blogpost 3: Mafia on Politics

Politics, especially on cities, has strong authority over the society. It has power to implement a strong movement for a change or for a beneficial and moral cause. In this topic, somehow the mafia or the mobsters we're threatened by these politicians. According to this article I found entitled Gay anti-mafia politician breaks mold in Sicily written by Barry Moody in the website articles.chicagotribune.com. The writer of this article talk about a politician who is against mafia or mobsters organized crimes. 

According to the article Rosario Crocetta is an openly gay, devoutly Catholic, left-wing and an enemy of the mafia. On the interview he quoted: "I will demonstrate that this region can be the most liberal in Europe. Certainly I will be exposed to opposition from the old political system, to layers of powerful mafia patronage, but I am ready for the battle". Crocetta, 61, who has escaped at least three mafia assassination plots and was elected to the European parliament in 2009. The article focuses on what Crocetta did and what he planned to do. He planned a raft of anti-mob measures as well as boosting gay and other civil rights. He was Italy's first openly gay mayor and is now its second declared homosexual governor after Nichi Vendola in Puglia. In Sicily, Crocetta was the only politician who was brave enough to pursue and stop the mafia from committing crimes.   

Through out reading this article, I realize that not all politician can be controlled or scared by the mafia. There are those who fight bravely like Crocetta, but there are some who have no choice but to get racked and controlled by the mafia. It all covers the concept of mafia racketing, which was pursued by Crocetta. He contributed to an "anti-racket" organization of  businessmen who refused to pay "pizzo" or extortion money - a leading source of revenue for a local mob known as the Stidda. 

 "During my time as mayor, 150 businessmen were reporting extortion attempts and 850 mafiosi and extortionists were arrested, which is an impressive figure," Crocetta said. Running this kind of project or organization is difficult and dangerous, so the writer of the article asked Crocetta if he is worried for his life, he replied: "I am very serene. I am a sunny person, I like life, I am happy or ... gay."  According to the article the mafia hates Crocetta because as mayor he robbed them of public work contracts, fired mafiosi including the wife of a leading boss and exposed businessmen implicated with the mob. "This attracted great unfriendliness towards me," he says. 

In my opinion on reading this article, mafia or mobster are just like anti-government rebels who refuse to be controlled by the government at certain points. Mobsters came from poor fellow who was desperate to do anything in order for him to survive the daily life. A mobster will start from the bottom, and will make his way to the top. A mafia can come from any person who is poor and has been offended by the government. 

On the other side of the politics, mafia gangs tend to control politicians and extort money for protection. The mafia racked and controlled the politicians again for the sake of profit. According to the article entitled: Italian police strike 'mortal blow' in battle against Mafia clans after 70 arrested in dawn raid including doctors and lawyers on the website www.dailymail.co.uk. Mafia gang leaders use insurance hoax, Boss Giuseppe Giampa, 32, extorted protection money from local businesses and sold the clan's votes to the highest bidder in a 2010 mayoral vote, police said. Giampa turned himself and became an informant, he was a member of the Calabrian mafia. 

In this particular article, the mafia extracted the politics in the section of election. They gained profit because of running an illegal movement on vote buying, which is literally illegal in every country in the world. In the article, Giampa is suspected of ordering about 20 murders in a mob war for control of the city between 2005 and 2011. 

In conclusion to this, the mafia controls the politicians in a way of vote buying or another, like buying candidates to run and threatening anyone who oppress. They tend to gain profit from the budget and from racketing protection money on politicians. They use people who is poor and bribe them with a large cash or threaten them to do what they told them to do.

blogpost 2: Mobsters, how do they think?

Mafia works is such a way that no ordinary person can describe. The stereotype view of the mafia is that they kill and steal for money and power only, without adding any kind of other reason or what so ever. For instance, if you we're an owner of a business in a mafia zone, you are most likely to be taken over and be forced to sell your business to them. They will take profit from your business but protect at the same time.

This kind of things nowadays are obviously illustrated and played in computer games, which is I think is not healthy for the minds of young teens playing mafia games. Looking for articles on how mobsters think, I happen to find an article entitled, "Analyze This: The Criminal Mentality" by Mike La Sorte, Professor Emeritus in the website americanmafia.com. This article talks about the psychological thinking of a mobster criminal. It connects on the idea of being a psychopath. 

According to the article, a psychopath is someone alienated, aggressive and highly impulsive. It's a person who feels no kind of guilt or conscience, and commits crimes like its a normal thing.  Retired FBI agent Bruce Mouw stated: "A lot of these guys are psychopaths. It is not like the mobsters of the twenties and thirties. There is no honor among these guys." Howard Abadinsky agreed: "The New York mobsters are much more psychopathic than their predecessors. They lack loyalty and love violence." In both of this statement, they explained that the mobsters on the time of 1920's and 30's. The mobsters on the 20's and 30's we're only forced to do those necessary and extreme measures for their family, to deliver them from poverty.  

I found the article very interesting because I was getting a peek of how the mafia gangsters was able to pass through generation to generation. There are points that may be very dangerous, however there are common ways to prevent them. The way they train mobsters are through actual real places, real people to kill, and real things to steal, if you fail, you're weak. 

While searching for other articles to relate it with, I found an article entitled Murder, Mafia-Style by Colin Allen in the website psychologytoday.com. I find the article one of the worst way of killing a human being. In this article, there we're two brothers. Jason Bautista, 20, and his 15-year-old half brother confessed to strangling their mother, Jane Bautista, then chopping off her hands and head. The brothers mimicked an episode of "The Sopranos," hoping to elude authorities. Later on, the two brothers we're arrested on January 24, 2003. Mafia killing destroys the mind of a teenager, the very brutal aspects and personalities of a mobster we're copied by youngster like Jason Bautista with his half brother. This is worst than it gets, because that is just one of the most inhumane killing in the history. 

