justinacolmena
Gold Member
- Banned
- #1
The FBI needs to clean up its act and learn proper Italian. I mean, I don't even speak Italian, but this is really, really bad.
The "mafia" is a contemptuous term for a lower class of people -- "the mob" -- scarcely worthy of capitalization. It implies continuing discrimination against poor Italian immigrants and their descendants and families. An "org chart"
Mafia Org Chart — FBI
for a supposedly disorganized, lower-class group of people. I'm not even bothering to look at it because the site is so slow to load, but I can tell you right now there is some sort of "boss" at the top with "security" or a bodyguard or a "consigliere" by his side -- just like the boss of anything substantial, whether legal or illegal, and some sort of hierarchy under the "boss."
"La Cosa Nostra" History of La Cosa Nostra — FBI is even worse. Literally, this "thing of ours." I mean, come on, some "thing" that is "ours" and not "theirs." That's all that it means. We really do need to be more specific than that if we are going to fight crime.
But as usual with government double-speak History of La Cosa Nostra — FBI "La Cosa Nostra" is a symptom of a worse problem: "things" are illegal. That is, the mere possession of something is illegal. Cops got a warrant, they barge in, they find some thing they don't like, and they can charge it as a crime right away. Justice is not supposed to be that quick and easy. We've heard about two necessary elements of a crime, mens rea and actus reus. Take "possession with intent to distribute" in regards to some controlled substance, for instance. There is a certain mens rea to this, but there is no actus reus! We're charging a thing, and not an act, as a crime! This is fundamentally wrong, and precisely where we went wrong on the war on drugs and guns and copyrighted computer files.
The "mafia" is a contemptuous term for a lower class of people -- "the mob" -- scarcely worthy of capitalization. It implies continuing discrimination against poor Italian immigrants and their descendants and families. An "org chart"
Mafia Org Chart — FBI
for a supposedly disorganized, lower-class group of people. I'm not even bothering to look at it because the site is so slow to load, but I can tell you right now there is some sort of "boss" at the top with "security" or a bodyguard or a "consigliere" by his side -- just like the boss of anything substantial, whether legal or illegal, and some sort of hierarchy under the "boss."
"La Cosa Nostra" History of La Cosa Nostra — FBI is even worse. Literally, this "thing of ours." I mean, come on, some "thing" that is "ours" and not "theirs." That's all that it means. We really do need to be more specific than that if we are going to fight crime.
But as usual with government double-speak History of La Cosa Nostra — FBI "La Cosa Nostra" is a symptom of a worse problem: "things" are illegal. That is, the mere possession of something is illegal. Cops got a warrant, they barge in, they find some thing they don't like, and they can charge it as a crime right away. Justice is not supposed to be that quick and easy. We've heard about two necessary elements of a crime, mens rea and actus reus. Take "possession with intent to distribute" in regards to some controlled substance, for instance. There is a certain mens rea to this, but there is no actus reus! We're charging a thing, and not an act, as a crime! This is fundamentally wrong, and precisely where we went wrong on the war on drugs and guns and copyrighted computer files.