Organized Crime & Immigration

In the previous chapters we have discussed crime and criminal behavior. Most of this criminal activity can be referred to as "street" crime. As this chapter illustrates there is other criminal activity called organizational crime. This refers to criminal activity by legitimate business as well as organized crime. The Sherman Antitrust Act was passed because Standard Oil, which was owned by Rockefeller, controlled 90 percent of the oil business in the United States. This was done by price fixing, and illegal deals with the railroads to ship the competitors oil at a much higher price, making it non competitive with the Standard Oil products. Many of the giants of industry, achieved that title by illegal means. People such as John Jacob Astor, Leland Stanford, and John D. Rockefeller, all engaged in criminal acts in order to obtain wealth and status. The theme was, "the end justified the means." This was all for the pursuit of the "American Dream", wealth and status and most importantly, power and respect. Business's today engage in price fixing, secret deals, and monopolies in order to maintain the bottom line. Their illegal acts also included unsafe work conditions, as depicted in the movie "Silkwood" where a company knowingly exposed workers to radiation. Automobile manufacturers are alleged to have produced and sold vehicle that they knew were defective. Ralph Nader first exposed the automobile industry in the book "Unsafe At Any Speed." This book examined the unsafe vehicle the "Corvair" that was knowingly manufactured, and was unsafe. Other recent automobiles that had major design flaws were the Pinto and the Chevy Pickup truck. They estimated that it was cheaper to settle and pay off any injury claims that may arise, than to recall and repair the vehicles. All this done with a business mind, and what will cost the company the least. With the fall of the Enron Corporation it will be very interesting how the investigation of the top leaders of the company will portray their actions. It appears that many had very selfish interests foremost in their actions, and the not the interest of the company or its employees.

Organized Crime came about when new immigrants came to America and found the road to riches were blocked or unavailable to them. They then attempted to obtain the "American Dream" in nonconventional ways. These groups would engage in organized criminal activity. As these groups obtained money and status, they left criminal activity and went into other legal avenues. In America, the first organized crime group was the Irish. As they began to obtain status and wealth in society, they were replaced by the next wave of immigrants, the Jews and then after the turn of the century, the Italians. Today organized crime in the United States lives on. With new immigrants arriving, and facing the restricted roads to success, they resort to criminal activity. The new Organized Crime groups in America are the Russians, Polish, Asian's, Mexicans, Nigerians, South Americans and Chinese. The South Americans criminal organization is known as "Operation Colgem" in the law enforcement community. The Chinese organizations are into extortion and narcotics that mostly involve other Chinese.

I am interested in your comments about lecture # 8, second paragraph beginning with...Organized Crime came about when..... Give the class your thoughts on how immigration yesterday and even today has those making a fast buck, at others expense. These people are good at creating a criminal empire.Chapter 8''