Scustin Bieburr
Baby baybee baybee UUUGH
Criminal organizations need one thing in order to really thrive: People who feel that joining a gang is their best shot at financial and physical security.
When we look at what's going on with unemployment, education, the ease at which one can use technology to scam people, and the growing public hatred of incompetent/evil law enforcement, it's pretty easy to imagine leaders in organized crime rubbing their hands together like birdman at the thought of all the potential victims and recruits out there.
People need to eat. They need a place to sleep. They need medicine. They need clothing and heat. If they can't get it by working because jobs are being automated away and outsourced and if they can't get it via government benefits because those are being cut, they are in a very vulnerable situation in which a loan shark can swoop in and offer help or a gang member can offer support in exchange for their assistance in a crime. If youths are seeing adults all around them broke and struggling to find work but seeing gang members living relatively comfortably by comparison and actually being left alone by police because they've bribed or successfully intimidated them, will they be more likely to try to join a gang? will it be harder to dissuade them as an adult?
I'm thinking back to the 1930s and 1980s and how big gangs were back then to the point where some crime bosses like Al capone and Pablo Escobar became household names. Some gangs even acted as de-facto security for unions. Is it possible we will end up back in those days?
When we look at what's going on with unemployment, education, the ease at which one can use technology to scam people, and the growing public hatred of incompetent/evil law enforcement, it's pretty easy to imagine leaders in organized crime rubbing their hands together like birdman at the thought of all the potential victims and recruits out there.
People need to eat. They need a place to sleep. They need medicine. They need clothing and heat. If they can't get it by working because jobs are being automated away and outsourced and if they can't get it via government benefits because those are being cut, they are in a very vulnerable situation in which a loan shark can swoop in and offer help or a gang member can offer support in exchange for their assistance in a crime. If youths are seeing adults all around them broke and struggling to find work but seeing gang members living relatively comfortably by comparison and actually being left alone by police because they've bribed or successfully intimidated them, will they be more likely to try to join a gang? will it be harder to dissuade them as an adult?
I'm thinking back to the 1930s and 1980s and how big gangs were back then to the point where some crime bosses like Al capone and Pablo Escobar became household names. Some gangs even acted as de-facto security for unions. Is it possible we will end up back in those days?
