04-18-2013, 08:17 PM
New York City Council and PD have been occupied by organized crime for over 150 years, which is really an interesting saga in history in the US post-Civil War era. Before the US Civil War, a massive potato famine occurred in Ireland, causing the population of that great Nation to drop from 10 million in 1840, to 5 million in 1880.
![[Image: immigrantChart.gif]](http://www.mccormickfamily.com/mccormicks/pics/immigrantChart.gif)
As waves of Irish immigrants flooded into the US East Coast, the industrialist Northern States had difficulty integrating them, since they were agricultural-based people. When the Civil War kicked off, many Irish immigrants arrived on boats into New York Harbor, only to face riots and protests to the North's forced drafting of troops to fight the unpopular war with the South. Many mobs were fired upon with cannon loaded with grape shot, and the large immigrant classes referred to the NYPD as "coppers", because of the buttons on their uniforms.
![[Image: NYMetropolitan1860%20PRINT.jpg]](http://peaceofficersmuseum.org/uploads/images/NYMetropolitan1860%20PRINT.jpg)
While many able-bodied males were inducted into military service, the post Civil War era saw the rise of many street gangs in NYC, including the pre-war Roach Guards, Swamp Angels (NYC dock gang), Whyos, Yakey Yakes, and other 19th Century gangs. These gangs were involved in protecting liquor and whiskey importation in NYC's harbors, and skimming/theft is an always-present dynamic among alcohol and thieves.
![[Image: 3c30187v.jpg]](http://lcweb2.loc.gov/service/pnp/cph/3c30000/3c30000/3c30100/3c30187v.jpg)
With the amount of money involved in alcohol importation, these gangs naturally grew in power and influence that bled into politics. By the Prohibition Era, NYPD and NYC Council were fully-owned by mostly Irish organized crime. The Kennedy family traces its lineage in American politics with an entrance graced by liquor smuggling from Canada, in addition to banking schemes that defrauded people out of their fortunes.
When the waves of Italian immigrants began to hit NYC, the entrenched Irish mob passed laws to prevent their new competition from owning firearms, making racketeering and extortion much easier for henchmen from all the gangs that conducted such activities. The gaming and prostitution rackets were peripheral to smuggling and racketeering, where most of the money was.
It's important to remember that there is no historical period where these entrenched mobsters were cleansed from government...no, to the contrary, they expanded from city and inter-state trafficking, to buying political seats in D.C., where Irish, Italian, Russian, Cuban, and various organized criminal syndicates competed for Congressional and Senate seats like Monopoly board pieces, to help carve out larger illicit markets for their activities.
![[Image: 51U11zGzHgL._SS500_.jpg]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51U11zGzHgL._SS500_.jpg)
This expanded into the WWII era and post-War era where huge meetings would take place between the various mob bosses, often in Havana, Cuba, to discuss market adjustments after the deaths of certain members in the hierarchy, with agreements made about who would get what shares of the new illicit narcotics routes that were developed during the War, whether it was Bekaa Valley opium from the Levant, Tunisian hash, or Golden Triangle opium from Southeast Asia.
You can't gain a clear picture of US history without a thorough investigation into the prominence of organized crime, foreign influences on politics, and how all these forces interact with each other during times of war and peace. NYC being the Nation's central port of trade and commerce for so long is a highlight of a lot of these factors.
As waves of Irish immigrants flooded into the US East Coast, the industrialist Northern States had difficulty integrating them, since they were agricultural-based people. When the Civil War kicked off, many Irish immigrants arrived on boats into New York Harbor, only to face riots and protests to the North's forced drafting of troops to fight the unpopular war with the South. Many mobs were fired upon with cannon loaded with grape shot, and the large immigrant classes referred to the NYPD as "coppers", because of the buttons on their uniforms.
While many able-bodied males were inducted into military service, the post Civil War era saw the rise of many street gangs in NYC, including the pre-war Roach Guards, Swamp Angels (NYC dock gang), Whyos, Yakey Yakes, and other 19th Century gangs. These gangs were involved in protecting liquor and whiskey importation in NYC's harbors, and skimming/theft is an always-present dynamic among alcohol and thieves.
With the amount of money involved in alcohol importation, these gangs naturally grew in power and influence that bled into politics. By the Prohibition Era, NYPD and NYC Council were fully-owned by mostly Irish organized crime. The Kennedy family traces its lineage in American politics with an entrance graced by liquor smuggling from Canada, in addition to banking schemes that defrauded people out of their fortunes.
When the waves of Italian immigrants began to hit NYC, the entrenched Irish mob passed laws to prevent their new competition from owning firearms, making racketeering and extortion much easier for henchmen from all the gangs that conducted such activities. The gaming and prostitution rackets were peripheral to smuggling and racketeering, where most of the money was.
It's important to remember that there is no historical period where these entrenched mobsters were cleansed from government...no, to the contrary, they expanded from city and inter-state trafficking, to buying political seats in D.C., where Irish, Italian, Russian, Cuban, and various organized criminal syndicates competed for Congressional and Senate seats like Monopoly board pieces, to help carve out larger illicit markets for their activities.
This expanded into the WWII era and post-War era where huge meetings would take place between the various mob bosses, often in Havana, Cuba, to discuss market adjustments after the deaths of certain members in the hierarchy, with agreements made about who would get what shares of the new illicit narcotics routes that were developed during the War, whether it was Bekaa Valley opium from the Levant, Tunisian hash, or Golden Triangle opium from Southeast Asia.
You can't gain a clear picture of US history without a thorough investigation into the prominence of organized crime, foreign influences on politics, and how all these forces interact with each other during times of war and peace. NYC being the Nation's central port of trade and commerce for so long is a highlight of a lot of these factors.