A question.. One for the intelligent people. I've been reading books on the cosa nostra for years, proper fascinated by it all to tell you the truth, and there is one question that i have to ask after every book i finish. In this country we call them grasses or snitches, across the pond they are known as rats, a polite term coined to describe a police informant. Police offer these criminals a deal, whereby they promise to give the criminal a lighter jail term in exchange for the truth and inside information. Now what i want to know is if the police are letting these crimes go passed without a single word said, and are actually reducing criminals sentences, is this not comitting a crime themselves? If i was a member of a family that had been torn apart through these crimes i'd want rightful justice, what right have the police to override this to persue their own agenda? In essence they are letting criminals off with crimes they should be serving life for just to make their jobs easier!
Technically they are not getting let off with anything, with the justice system they will have been found guilty but given a lesser sentance for cooperation in an investigation or becoming a grass, which is crap but the prize of getting someone higher up the chain is seen to out weigh this. Well that's my take on it anyway.
Theres a bunch of loopholes and backdoors in the whole system that essentially lets people get off with murder (literally) as long as you get the right nods, and the right paperwork signed. The higher you rise, the more you get away with. But i totally agree, imagine if YOU were the victim of a crime and found out later on that whoever committed it managed to get off scot free. I'd be seething. On the other side, theres something to be said about going for the wolf instead of the sheep. The situation is messed up anyways - but it makes you think about HOW these elaborate crimes and the like are supported in the first case. Take drugs for example - if you made them all legal then you would OVERNIGHT kick away billions and billions worth of crime infrastructure that some might say is the backbone of many (if not most) things illegal in this world. You can probably trace back alot of crime and ill behavior to some very simple/core things that are just plain WRONG but we keep them their as 'pillars' of society. Are we focusing too much on the symptoms, and not enough on the root of these things maybe. If johnny skag head wasnt hooked on brown in the first place, he might not have robbed your house and gotten off that for grassing on another one of his mates. Who know eh.
pigs are fighting a losing battle and always will they just like to tip the scales ANYWAY they can if only for weeks till the criminality gets the upper hand once again
Technically they are though? Take for example Sammy Gravano. John Gotti's underboss, the bloke admitted to killing 19 people, including being involved in the murder of former Gambino boss Paul Castellano. He ended up with 10 years i think it was, he'd already served 5 when he decided to rat. Lets not forget he's also admitted to all the other crimes the mob get up to, you could fill an A3 bit of paper with that list. Surely the police can't let all of this go for a bit of information on the gambino family? 19 people! Well they did, fair enough i can see how important sammy was to police as he testified against and helped to put most of gotti's crew inside, but still how can the police just let a murderer and dangerous bloke just walk the streets like that? He went on to running the biggest ecstacy tablet business in the US, surely the police knew he wouldn't stay out of crime for long? Ironically it was one of his crew who turned rat on him and he ended up back inside, what goes round.. Saying that this example was 14 years ago, things might have changed slightly but i know there has been plenty of rolled over informants in recent years.
Just watched McIntyre's toughest towns last night, it was about the the Camorra, local Mafia organisation that generates substantial wealth in southern Italy. They earn £500,000euro a day through drug trafficking & have been responsible for more than 4000 hits over the past 10 years (more than ETA & IRA put together!). Not sure if it's on Yotube but check it out if you can.
Again they are not reducing the amount of people he killed just the time served in prison. The person is still guilty and nothing will change that, its like people who get let out early for good behaviour, which I think is stupid aswell. It is a slap in the face to the families of those who he killed but as teknofish said, they will do anything to take down the top person even if it is just for a day.
