Criminal Activities In The 1920s

Members of his gang were often called "American Boys" : a group of non-Italian, native born criminals. "(Lantzer). Before prohibition was enforced, many gangs had their hands tied up in illegal gambling and prostitution. Capone and his gang dominated Chicago and cause lots of fear in people. As Witer explained in his work about Capone's ability with his gang, "By the late 1920's, his gang also dominated gambling, labor racketeering, and other Criminal activities and established contacts with gangs."

The upbringing of the organization has two facets: create a better environment by helping those in need and the other one is to seize opportunities to gain an advantage over others by strategic force. “The idea of the Mafia being a Robin Hood-like organization in defense of the poor had a long life in Italy. But the sheer brutality of the war against the state put the validity of the myth in question. There was so much violence and Mafia brutality. That is when the myth of the good Mafia dies.

As if becoming the decade of the worst economic bust in history, usually referred to as the Great Depression, was not enough, the early 19th century also came to be known as the age of Prohibition. For many years prior to the 1920s, a growing number of people had feared the damage alcohol could do to America. After years of work by organizations such as the Anti-Saloon League, the Eighteenth Amendment was passed and prohibition started on January 16, 1919 and continued until December 5, 1933. Although it was formed to stop drinking completely, it ended up being a resounding failure. It created a large number of bootleggers who were able to supply the public with illegal alcohol.

They began to financially drain New York City through faked leases, false vouchers, extravagantly padded bills, and other schemes.. They also had full control over all nominations and elections. The public began to support the New York Times efforts to oust Tweed. In 1873, Tweed was tried and convicted on charges of forgery and larceny.

The party was formed in 1912 by the urban middle class, who were displeased with all of the corruption in politics. This party was very successful at achieving what the Populists could not. They succeeded at getting laws passed to restrain immigration, set up a postal savings banks, limiting work days to eight-hours, and set up an initiative, referendum, and recall. The Progressives also had several amendments passed, the sixteenth, allowing for the graduated income tax, the seventeen, enforcing the direct primary that was passed by the Populists, the eighteenth, staring the prohibition on alcohol, and the nineteenth, allowing everyone to vote regardless of their gender. Much of the Progressives success was due to muckrakers.

Who was and is still widely known as Al Capone. Al Capone gave Chicago the reputation of a “lawless city” because of the crimes he committed and got away with. Capone dropped

One of the most well known members of the mafia, Al Capone, was sentenced to the Alcatraz prison in San Francisco in 1934. Because Al Capone was most famous for being a brutal mafia member, most Americans had thought that the mafia would soon subside. However, the mafia did not operate over one person. Mafia gang members did not need Al Capone to strive during the era. Many people believe that the crime rates increased during the Great Depression.

Origins of the organized crime in Pittsburgh, and elsewhere in the United States, is largely the story of immigrants and alcohol. Like other big industrialized cities, Pittsburgh had its own bloody mob history. If Chicago had Al Capone and New York had Lucky Luciano, the Western Pennsylvania mob had 24 traditional Mafia families, that rose and decline parallel to the rise and decline of the mob families in other cities in United States. In general, mob grew from the bootlegging years of the 1920s as immigrants seized economic opportunity and the outlawing of alcohol in 1920, which created the first large-scale criminal organizations as Irish, Jewish and Italian immigrants took control of the bootlegging industry. All three groups had flocked to the industrial cities for jobs.

A lot of people did not agree with prohibition and still wanted a way to get alcohol. Prohibition started because alcoholism and domestic violence was at a high and by getting rid of alcohol Congress thought domestic violence, bar fights and things of that nature would go away. Gangsters came to power because people needed a way to get alcohol and gangsters had it. But with the rise of gangsters came the rise of organized crime, which was just as bad if not worse than when people could freely get alcohol. One quote that explains how organized crime became more and more in power, “In Chicago a bare six months of prohibition has raised the total of crime, figured for the entire year, more than 25 per cent.

Before law enforcement became a big part of larger cities in the United states back in 1685 they only had small organized law enforcement in the larger cities, but as time changes law enforcement modifies. One of the most famous times is the prohibition era in the 1920s when alcohol became band in the United States to help reduce crime rates until in 1933 when prohibition was repealed. During prohibition mafias and gangs would sneak in alcohol illegally and try to sell to people breaking the prohibition. One of the most famous people from this time was Al Capone was a famous gangster from the 1920s who would supply alcohol during prohibition. These were all factors in the American experience from the days of the frontier to the famous prohibition

The Eighteenth Amendment, also known as the Prohibition Act, took effect as of January 16, 1920, outlawing the manufacture, sale, and transport of alcoholic beverages in the United States from January 1920 till December 6, 1933. Prohibition was established to reduce the effects that alcohol had on families and on society. When primarily men consumed too much alcohol, their actions often resulted in domestic violence,often interfering with men's work performance, and money wasted that the family needed to support families. The prohibition period was very unsuccessful due to people wanting and doing whatever it took to get alcohol now that it was illegal, no matter how enforced prohibition was, leading to many Americans smuggling illegal alcohol

During the Gilded Age, the police was an entity highly corrupt. Also, police officer positions were political appointments. In general, a police officer did not earn too much money for salary, they got it from the extortion, conning and some numerous other illegal practices. Persistently, the police enforcement were extremely ruthless, and they also took the law in their own hands. For instance, they beating and punished people before arrested them.

During the 1980’s and 90’s, crime rates starting wavering around their highest rates that they have ever been. This raise in crime rates called for action to be put into place in order to compensate. One of the actions put in to place during this time was a change in sentencing law. Previously, judges were given huge discretion when it came to sentencing and incarceration rates had been dropping for a while. This directed the creation of federal sentencing guidelines.

Ratified on January 16th, 1919, the 18th Amendment banned the manufacture, transportation, and sale of liquor. This proved difficult to enforce, and, although it did help decrease crimes stemming from the consumption of alcohol, it led to a rise in organized crime in the production of alcohol; the alcohol bootlegging industry became more common—as well as more profitable. Widespread public cynicism led Congress to ratify the 21st Amendment in 1933, which repealed the 18th Amendment (the History Channel). The 18th Amendment forbade the production and commercial sale of alcoholic beverages.

Arianna Perri Mr. Gennario U.S. History Writing Lab 22 February 2017 The 18th Amendment The 18th Amendment, also known as the prohibition, banned the sale, manufacturing, and transportation of alcohol in the United States. The meaning of this is that it was illegal to sell, make, or transport alcohol.