Organized Crime versus Terrorism
Introduction
Organized crime together with terrorism groups poses a big threat to America’s national security. America has been dedicating a lot of effort and allocated resources to fight these criminal groups (Mallory, 2011). However, these crimes are still increasing day by day. This raises the question of whether the tactics the United States uses to fight organized crimes and terrorism are sufficient. Due to this reason, the United States needs to focus more on its law enforcement resources to fight organized crime as well as terrorism. So far, the country has put in place various methods to combat these crimes. Various agencies such as FBI have been formed to eliminate transnational organized crime organizations by investigating where they obtain money to fund their operations and people involved in these groups (Mallory, 2011). This paper explores the history of organized crime and terrorism.
The History of Organized Crimes in America
The history of organized crime in the United States can be traced back to 1920. Organized crime still exists day and threatens America’s national as well as economic security (Abadinsky, 2012). Organized crime is defined as illegal activities carried out by highly organized individuals together with disciplined associations to supply illegal products and services such as drug trafficking, loan sharking, labor racketeering, prostitution, gambling, and so on (Abadinsky, 2012). Studies show that organized crime in the U.S. originated from urban America and expanded to other parts of the world. Today, organized crime is considered a dynamic organization. An essential notation is that the era of Prohibition greatly contributed to the establishment of organized crime. Prohibition-era is said to have lasted between 1920 and 1933 (Perry & Brody, 2011). Street gangs in large cities conducted activities such as gambling and prostitution during this era. They came from the urban poor. They participated in voter fraud. They did this by voting early and start intimidating political opponents. Corrupt political organizations are the ones who recruited the gangs as local entities to serve them as part of military.
One of the organized crime groups that originated in 1920s is the American Mafia. The group was composed of Italians and Americans. It operated cities in the U.S. such as Chicago along with New York (Madsen, 2009). It gained power during the Prohibition era in 1920s after succeeding in illicit liquor trade. After Prohibition, the group ventured into other crimes such as drug trafficking and illegal gambling. The American Mafia also started controlling labor unions together with legitimate businesses (Madsen, 2009). Construction as well as garment industry in New York is one of the legitimate businesses controlled by this group. Several features of the Mafia such as secret rituals, violent criminal operations, as well as notorious characters like John Gotti become part of American culture. This because they fascinated people and this made them popular. In the late 20th century, the U.S. government tried to convict leaders of this group to weaken and eliminate it through anti-racketeering laws (Abadinsky, 2012). However, the Mafia still exists today and is still strong.
Currently, the Mafia is still powerful and operates in America and other countries across the world, such as Italy. The group is led by five families. Giuseppe is the group leader. The Mafia operates in different countries such as the United States, Italy. Mexico, Russia, and Japan (Mallory, 2011). The groups have complex and powerful networks in Italy and America. Four months ago, Luciana Lamorgese, the interior minister, said that the Mafia have penetrated in the economic systems by controlling industries and legitimate businesses. The gangs engage in illegal practices such as money laundering, drug trafficking, extortion, loan sharking, and gambling (Abadinsky, 2012). The gang also interferes with elections by intimidating political opponents. The American Mafia compete with other organized criminal groups such as the Prohibition-era gangs, the National Crime Syndicate, Dixie Mafia, and the Assyrian Mafia (Abidinsky, 2012). It uses force and threats to eliminate its rivals. This has enabled the group to become very powerful.
The history of terrorism in America
The history is terrorism in the United States is a widely debates topic. Terrorism originated two thousand years ago. Terrorism entails illegally using violence together with intimidation against civilians or governments to gain political power (Perry & Brody, 2011). The history of terrorism can be associated with events, people, and even entities. Some of these parties engaged themselves legally or illegally. Terrorism originated in the 1st century through a group known as Sicarii Zealots (Perry & Brody, 2011). The groups assassinated people who collaborated with the Roman rule in Judea. The group used violence to obtain state obedience as well as intimidating regime enemies. Terrorism originated from religious factors, nationalists, and anarchists. In the first century, terrorist groups killed people in daylight before people. Perpetrators used acts to send messages to Jews they collaborated with as well as the Roman authorities (Abidinsky, 2012). Terrorists have been using such tactics until today. People were mostly assassinated at religious places during holy days. The purpose of doing this was to publicize their reasons for assassinating people and incite people to do the same thing. Also, the emergence of nationalists and anarchists between 1793 and 1794 promoted terrorism (Abadinsky, 2012). During this period, terrorists claimed that their actions aimed at promoting justice. An example of a terrorism group that prevailed during this time was guillotine. The group executed 40,000 individuals.
In the United States, domestic terrorism consisted of incidents that included terrorism acts. Domestic terrorism included attacks conducted by people who are American citizens or permanent residents of the United States (Madsen, 2009). With time, in the United States, the legal definition of domestic time has changed gradually. Domestic terrorism actions have been existing even before the establishment of its legal definition. The current American law states that an act is considered domestic terrorism if it poses a danger to human life, and this is said to violate criminal laws (Madsen, 2009). According to US PATRIOT ACT, such an act is intended to harm someone, intimidate civilians, influence government policies through intimidation, occurs within U.S. jurisdiction, and influence government operations as a result of mass destruction, kidnapping, together with assassination (Mallory, 2011). The FBI investigates and arrests citizens suspected to be terrorists or working together with terrorist groups. Some of the examples of domestic terrorism acts that are recognized in U.S. history include anti-abortion violence, eco-terrorism, and right-wing extremist (Mallory, 2011).
Also, it is important to note that an American citizen organized the most devastating terrorist attack in America. After the creation of 9/11, cases of domestic terrorism have drastically declined (Abidinsky, 2012). This is because the use of 9/11 enables the FBI to take urgent actions to prevent U.S. citizens from engaging in terrorism, both domestic and international. Various terrorism activities have occurred on American land. In October 2017, a man was driving his truck in the World Trade Centre which is located in New York (Abidinsky, 2012). The truck driver drove in the pedestrians’ road killing eight people and injured eleven people. Later, it was confirmed that ISIS was responsible for this attack. Another terrorism attack done against America happened in June 2016. The attack occurred on a Sunday and involved mass shooting in a nightclub in Orlando. 50 people died. Even the gunman was killed. Also, the shooting left 50 individuals injured. (Abidinsky, 2012) Also, ISIS was responsible for this attack. Terrorism groups such as ISIS and A.L. Qaeda have made several attacks on American soil.
Conclusion
Organized crime and terrorism operations have greatly affected the United States as well as countries across the world. Terrorism remains a major problem in America even today. The saddest thing is that in some attacks, perpetrators were American citizens. Online communication, together with the massive use of social media remains the key terrorism threats in America. This is because perpetrators communicate with terrorism outside the country to organize attacks without getting detected. The U.S. government has been putting a lot of effort and allocated large amounts of resources to fight both domestic and international terrorism. Various organizations, such as the FBI, have been created to assist in fighting terrorism. FBI investigates and arrests people suspected to be terrorists or collaborating with terrorist groups to attack the United States.
References
Abadinsky, H. (2012). Organized crime. Cengage Learning.
Madsen, F. (2009). Transnational organized crime. Routledge.
Mallory, S. L. (2011). Understanding organized crime. Jones & Bartlett Publishers.
Perri, F. S., & Brody, R. G. (2011). The dark triad: organized crime, terror and fraud. Journal of Money Laundering Control.