. crimelibrary. com/gangsters_outlaws/gang/harlem_gangs/2. html Walter A. Bell. The Numbers Game. Court TV. Crime Library. Criminal Minds and Methods. Black gangs of Harlem (2005). Retrieved on September 21, 2006 from: http://www. crimelibrary. com/gangsters_outlaws/gang/harlem_gangs/3. html Walter A. Bell. The Takeovers and Syndication. Court TV. Crime Library. Criminal Minds and Methods. Black gangs of Harlem (2005). Retrieved on September 21, 2006 from: http://www. crimelibrary. com/gangsters_outlaws/gang/harlem_gangs/6. html

Lmt 100

AIFAA HUSNA BINTI ASHA’RI 112542 LMT 100 / 44 LECTURER : PUAN ZURAIDAH ABU BAKAR Question 1 (a) If I was Sivasothie, I will object the arranged marriage made by my family because I know that arranged marriage will not last longer even though it was parent choice. There were lack of love and respect between husband and wife when we married with someone which we do not know well. Furthermore, there was also the danger of arranged marriage which the husband will act violent towards his wife and to be worse the wife was too afraid to speak out. In Sivasothie’s situation, her future husband was materialistic. As he works as a doctor, the value of dowry that he wanted was too high that cannot be afford by Sivasothie, plus he did not wanted to be considerate with her family at all. In this case, it shows that a woman pride was very low because she cannot afford to pay the dowry for the man, just because of the arranged marriage made by their family. Question 1 (b) If I was the American girl, I will have a slow talk with my husband to improve our relationship. Maybe it was hard to have a slow talk as my husband was too cold, but I will try to change and improve the situation to save my marriage or else my relationship with him will become worse. The love between us is fading and it will die if I do not take any action on it. A marriage with no love was meaningless because we were living with our partner everyday and there will be lack of intimacy. It was okay if our husband was not care about us too much. We do not have to be emotional towards our husband because it will destroy the marriage that we build. Hence, we need to make things better and save the marriage from divorced. Tolerate between each other is important so that our relationship will last longer.

Bank strategy & performance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Bank strategy & performance - Essay Example nd communication technologies by the banking sector are – â€Å"cost-reduction, mergers and acquisitions, strategic alliances, competition, globalization, operational risks, cost reduction, time to market, surging volumes, e-commerce, enhancing flexibility, business diversification such as non-financial services and becoming ‘‘service aggregators’’, etc† (Centeno, 295). Holding a desirable market share, enhancement of cost efficiency and expanding the reach to customers are the main reasons why banks use the Internet banking facility. On an overall basis, IT investment in banks especially in hardware, software and IT related services are assumed to bring about improvement in bank performance. However a research shows that despite the banks being one of the key investors in IT, there is little association between IT related investment and the efficiency of bank operations. This gives rise to a contradiction in profitability. However the impact is mixed for different products. For instance, investment in IT services seems to bear a positive impact on accounting profits and profitability. On the other hand, investment in hardware and software related products tend to reduce the performance of banks. There might be certain factors working behind it. For instance, there could be lowering of entry barriers, which lead to loss in market power. (Beccalli, 2007, p.2229) Technology of Internet banking is changing pretty fast. Essentially the technologies in rural markets have been lagging behind and therefore community ban ks are slow in taking on this technology. For such banks cost of adoption of Internet banking itself might be expensive. Internet banking helps the banks to compete across a large spread of demography and facilitates the access of modern technology by the customers. Therefore community banks need to adopt such technologies in order to be at a competitive advantageous position. (Sullivan, 2000, pp.12-13) Internet has brought in a new wave of

Genetic Modification a Hybrid DNA Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Genetic Modification a Hybrid DNA - Essay Example In case of genetic modification, a hybrid DNA is produced by combining DNA from different organisms. These organisms could be far apart in nature – like producing an organism by combining DNA of dog and cat. In case of non-genetically modified organism natural crossing is done between two different breeds of the same species to produce the combination of the better of the two. This is rather a natural evolutionary process, while the genetic engineering is a completely artificial synthesis of DNA in a test tube. 2. This is possible but this will require the techniques of genetic engineering. To differentiate critically, one requires identifying genes of both the plants. In case of genetically modified plants there will be genes of genes of some other type of plants, while in case of plants modified by molecular genetics, all the genes will be from the same plant. 3. Some relevant examples are - food poisoning, dysentery, nausea or vomiting, obesity, lack of micronutrients, excessive intake of different constituents like iron, allergy, retarded growth etc. All of this can be caused by genetically modified food. But, here I must add a word of caution, all of these can be caused by conventional food as well. The problem is not with the conventional or genetically modified food but is with unsafe food. The only thing that goes in favor of conventional food here is that these are tested and tried since time immemorable, while genetically modified foods are recent phenomena and therefore, some lack of trust is but natural. 4. To answer this we need to go to the basics. For any organism its characteristic is coded in its DNA – be its nutritional composition, shelf life, yield, disease resistance. In case the DNA is suitably modified, these characteristics can be modified. For example, extract a gene resp, possibly for higher yield from a plant and put this into a low yield crop.  

