Racketeering

My Day by Dr. J. Ester Davis

Did you ever wonder where this word comes from?  Who were they talking about? The word racketeering was thought of in 1926 referring to fraudulent bankruptcies as a ‘racket’.  In 1927, racketeering was coined as a noun in Chicago about the influence in the Teamster Union.

 Racketeering is a bad word. Racketeering looks bad.  Racketeering never sleeps. Racketeering, out loud in the same sentence with a former American President is a sad day in America.

My twenty(20)plus paralegal days prepared me for the term racketeering not being limited to mobsters or organized crime. Racketeering suggest there is a group on the wrong side of the law.  Racketeering had a very good life in organized labor, illegal liquor, usurious unlawful gambling  and money laundering.  Congress passed The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization (RICO) in 1970 as part of The Organized Crime Control Act. Supposedly this was a term popularly understood among mobsters and organized crime.  Now shamefully, the RICO and organized crime resides with predominance in every home in America now after a former American president exits The White House.

When I heard the term anew this week I immediately thought of those initial days in a black law firm and my subsequent days in class at the Kodak Marketing Center in Rochester, New York. The movie selections we watched at night after class centered around ‘the mob’.  Our most watched was Edward G. Robinson, a 1930-ish actor.  Mr. Robinson was “Little Caesar” a classic mob boss , who won endless awards for his outstanding performances.

The most fascinating  part of my corporate career was the Kodak Motion Picture Division, located then in Burbank, California. The total conversation in this division was all about film, contracts, research,  worldview distribution, releases and opening night. The talent was a whole other department.   There were 31 mob films from the 1930’s to 1944.  The ‘ mob movies’ moved over for the war films and research during the 40’s and 50’s.  In the 1970’s, the mob and gangs picked up steam in America, recruited more members and came roaring back to front page news…. and movies.  We all remember the stirring real life Sam Bailey Gang in San Francisco, followed by the United States’ Phillip Morris USA cases where the tobacco companies were liable for violations they are still counting. These two high profile real cases ignited hundred of scripts submitted in triplicate to studios. Time or space does not allow me to list the high profile real cases followed almost immediately with a blockbuster movie.  Many, many scripts were submitted about gangs, mobsters and gambler to all studios. But keep in mind, these same studios had their own scriptwriters, models, extras, producers, which only means competition was really high.  1986, after rounding up all the legal journalisms, the known racketeering notes, came an irresistible well-funded script with Eliot Ness (Kevin Costner), Al Capone (Robert DeNiro) and all the proper bank backed signatures.  In 1987, The “Untouchables” hit the big screen entrenched with national billboards and the aid able deep pockets of Paramount Studios as distributor.   Organized crime and the “Untouchables” had the highest rating of any other series during this time. The “Untouchables” were banned from many areas and communities in America because American families did not want their children exposed to such ‘trashy garbage’.

Back to earth and reality-in-2023, racketeering is front page news again.  The very capable and prepared  Atlanta DA this week introduced the world to criminal enterprise (conducting  enterprise activities through racketeering activity) also in the same breath with a former American President. The heart of most RICO violations is a pattern of racketeering activities.  Common sense dictates that if there is a pattern, there is a purpose, a relationship among the associates of the enterprise endowed with a code of conduct.   Imagine that!  An enterprise affair through a pattern of racketeering activity, and the subject is a former American president! A big sad day in America.

How will history treat this era?  What will be said? When is the first movie to be released?  Who will be the authors of the best-selling books? How long after the dust settles will history and the generations to follow refer to this era? What will we say to our children?  I indeed can think of one conversation.  Not about racketeering.  Not about RICO.  The big question will be …. how did the former president  get elected in the first place?

Esterdavis2000@gmail.com