The 1920s and Organized Crime free essay sample

The 1920s was a decade of exciting social changes and reflective cultural conflicts. For many Americans, the growth of cities, the rise of a consumer culture, and the so-called â€Å"revolution in morals and manners† represented a liberation from the restrictions of the country’s Victorian past. But for others, the United States was changing in undesirable ways. The result was a veiled â€Å"cultural civil war,† in which a pluralistic society classed bitterly over such issues as foreign immigration, evolution, the Ku Klux Klan, and race.The decade was both a decade of bitter cultural tensions as well as a period in which many of the features of a modern consumer society took cause. The 1920s in most commonly thought of as a self-indulgent interlude between the Great War and the Great Depression, a decade of dissipation, jazz bands, raccoon coats, bathtub gin, flappers, flagpole sitters, bootleggers, and dancers. So many new things, ideas, ways of life were established in this time. In accordance to this, World War I had shattered Americans’ faith in reform and moral crusade.The younger generation continued to rebel against the formal traditions while the older generation was occupied by a group of speculation (The 1920s†). World War I may not have made the world safe for democracy, but it did help to lay out the groundwork for this decade of American economic expansion. The 1920s saw the growth of the culture of consumerism, which changed the politics of American society and set the tone for American attitudes about money in the decades after. Americans hoped for prosperity, so they elected three Republican Presidents during this decade (â€Å"H102 Lecture 15: The Politics of Prosperity: The 1920s†).New technology played a very big role in shaping the economy in the 1920s. The culture was so different compared to the years before this decade. The technology that was invented at this time made the economy what it turned out to be. It also made an image into what a person’s lifestyle should be like. It’s kind of like the media today, we see all of this advertising for certain things or we see the way famous people are and we want to be like them in a sense. In reality we know that we can’t exactly be like them. This s kind of what the new technology was doing to people in the 1920s. When cars first came out, they saw their neighbor have one, so they felt like they had to get one. This was like a snowball effect. Everyone saw these new things coming out and had to have them. People looked at what other people were doing and saw this change and felt like they had to change right along with it. This changed the economy in a huge way. Culture was so different before all these new inventions came out. People did not have refrigerators, cars, movies, and this changed their way of life.They did not have to use an ice block anymore, no more walking everywhere, and no more listening to the radio. This did not just impact American economy, culture, and society but also impacted people’s lives and caused what is known to be the Great Depression. After everyone had a car, the manufacturers were still producing them with no one left to buy their cars from them. How could they pay the people that worked for them? They couldn’t, and many people lost their jobs because of this. This was not only happening with the car industry, but it happened in all sorts of factories.The Great Depression was a horrible time of the 1920s, but it made American society what it is today. Without the rebellion and wild happenings of the 1920s we would not have half of the things we would today. The 1920s was a roaring decade that shaped the American dream, for everyone, what it is now. So much happened during this time, some for better and some for worse. We learned from our mistakes and can realize what we have done wrong. If it weren’t for the 1920s, we would not know half of the stuff we do today. We also would not have half the stuff we do either.After the Great Depression was over, when things started getting better, we knew what happened, and we changed that and would try to never let anything happen like that again, at least during that time period. It is all a step by step process that we had to do. First we identified the problem, figured out ways to solve the problem, and then took the small steps into becoming a better nation and staying that way. One way that we tried to help better the society was to ban alcohol. This is part of what caused the organized crime that went on in this time period. The mob was formed and the people could not do anything about that. They were so powerful. People wanted their alcohol and they were not about to go with the idea of prohibition. Even though it seemed like a good idea at the time, it just happened to make matters even worse. Everyone was involved with it either way, if they were drinking, they knew someone who was and were asked to keep quiet about it. The illegal production and selling of alcohol began and this also is what started a lot of crime during this period. Good things were happening in this decade of the 1920s, but underneath what looked like to be a newly industrialized and reformed society, there was a world of crime.Bootleggers and gangs evolved and that was a crime in itself. They shot police officers and caused too many horrific acts to name. There were businesses including bootlegging, gambling, prostitution, and murders to name a few. The society was starting to be run by the mob. This was also a chain reaction because it had to do with knowing certain information and then being paid off.. Even the cops were involved in this because they wanted their liquor, as long as they got it free, they would not report it. This is a