Crime City New York: The Power of Money
Author: Rachel Kim
P&P Mentor: Tevž Sitar
Beginning from the 1870s to the end of the 1900s, the mass industrialization and advancement in production in the United States was vastly successful, cultivating a dominant economy that established the U.S. dollar internationally. A booming job market was opened in industries such as construction, mining, agriculture, and factory work to compensate for the exponential increase in production. The United States became a center of immigration during the Progressive Era, where more than 15 million immigrants--predominantly poorer white Europeans--moved in hopes of securing a more profitable job. Famously coined as the “American Dream”, the opportunity of success was promised under the premise of hard work. But for most, the American dream stayed a dream. Lower-income immigrants lacked marketable skills or experience working in office environments to work higher-paying jobs. Factory work was dangerous and paid little for the menial work. Immigrants coming from non-English speaking countries were unable to secure stable/high-paying jobs without the ability to communicate, and clashing cultural and societal differences made it difficult to assimilate, leaving ethnic groups to create their own communities.
The term mafia was first coined in Sicily, Italy. The island of Sicily was located and bordered by the Mediterranean Sea, which established its importance as a nodal point for trade routes. Sicily became a flourishing center for exchanging a vast variety of cultures, goods, and the arts, but its geographically advantageous location was vulnerable to attack. Geographically located in a war-torn zone, the island became a target of invaders from the Greeks, Normans, Byzantines, Vikings, and more prominent warring groups over an extended history. Generations of destabilized government control weakened police control over the state of Sicily, leaving the city rampant with corruption and landowners defenseless from crime. In place of an established policing force, smaller gangs offered protection services, gradually building into a larger underground business. Over time, gangs had built up prominent control and ultimately were able to govern Sicily due to the Italian government’s weak influence over the island. The shift in the power dynamic between the Sicilian Mafia and the Italian government changed the business of protecting landowners to extorting people. A weak militant state in Sicily allowed for organized crime to be established as a dominant force.
As immigration to the United States became popular for poorer-European blue-collar workers, a Sicilian Mafia member, Giuseppe Esposito, became the first to emigrate to the states. Esposito, and 6 other members, moved to New York and introduced the idea of organized crime. Emigration became favorable for young Italian men who had affiliations with mobs upon success in the states. As more mob members emigrated to the U.S., the mafia no longer only worked within New York and spread all around immigration hot spots around New York (e.g. New Jersey, Florida, and California). The crime syndicate began growing into a larger industry.
For the first time, organized crime was introduced as a business in capitalist America. Its success can be heavily attributed to the importance and influence of money in inter-governmental politics and reflects on modern-day corruption within the political sphere. The American crime syndicate proved to show the power of money allowed corruption to persist during the golden age of organized crime. Paying off or scaring politicians and bailing out convicted members, the Mafia evaded criminal persecution for decades even with police being aware of the vast underground empire. The Mafia’s success in changing the American judicial system and legislature exposed the fragility of the government and how corruption fueled by money creates an unjust system. The capitalist state of America heavily emphasizes the importance of accumulating vast fortunes and rewards individuals or groups based on how efficient and profitable the outcome is. Although money serves to be the powerhouse of capitalism, a major flaw in the economic and political system is money itself. Capitalism’s reliance and high reward for earning more money cultivates a culture of individualism and personal success, leading people to use money to cheat the system itself. The Mafia capitalized on their money from laundering, protection racketeering, and other activities to avoid persecution and establish policies that would benefit the illegal operation. Ultimately, America’s capitalistic government served to be the perfect environment for the American crime syndicate to thrive due to the lawless nature of the criminal organization.
The modern romanticization of the Mafia in movies such as “The Godfather” or “Goodfellas” distorts public perception of the brutal past behind the Mafia’s criminal activity, creating almost positive connotations behind the stereotype of an Italian Mafia member. But the legacy of the Mafia goes much more beyond blockbuster hits in Hollywood. Since the FBI’s crackdown on the Mafia, the organization has declined in operations, yet the history behind the Mafia remains as a blueprint for the industry of organized crime. The Mafia has gone underground and continues to work in sectors such as gambling where laws and legislation are lax on function and business. The 1950s serve to be a landmark for infamous political and social reform. Exposing the truth behind political bribery, the Mafia’s exploitation of policies teaches how modern-day conglomerates take advantage of the American government system. Transforming the cultural and political state of New York, the birth of an empire of organized crime would reign terror leave the police on a decades-long mission to track down the infamous dons of the American crime syndicate and uncover the effects of political corruption to the public.
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