Two Tiered Justice system collecting a debt from "King Charles". Nigga broke a heckler's nose and nothing happened to Chuck.

PB

>>20519338, >>20519356, >>20519385 (ATTN: @FBI) Charles Barkley: "If I see a black person walking around with a Trump mugshot, I’m gonna punch him in the face!"

The Time Charles Barkley Got Arrested In Milwaukee

When TNT broadcaster Ernie Johnson showed Charles Barkley a 1991 arrest photo from Milwaukee, he called it his "Karate Kid" impersonation.

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Scott Anderson,

Patch StaffVerified Patch Staff Badge

Posted Fri, May 17, 2019 at 11:58 am CT

|

Updated Fri, May 17, 2019 at 12:00 pm CT

The screens outside the Fiserv Forum flashed a 10-foot high arrest mugshot of Barkley from a 1991 incident. (Milwaukee County Jail Booking Photo)

MILWAUKEE, WI — The Milwaukee Bucks defeated the Toronto Raptors 108-100 on Wednesday night to take a 1-0 lead in the 2019 NBA Eastern Conference Finals.

Following the game, TNT hosted their Inside the NBA post-game show out in the courtyard in front of the Fiserv Forum. As throngs of Bucks fans lingered in jubilation following the home team's win, TNT host Ernie Johnson subjected co-host Charles Barkley in a round of Milwaukee trivia.

As it turned out, the Johnson's trivia turned out to be a cover for the final question, "when and where was this?" The screens outside the forum flashed a 10-foot high arrest mugshot of Barkley from a 1991 incident.

Barkley, unfazed, let out a sizable laugh and stated, "that's where I did my 'Karate Kid' impression. I took all my clothes off because I had these three guys that were trying to beat me up. I wanted them to think I was crazy."

The Associated Press reported on his arrest during that December 22, 1991 incident that happened following a game with the Milwaukee Bucks.

According to the police report, which was chronicled by the Racine Journal Times, Barkley was arrested at his hotel room the following morning after police say he broke a man's nose during an altercation.

Police said the 28-year-old Barkley was let out of jail on a $500 cash bond later that day.

Police said Barkley and a female friend were leaving a downtown bar when he was confronted by James R. McCarthy, a 25-year-old UW-Milwaukee student and three of his friends at 2:30 a.m. at a nearby parking lot.

According to police reports, Barkley told police he was taunted by McCarthy's group, and that one of the members said, "you're so tough on the court. Show me how tough you are."

On the TNT show, Barkley said he hit the guy in the face as hard as he could. It took two bouncers to quell the initial disturbance, and ultimately escort Barkley to his friend's car. Barkley said one of the guys looked like a weightlifter.

"I was improvising, I’m like the Marines. But this one guy kept standing right in front of me. And I said, ‘wipe on, wipe off,’ and two guys backed off, then one fool’s standing right there. And I hit [him] as hard as I could. I broke his nose. No shirt. No shoes. No problem," Barkley said of the incident.

https://patch.com/wisconsin/milwaukee/time-charles-barkley-got-arrested-milwaukee

>>20520187

>Two Tiered Justice system collecting a debt from "King Charles". Nigga broke a heckler's nose and nothing happened to Chuck.

and through someone through a plate glass window. Nothing happened to Chuck

“He Got What He Deserved”: When Charles Barkley Threw a Man Out of the Window of a Bar

Published 05/07/2020, 3:07 PM EDT

Basketball Hall of Famer Charles Barkley was often involved in controversies during his playing days. In 1997, when Barkley was playing for Houston Rockets, he met with controversy off the court.

~~Sir~~Charles threw a man through the window glass in a bar. It was a bar in Church Street station in Orlando. What infuriated Barkley while sitting in the bar was a cup of ice that came flying towards him. He took the man, identified as Lugo, and threw him out of the window,

After the incident, Barkley didn’t shy away from admitting what he had done. And he did not regret the incident as he felt he was just defending himself.

“What [police and witnesses) said happened, happened,” Barkley had said as per a report from the Sun Sentinel. “What he did was inappropriate. I’m going to defend myself. Let there be no debate. If you bother me, I’m going to whip your ass. The guy threw ice in my face, and I slammed his a** into the window. I’m not denying that. I defended myself. He got what he deserved.

