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Strategies & Market Trends : Anthony @ Equity Investigations, Dear Anthony, -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: tool dude who wrote (79088)	7/21/2002 9:42:35 AM
From: Bocor	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 122087

Interesting food for thought: The Mafia State by William Anderson With the passing of John Gotti, the former "head" of the Gambino crime family, we have been treated to a series of media stories, some of which condemn the Teflon Don and others versed in a grudging admiration for this character. These stories have managed to miss nearly every lesson this violent man’s life had to show us. Reporters breathlessly wrote about Gotti’s $3,000 suits, but failed to point out how the man was able to make that kind of money. He did it in two ways: one by providing goods that people wanted yet were prohibited by the state from obtaining, and the other by extracting and extorting money from people who rather would not have paid him. The reason that gangsters were able to move into neighborhoods and entice people with protection money was that police protection from the state virtually was nonexistent. Given the proclivities of the state, most people came to prefer being protected by swaggering organized crime figures rather than by the bumbling government. Gotti achieved folk hero status for another reason: he managed to beat government criminal charges on a number of occasions, that is until the FBI was able to secretly record nearly every word he spoke by bugging his home and business club. Most law-abiding Americans recoil in horror at seeing someone "beat the rap," and in their frustration, they have permitted the political classes to push through laws that supposedly were aimed at "mafia kingpins," but instead have been turned full force on ordinary citizens. Known as anti-drug laws and the Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO, these laws have eviscerated protections once provided by the U.S. Constitution and have resulted in thousands of innocent people being thrown into federal prisons. Thus, when the government turns its full fury upon people, they rarely can stand up to federal prosecutors. Even wealthy people such as Michael Milken and Leona Helmsley, who commanded large amounts of resources, would fall before what, in essence, were trumped-up charges. Regular middle-class people don’t stand a chance. Therefore, when Gotti received "not guilty" verdicts, a large number of folks stood up and cheered. They were not applauding murder and other crimes; they simply understood that few people can withstand the blows of the state, and anyone who can do so is someone special. Finally, we look at the modern state itself, which certainly has many of the worst characteristics--and none of the good ones--of the men of Cosa Nostra. Like John Gotti, the state can extort money from citizens. Unlike Gotti, who never would have dreamed of demanding nearly half of a firm’s profits, the state takes more than 40 percent of what a business collects over its costs. Like Gotti, the state takes the lives of individuals. Unlike Gotti, it is rare that a representative of government who has killed someone, even if that killing is not in self-defense, ever faces justice for that homicide. From the government agents at Waco to the Air Force pilot who fired a missile into a Serbian passenger train and killed 24 innocent men, women, and children, these people either are praised as heroes or excused for causing "collateral damage." For the most part, people realize that the federal government’s private war against John Gotti did no good for the rest of us. Yes, Gotti was an unsavory character, a man that few of us would have wanted for a neighbor. Many people rightly feared him. However, the vast majority of us have much more to fear from the Teflon State than we ever did from the Teflon Don.