1979 the murder of Carmine Galante

"['The Sopranos'] might have acted like a road map, but it is not the cause," says Harvey Schlossberg, Ph.D., a forensic psychologist based in New York. "To avoid guilt, they [may] say that the TV talked them into it." Schlossberg is certain that even if the brothers did not watch "the Sopranos"; they would have still killed their mother. In this statement, there is some kind of deep emotional stress, where one theory is because of money. The mother may have refused to give money, and the boys expressed their anger in extreme measure of anxiety. 

An addition to the meaning of the word psychopath is that was  used to be defined as a "moral imbecile", someone without conscience, free of all moral constraints. The psychological reaction of civilized culture toward a murderer is a mixture of fear and the respect. We feel contempt, anger, and disgust for the maniacal madman who hysterically kills humans out of sadism, perversion, or just lunacy, and we feel equal contempt for the person who kills in anger or by accident. Yet, perversely, our society stands in awe of those who have the ability to kill while coolly in control of themselves. 

In conclusion, we hate killers, but we like watch them in the movies, and illustrate them in computer games to be played by teenagers. Its okay for us to see action movies, but there's a time that, too much action and violence can affect the mind of a young child, specially at the early ages of childhood.

blogpost 1 : Life of being a Mafia sibling

When I hear the word: mafia, I start to remember the greatest mob gangsters of the past, like Al Capone, John Gotti, Sammy Gravano, Vincent Gigante and a whole lot more. These are mobsters known to be the most feared people in the mafia industry. Although there are a lot of obvious meanings to what a mafia can be, why do these people come into mind? They are atrocious and tremendous mobsters who have dreadfully mind-blowing operations that a normal person can't take. Some mobsters chose to be in the mafia because of their financial status. You can't judge the book by its cover. Although, how does their business affect their family lifestyle? Is what they portray in the mobster movies true? 

  I found the article entitled "My father, New York's most feared mafia boss" story of Rita Gigante, article written by Jane Mulkerrins in the website "www.telegraph.co.uk". I was very interested in this topic because I had the opportunity to find out more of what the mafia business is about. It interested me to find out what is it like to be a sibling of a mafia boss. 

According to the article, Rita is the daughter of the mafia boss. She has seen many different things in her early life and is still remembered until this present time. However, Jane Mulkerrins points out that the life of being a sibling of a mafia boss in the 1970's, had come to reflect what a mafia sibling in today's society. 

It is stated that Rita at age five has seen her father beat up a guy with his hands and feet. Rita was just a little kid that time, she was still on the verge of childhood. She was very confused of seeing what her father did not understand it, but she was traumatized and shocked. Although after seeing those things, her father was able to make Rita feel that she is still in normal family. The business matters of her father was kept in secret, so it won't affect her childhood. 

The article stated that Rita finally knew that her father was in the mafia business when she was 16 years old. Her father's business was still segregated from her seeing it. “I didn’t even know how to begin to deal with the fact that he was a murderer, and all the horrifying, illegal things that he was involved with to gain money and the power,” she says. “It took me an awfully long time to really work all that out.”  Years and years of having her father's identity, it manifested real physical and psychological symptoms like: crippling stomach conditions, anxiety, panic attacks, depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder.

It is mentioned how Rita's father came from the bottom unto the top. Both of her parents came from poor Italian-immigrant families. They we're very conscious and careful with money. According to Rita, her upbringing was comfortable, Rita was far from being the Mob princess of legend, club-hopping across the city, dripping in diamonds and wrapped in furs. There were no large cars, exotic holidays or other gaudy symbols of wealth. 

It is amazing how she was able to live and got separated from the mob life, she is now a spiritual healer after her father's death in the year 2007. “It was a huge adjustment, but it was a shift that my mother needed, the whole family needed, because they didn’t know how to say no to him, they didn’t know how to be their own person,” she says. 

Rita Gigante at age 46.

We obviously know what mafia mobsters do in particular. In today's society, there are a lot of games that portray the story and what mobsters really do. But in this particular blog, we heard about what it's like to be a daughter or a son of a mafia boss. But there is one more article that says the same. This article I found was entitled "Sammy 'The Bull' Gravano: my dad, the mafia underboss" story of Karen Gravano, article written by John Grace in the website theguardian.com.

 In this authentic article, Karen knew everything her father does. Including her father putting a gun into his pants. It is really hard for people to understand what it's really like to have a father who was a mafia and had illegal and organized crime. However, her father's image of being a mafia underboss affected her regularly. She even got on television for it, the reality show called "Mob Wives". the reality TV show Mob Wives says more about the current status of the mafia in New York as it does about the public's enthusiasm for scripted reality shows. 

In the article, Karen tells that she saw her father putting a gun to his belt, and even the safe of her father which has 2 million dollars inside. When her father got jailed, she struggled and tried to do the things her father had done. She was lurching from one bad relationship to another, dealing drugs and winding up on probation after a police operation that also saw her father, brother and husband jailed. She tried to apply a negative perspective in order to get what she thought she wanted. 

Karen Gravano at age 40, present time. 

All through out this stories we learn to avoid on growing and learning what are the things that are morally right to the eyes of the people. Is knowing your father as a mafia mobster and having your family name in jeopardy an easy thing to handle? Its easy to judge people with their outside appearance, but knowing them is the hardest part. You get to know the idea of extreme and mind-blowing adventure on what is it like to be a daughter or a son of a mafia mobster, or a  mafia boss. All I can think of now is, how do mafia mobsters think?