“I’m going to defend myself and whoever I’m with at all times,” he said. “I made that clear in my years in the NBA. I will never back down from the public. I will never back down. They are going to respect me, or I’m going to defend myself.”

Barkley might have had a few controversial moments but he was an undeniable legend in the game of basketball. He started his NBA career in 1984 with the Philadelphia 76ers. He played eight years for the Sixers before moving to Phoenix Suns.

He ended his career with four years at Houston Rockets. During his 16-year career. he was a player who could play in various roles. He does not have any titles to his name, but the 11-time All-Star was one of the most dominant players in the NBA.

https://www.essentiallysports.com/nba-news-he-got-what-he-deserved-when-charles-barkley-threw-a-man-out-of-the-window-of-a-bar/

https://patch.com/wisconsin/milwaukee/time-charles-barkley-got-arrested-milwaukee

>>20520187

>>20520215

How the Mafia Works

By: Ed Grabianowski & John Donovan | Updated: Jul 30, 2021

The Mafia, at its core, is about one thing: money.

Throughout its history, the Mafia has controlled everything from the street-corner drug trade to the highest levels of government. Its members operate outside the law, yet become accepted and sometimes feared parts of the neighborhoods and cities they inhabit. Glorified by movies and television, hounded by law enforcement, marked for death by their enemies, these mobsters live violent and often brief lives.

The Mafia is, in its own right, a family. To become a family member means to accept secret rituals, complicated rules and tangled webs of loyalty. Those who run afoul of the family risk being ostracized… and worse. Many mobsters who have turned against the Mafia have met an untimely, often gruesome death.

In this article, we'll find out how people get into the Mafia, what the Mafia does and what law enforcement agencies have done to stop them. We'll also learn about the important people and events that have shaped this not-so-secret society.

Today, the word "Mafia" is used to refer to almost any organized crime group, and in some cases is even used to describe groups completely unrelated to crime. In this article, we will focus on the traditional meaning of "Mafia:" organized criminal organizations of Italian and Sicilian heritage.

In organized crime there is a hierarchy, with higher-ranking members making decisions that trickle down to the other members of the family. The Mafia is not a single group or gang — it is made up of many families that have, at times, fought each other in bitter, bloody gang wars. At other times, they have cooperated in the interest of greater profits, sometimes even serving on a "Commission" that made major decisions affecting all the families (more on the Commission later). Most of the time, though, they simply agree to stay out of each other's way.

Mafia-dom is neither a political nor a religious affiliation. Because of their Italian roots, many Mafioso are Catholic, but part of the oath a mobster takes when he becomes a "made man," a member of a Mafia family, is that the Mafia comes before birth family and God.

The structure described below refers specifically to La Cosa Nostra. Other crime organizations have similar structures, but may differ in some ways.

Each Mafia gang is known as a family. The number of families can range from fewer than 10 to more than 100. Sometimes, the emergence of a new family must be approved by the heads of other families, while in some cases a group can splinter off from another family and consolidate its power, becoming recognized as a new family over time. Each family has separate business dealings, but the dealings of the families can intermingle depending on their proximity to one another and the commonality of their ventures.

The leader of each family is known as the boss, or don. All major decisions are made by the don, and money made by the family ultimately flows to him. The boss's authority is used to resolve disputes and keep everyone in line.

Just below the boss is the underboss. The underboss is the second in command, although the amount of power he wields varies. Some underbosses resolve disputes without involving the boss. Some are groomed to replace the boss if he is old or in danger of going to jail.

Beneath the underboss are the capos. The number of capos varies depending on the overall size of the family. A capo acts like a lieutenant, leading his own section of the family. He has specific activities that he operates. The capo's territory may be defined geographically (as in, "everything west of 14th Street belongs to Louie 'The Key' DiBartolo") or by the rackets he operates ("Alfonze 'Big Al' Maggioli is in charge of illegal gambling"). The key to being a successful capo is making money. The capo keeps some of the money his rackets earn and passes the rest up to the underboss and boss.

The dirty work is done by the soldiers. A soldier is the lowest rank among made men. Soldiers are part of the family, but they hold little power and make relatively little money. The number of soldiers under any given capo can vary tremendously.

In addition to soldiers, the Mafia uses associates. They're not actual members of the Mafia, but they work with Mafia soldiers and capos on various criminal enterprises. An associate can include anyone from a burglar or drug dealer to a lawyer, investment banker, police officer or politician.

