Talk:Racketeering

Protection Racket

I guess the plan to reduce CO2 emission is the same. Mallerd (talk) 09:06, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

Modern-day unions could be considered to be rackets as well. 24.141.76.19 (talk) 04:35, 16 December 2008 (UTC)

Neither of these are rackets, as the offending organizations threaten and perform no illegal actions. If CO₂ emission were actually illegal, then subsidizing low-emissions fuels could perhaps be construed as legalized racketeering, although the subsidies would actually serve a purpose other than protection (keeping the industry profitable), so it still wouldn't really be racketeering. Unions, on the other hand, could only be rackets if quitting were illegal . . . which might be a problem, not to mention the fact that businesses don't actually pay unions, per se.

Interestingly, a person committing herself to an institution could perhaps be considered a racketeer, since she is receiving psychological treatment lest she commit a crime. Of course, the person isn't actually intending to commit said crime if not given treatment, but the threat is still there, in a sense. Eebster the Great (talk) 05:05, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

It's interesting to see how government grew out of racketeering. Originally taxes were "tribute"; you paid a warlord not to harm you or your property. A protection racket. The warlord used your tribute to fund armies to conquer more land and extract more tribute. Only later did they start offering services in return to the taxpayers. Nowadays service delivery is the dominant use of the tribute, but there is a straight evolutionary path from the racketeer to the king to the president/prime minister of today. It's also worth noting that larger organised crime syndicates sometimes do offer a form of service; their hegemony over the area excludes other criminals, thus in a sense offering a genuine form of "protection".82.71.30.178 (talk) 11:57, 20 January 2012 (UTC)

If government is not a racket, that is only because government defines what is legal and illegal. The legality of government is a tautology with a whopping Catch 22. Right now I am trying to buy a little colored sticker to go on my license plate. It is a very expensive little sticker. I have no more use for it than the citizens of 19th century New York City had for the dance-tickets that the gangs sold to them. If I do not have the sticker on the license plate, and I venture to drive around, I will be threatened or assaulted by men in gang colors with guns and clubs and badges. So I buy the sticker. Some of the "rackets" listed here are not rackets at all. Rum-running and tobacco-sales are not rackets. No one is threatened for not buying. The customers are willing. In the case of rum-running, it is the failure to pay government extortion that makes the commerce illegal. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.36.158.141 (talk) 22:05, 13 November 2012 (UTC)

Governments did not grow out of warlordism. They are a consequence of living in groups. Taxation didn't exist in small hunter gatherer groups, in tribes or in early farming societies, nor did they exist in the first city states of Mesopotamia. The public sector had yet to be privatized.Vilhelmo (talk) 18:14, 1 April 2013 (UTC)

The etymology of "racket" in the "protection racket" sense is unclear, but according to the OED is unlikely to have derived from illicit dances due to chronological attestations. The noise aspect of "racket" came much earlier, from gaelic "racaid". I'm removing etymology from the article as it's uncited and contradicted by an authoritative source. --Andrew (talk) 17:13, 28 March 2009 (UTC)

"Too Big To Fail". The financial institutions (Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Federal Reserve, et al) that created the bubbles and/or fraudulent derivatives that led to the economic collapse and Great Recession, are given taxpayer money and tasked with "fixing" the problem they caused. Classic case. 125.25.210.104 (talk) 22:02, 30 July 2013 (UTC)

About the protection racket: This only works in countries with a weak Police. So in fakt the racketeers become the Police, protecting their clients. In a country with a strong Police you wouldn't pay anything but call the cops. That's why you need to pay taxes! And what happens if you resist to pay taxes? Right, you go to jail! So therefore there isn't any difference between a state or a mafia. However only states have written constitutions and laws, the mafia only has unwritten laws. But this doesn't mean that they're less fair. Oh, and by the way: Never think that the Police protects people! They don't, they just solve crimes and put people in jail. Real protection is: "You attack or kill anyone of us? Then you're dead." 178.197.236.217 (talk) 19:32, 14 August 2013 (UTC)

African National Congress

The ANC shouldn't be on this list. It's a legitimate political party. Unless someone can come up with a good justification for including it, it should be removed from the list. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 140.247.236.47 (talk) 06:17, 5 April 2010 (UTC)

I'm going to go ahead and remove it. If someone has a good argument for its inclusion, feel free to revert. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 140.247.236.207 (talk) 19:51, 6 April 2010 (UTC)

Fully 9% of the ANC's most senior body are post-Apartheid criminals convicted of fraud, theft, drink driving, corruption. The leader of the ANC used political pressure to avoid facing charges for corruption regarding an arms deal with France. The ANC is currently working towards instituting censorship of the free press by establishing restrictive legislation and tribunals. Lower ranking members of the ANC (city councilors) have been discovered to be engaging in assassination plans to avoid having their corruption uncovered. The organization is criminal from it's head (Jacob Zuma) to it's lowest level officers. So although it poses as a legitimate political party, it is constantly engaged in illegal activity. It's a racket. The fact that the leader faced racketeering charges (amongst the 783 charges he escaped) is further evidence. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 41.117.56.211 (talk) 12:18, 12 September 2010 (UTC)

Removal of MegaUpload

I have removed MegaUpload from the "See Also" list. It simply does not meet the criteria of a racket. Thus far it has only been established as a company potentially involved in illegal activities, and not a "racket". With that criteria, any company/organization/group engaged in illegal activities could be labeled as a racket. This is simply not the case. We must be careful not to extend our scope of the definition, and maintain logic and reason when defining something as one thing or another. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.2.173.148 (talk) 03:45, 3 February 2012 (UTC)

Tobacco Industry

I added tobacco industry since Federal Judge Kessler found in 2006 them guilty of racketeering. http://publichealthlawcenter.org/topics/tobacco-control/tobacco-control-litigation/united-states-v-philip-morris-doj-lawsuit — Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.225.161.49 (talk) 02:18, 12 July 2012 (UTC)

Note that violation of the United States law Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act should not be conflated with the commission of racketeering in a general sense. According to the referenced article, the companies were found liable for conspiracy and fraudulently misrepresenting the health risks. While these may be covered under a law titled Racketeering, this appellation does not mean that the acts covered meet the common definition of the term. ENeville (talk) 19:38, 26 March 2013 (UTC)

Racketeering scams

Perhaps the most used racketeering scam needs to be mentioned: Pizzo_(extortion) This scam is basically a service supplied by organised crime organisations to shops in which they

• promise not to destroy property in the shop or the shop itself
• protect the shop from other criminal organisations, and smaller gangs

Obviously, the first is illegal and so generates frustration, but the second seems like a useful service 109.133.100.120 (talk) 15:52, 15 July 2013 (UTC)

Well, what happens if you don't pay taxes? The government puts you in jail, therefore destroys your life. This is considered "legal", but in fact it's the same method like the racketeers use. And should I talk about how man jews were legally murderer in Nazi germany some 70 years ago? Laws aren't good only because they're laws. If they destroy privacy or attack innocent people, these are crimes, no matter if legal or not.--178.197.236.217 (talk) 19:52, 14 August 2013 (UTC)

Government

When you really think about it, the state as an institution qualifies as a racket. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.130.129.184 (talk) 01:39, 27 June 2013 (UTC)

Increasingly correct.--178.197.236.217 (talk)