2.What is the democratic peace theory What are its strengths and Essay

2.What is the democratic peace theory What are its strengths and weaknesses - Essay Example The empirical association between peace and democracy has been challenged and debated since the inception of this theory to the current times. Statistically, the likelihood of democracies going into war is considered to be very low (Art and Jervis, 2005: 256). This theory not only challenges the existence and validity of other systems of politics such as communism and fascism, but also challenges the prevailing international relations realist view, which emphasizes that common strategic interests and calculations of balance of power are what explain stability and peace which characterizes liberal democracies relations (Baylis, Smith and Owens, 2010: 424). It is no doubt that DPT is a fundamental aspect in understanding international relation and politics. Therefore, this essay will focus on understanding DPT in detail, as well as focus on its advantages and disadvantages. The proponents of DPT have offered several explanations regarding the assertion that democracies rarely or never go to war with each other. Some of these explanations include: democracies often peaceful conflict resolution norms that they employ in external relations; democracies relate and trade heavily with other democracies and war will be very costly and of little or no gain at all; democracies are made up of democratic institutions like powerful legislations and competitive elections which may prohibit governments from going to war; and democratic leaders are answerable to voters for issues such as war and therefore they have an incentive to find alternatives (Art and Jervis, 2005: 257). Fundamentally, there are four main explanations for the democratic peace theory: structural, monadic, dyadic, and normative explanations. The structural explanation holds that it is the representative government institutions which hold decision makers and elected officials accountable to a wide electorate, which make a war to be

Environmental Values Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Environmental Values Paper - Essay Example I value the environment as something that should be valued and, ethically speaking, it should be treated the way we would want to be treated. In the long run, if the environment continues to be damaged in the ways that it has been, it will only backfire on us, making this world an unsafe place for us to live. Although the environment is failing due to our negligence, it is still considered a comfortable place for us. However, this will not continue if we do not take action. To accomplish this, people need to understand and embrace the fact that they are not superior to nature (Michael, 1999), that they each require the other to live to its full potential. Ecofeminism is the movement that strives to find common ground between environmentalism and feminism (Reuther, 2003). The argument is that the same oppression and degradation that women face is the same that the environment is putting up with. That is to say, the degradation is being done in masculine attitudes and methods, such as what women are used to. It is because of this common bond that many women have taken to fight for the rights of the environment, just as they had to fight for their own rights. There is much controversy about this concept, though there are many that can at least agree or relate to the fundamentals of it, such as other minority groups. These people understand what it is like to be mistreated and the feeling of finally breaking through to fairness and freedom. The important principle of this movement is that there are people that understand what the environment is going through. They are willing to provide support and respect for the environment that they themselves had fought for and are still fighting for. If there are more people that can relate to and understand what the environment is going through, then there are more that are willing to help it. These are the

Qualitative Research Proposal Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3750 words

Qualitative Research Proposal - Essay Example The employees will be informed of the scope of the research and their consent sought before sampling 137 participants through stratified random sampling. Data will be analyzed by the researcher’s rationale before coding and application of SPSS software for descriptive statistics and comparisons. Application of the software reduces probability of bias. Ethical issues such as nonmalefecence, beneficence, justice, autonomy, and fidelity are expected to arise during the research process and measures have been taken to observe the ethical principles. ‘Effects of drug abuse on domestic violence’ is my topic of interest. The topic’s independent variable is consumption of drugs and is measurable on two scales, consumption, or non-consumption of drugs, and participants’ level of consumption of drugs. The dependent variable is experienced domestic violence with the drug users as victims or perpetrators of the violence. The proposed research aims at ascertaining an assumption of a relationship between drug abuse and domestic violence and the extent to which consumption of the substances contribute to the violence. The relationship between drug abuse and domestic violence has been widely explored for possible solutions. It has for example been established that victims of drug abuse have violent behaviors that they express in their domestic set ups. A research to investigate existence a relationship between drug abuse, violence, and suicide reported history of violent behavior, which can manifest in homes, among a significant percentage of drug addicts, about 75 percent. This indicates that substance abuse is a major factor to domestic violence (Ilgen and Kleinberg, 2011). Drug addicts with violent behaviors in domestic set ups however restrain from the behavior upon rehabilitation but resumes violence when they relapse to substance abuse. This is according to a research that investigated the relationship between relapse to