>>20520232

>How the Mafia Works

>Those who run afoul of the family risk being ostracized… and worse.

Chuck doesn't want to be ostracized

One other position within the family is somewhat legendary: the consigliere. The consigliere is not supposed to be part of the family's hierarchy. He is supposed to act as an adviser and make impartial decisions based on fairness and logic rather than personal feelings or vendettas. This position is meant to be elected by the members of the family, not appointed by the boss. In reality, consiglieres are sometimes appointed and are not always impartial. The position was made famous with Robert Duvall's portrayal of lawyer Tom Hagen, fictional consigliere to the Corleone family in two of "The Godfather" movies and the Mario Puzo novel upon which they were based.

Mafia Divisions

The Mafia is not an actual tax-paying, stock-selling organization. There is no head of the Mafia. Instead, the word Mafia is an umbrella term that refers to any of several groups of gangsters who can trace their roots to Italy or Sicily.

In broad terms, there are five original Mafia groups, defined mainly by the regions they operate in or the regions they originated in. All five groups have their hands in criminal operations that span the globe and have set up operatives in many different countries. The Sicilian Mafia originated on the island of Sicily. The Camorra (or Neopolitan) Mafia began in Naples, and the Calabrian Mafia (also known as 'Ndrangheta) originated in Italy's Calabria region. The Sacra Corona Unita (which means United Sacred Crown) is a more recent group based in the Puglia region of Italy. Finally, La Cosa Nostra is a name most often connected to the American Mafia, although this group can trace its history back to Sicilian families as well as some other Italian groups.

No clear naming convention exists when it comes to Mafia families. Early families were named after the region or town in Italy where they originated. Sometimes, the name of the family would change to the name of the boss, especially if he was a powerful or long-standing boss.

The five main New York City families had their names set semi-permanently by the testimony of informer Joe Valachi before a Senate subcommittee in 1963. The families were named for the current bosses, although in one case, it was an earlier, more powerful boss whose name was used. Those five families are Bonanno, Genovese, Gambino, Luchese and Profaci. The Profaci family was taken over by Joseph Colombo a few years later, and he became so famous that the family is now known as the Colombo family. The same thing nearly happened to the Gambino family when it was taken over by John Gotti. Before it became the Gotti family, though, Gotti was arrested and convicted of racketeering and murder, based largely on the testimony of Mafia traitor Sammy "The Bull" Gravano. That family continues to be known by law enforcement officials as the Gambino crime family.

Most of the other U.S. families are simply named for the city where they operate. Thus, you have the Philadelphia family, the Buffalo family, the Cleveland family and so on.

>>20520232

>>20520233

The details of a Mafia induction ceremony were a carefully kept secret for decades. But in the early 1960s, Joe Valachi's testimony before a Senate subcommittee shined a spotlight on the mob. The Mafia induction described here is the ceremony conducted by the Sicilian Mafia as well as most American Mafia families. Circumstances can alter some details of the ceremony, such as an induction in prison or a quick induction during a gang war.

First, the potential gangster is told simply to "dress up" or "get dressed." He is taken to a private place and seated at a long table, next to the boss. Other Mafioso who are present will join hands and recite oaths and promises of loyalty. The inductee may then hold a burning piece of paper. In some families, the new soldier is paired with a more experienced mobster who will act as his "godfather," guiding him into Mafia life. The inductee must promise that he will be a member of the family for life, and then a drop of blood is drawn from his trigger finger.

It takes more than just an oath and a drop of blood to get into the Mafia, however. Only men of Italian heritage are allowed in. In some families, both parents must be Italian, while some require only an Italian father. The prospective mobster must also show a penchant for making money or at the least a willingness to commit acts of violence when ordered to do so. Usually, the criminal must pass a test before he will be considered for induction, and this test is commonly rumored to be participation in an act of murder.

One last obstacle that some mobsters face when they try to become made men: the Commission. In the 1920s and '30s, the Mafia families in the United States were almost constantly at war with one another. They would often recruit new soldiers by the dozens so rival families wouldn't recognize them as enemies. These new recruits could easily approach members of other families and assassinate them. To put a stop to this, the Commission began requiring all the families to make a list of their prospective members and circulate the list among the other families. In addition to helping to ID family members, these lists also allowed the bosses to weed out prospects that other families had problems with. If the prospects became made men, individual disagreements could grow into violent wars between families.

