May 20, 2004
Taxing or Extortion?
Looks like the Italian Mafia may be taking some lessons from the US Gov/IRS:
Libero Grassi, owner of a thriving textile company outside Palermo, was killed in 1991 after he refused to pay a large monthly "pizzo," the Sicilian word for an extortion payment.Yep, if you kill them they will not be around to pay you tomorrow. A much better method is to expropriate their assets and perhaps dump persistent refuseniks in jail.The new strategy is to avoid exorbitant rates, such as the ones applied to Grassi's factory, but to cast the protection net much further afield, even to small shopkeepers.
And like much government and its tax collectors:
It means the Mafia selling itself as a fact of life, even a benevolent association that helps find a job or fix a problem. This makes it not just a criminal organization but a criminal phenomenon rooted in history and harder to extirpate.It has long seemed that one reason the politician gangs have pretended to want to eliminate folks like the mafia is that they want the same business themselves:
Via Catallarchy.
Posted by Steve on May 20, 2004