main reason in which the mob was so powerful. They had money and knew how to use it.There were serial crimes, and the cops could not stop it from happening. It was organized crime that supplied the alcohol and Prohibition is the reason for it. This was indeed the â€Å"roaring 20s† but it was also roaring with gangsters. If it wasn’t for the prohibition, there would not be the need for any illegal acts of buying or producing alcohol. Therefore, there would not be the need for these gangsters who started all of this crime. There wasn’t even a need for them in the first place, but someone had to start all of this illegal activity, and they became â€Å"famous† for it. Some people saw them as bad people, but others saw them as just the ones who controlled the underworld of illegal alcohol. It was highly obtainable even though it was illegal. Gangsters made so much money in this time of organized crime. Alcohol was illegal, certain people had it, anyone could obtain it, they just had to pay for it. Due to prohibition, it gave gangsters some crime work to do. Even after the prohibition was abolished, and alcohol became legal again, the gangsters had made so much money that the crime still went on. There was really no stopping it now once it all began. It can be imaged that the government knew about this. The crime rates were not going down, but for some reason alcohol was still illegal even though the government knew what was going on. They knew that it caused all of this crime and they knew that alcohol was still being consumed. The question is, how can they stop it? If the abolishment in itself was not working, then how would they stop it now? The nation was far to inexperienced with knowledge of just plain common sense, and they did not know things would go bad until after they saw it happen.Just like how people could just go into any bank and give a fake name and they could get another person’s money. The bank did not know about that until almost all of the banks lost all of their money. That is a very good example of prohibition. The government thinks that it will stop crime, but in reality it just made matters worse and it still went on. The government thought that by banning the sale and supply of alcohol, that this would limit crime and violence. Prohibition did not achieve its goals. It just led to more crimes and more violence.Alcohol, at this time, was seen as :the devil’s advocate† and the thought of banning it would help to improve the quality of American lives. This caused a huge growth in crime and doubled the amount of illegal bars operating then before prohibition. With a large coastline it was almost impossible to police and only five percent of alcohol was ever confiscated (â€Å"Organized Crime in the 1920s | 20th Century Crime†). Many people would pay top dollar to obtain alcohol. People did not see anything wrong with it, even though it was illegal, they saw nothing wrong with wanting a few drinks here and there.After all, it was legal just a few years back. It had to be one of the government’s worst ideas. It caused way more problems hat it ever did before. Even the average citizen broke the law. Yes, of course there was already variations of organized crime before this, but it was not nearly as bad as things had got during prohibition. Police forces were bought off, merchants were controlled, and politicians were bribed and even appointed by organized crime bosses (â€Å"Organized Crime in 1920s Chicago†). The legacy of organized crime extends to this day.Nearly the same things occur today with the modern drug war and organized crime. Prohibition caused major problems, not just organized crime. Unemployment rose because of the closure of all alcohol related industries. More and more police officers would have to divert into the prevention of alcohol consumption rather than fighting other crime. Newly hired prohibition officers were hired to raid speakeasies and they were not paid nearly enough or even qualified and experienced enough either, which made bribery a lot easier. A whole black market was created around alcohol.People began to make their own alcohol and many people got sick from alcohol poisoning because of the poor quality. The public grew less and less respectful of the law. After a great idea in concept, prohibition was a failure. Crime, dunk driving, bootlegging, and public drunkenness increased. After thirteen long years the government finally saw that prohibition was not working, and that it created more of a problem than it solved, they abolished the laws (â€Å"Organized Crime in the 1920s | 20th Century Crime†). The abolishment of prohibition also helped in the Great Depression. Many people got their jobs backs, more opportunities were opened because of this. People could start making money again, the legal way and start working with alcohol industries again. Although prohibition only lasted for a short period of time and was very unsuccessful, it is still seen as a â€Å"noble experiment† towards a righteous cause (â€Å"Organized Crime†). In conclusion, prohibition caused many problems. It should have been a local issue, not something that should be in the Constitution. More and more people came together to fight to bring back alcohol.It was a good idea that prohibition was abolished or else in today’s world, the crime would have been even worse than it already is. The era of prohibition led to a situation in which organized crime was used to obtain the illegal product. Organized crime grew and thrived during this time (â€Å"Effect of Prohibition on Organized Crime†). It has had a lasting effect on illegal substance distribution till this day. There were no lasting positive effects of prohibition. It was a failure and it surely was the cause of organized crime in the 1920s.