Mafia Activities

Families use a variety of activities to accomplish the Mafia's main goal of making money. One of the most common is one of the simplest: extortion. Extortion is forcing people to pay money by threatening them in some way. Mafia "protection rackets" are extortion schemes. Mobsters demand that a shop owner pay $100 a week, for example, to "protect" the businessperson from criminals. The twist is that the Mafia members themselves are the criminals who threaten the business.

The Mafia has made money through a wide variety of illegal activities over the years. Mobsters have dealt in alcohol during Prohibition, illegal drugs, prostitution and illegal gambling, to name a few.

Sometimes, burglaries and muggings generate income, but the capos know that their activities need a grander scale to ensure maximum profit. That's why they hijack trucks and unload entire shipments of stolen goods. Another method used by Mafioso is to pay off truck drivers or dock workers to "misplace" crates and shipments that later end up in Mafia hands. The stolen goods could be anything from stereo equipment to clothing (a favorite of John Gotti early in his career).

One of the most notorious Mafia schemes was the infiltration of labor unions. For several decades, it is believed that every major construction project in New York City was controlled by the Mafia. Mobsters paid off or threatened union leaders to get a piece of the action whenever a union group got a construction job, and they sometimes made their way into the ranks of union leadership. Once the Mafia had its grip on a union, it could control an entire industry. Mafioso could get workers to slow or halt construction if contractors or developers didn't make the right payoffs, and they had access to huge union pension funds. At one point, the Mafia could have brought nearly all construction and shipping in the United States to a halt. In the last few decades, the federal government has cracked down on Mafia-union connections to a great extent.

The current structure of the Mafia took centuries to develop. To learn about the history of the Mafia and to see how law enforcement has dealt with organized crime over the years, read on.

>>20520235

History of the Mafia

The current structure of the Mafia took centuries to develop. It began on the island of Sicily. Although there are major organized crime groups from other parts of Italy, the Sicilian Mafia is generally considered to be the godfather of all other Mafia organizations.

Several unique factors contributed to the development of organized crime in Sicily. The island is located at an easily accessible and strategically important place in the Mediterranean Sea. As a result, Sicily was invaded, conquered and occupied by hostile forces many times. This led to an overall distrust of central authority. The family, rather than the state, became the focus of Sicilian life, and disputes were settled through a system in which punishment often went beyond the limits of the law.

In the 19th century, the European feudal system finally collapsed in Sicily. With no real government or functioning authority of any kind, the island quickly descended into lawlessness. Certain landowners and other powerful men began to build reputations and eventually came to be seen as local leaders. They were known as capos. The capos used their power to extract tributes from farmers under their authority (much like the feudal lords before them). Their authority was enforced through the threat of violence. Their criminal activities were never reported, even by the victims, because of the fear of reprisal. This was the beginning of the Sicilian Mafia.

The Development of the Mafia

Several elements of Mafia life that have lasted for centuries first developed during the transition from a feudal to a modern form of government in Sicily. The phrase cosa nostra — "our way," or "this thing of ours" — was used to describe the lifestyle of a Mafioso in Sicily. The shroud of secrecy that surrounded Mafia activities in Sicily became known as omerta, the code of silence. Mafia bosses relied on this code — in which no one spoke about Mafia activities to anyone outside the family — to protect themselves and the family from the law. The practice of recruiting young boys into the Mafia, culminating with a final test, also stems from Sicily.

In the early 1900s, organized crime had so thoroughly infiltrated Sicilian life that it was virtually impossible to avoid contact with the Mafia. Italian dictator Benito Mussolini cracked down on the Mafia using harsh, often brutal methods. But when U.S. troops occupied Sicily during World War II, they mistook the many jailed criminals for political prisoners and not only set them free, but appointed many of them as mayors and police chiefs. Before long, the Mafia had a firm grasp on Italy's Christian Democrat party.

In the postwar years, the various competing Sicilian families realized that their constant fighting was costing them money. They called a ceasefire and formed a group called the cupola that would oversee the operations of all the families and approve all major enterprises and assassinations. A similar system would be put in place by the American families in the 1950s. While these committees succeeded in stifling gang wars for a time, they also left the bosses vulnerable to prosecution because with the cupola in place, bosses personally approved murders.

The fight against the Sicilian Mafia in Italy came to a head in the 1980s. Two very prominent government prosecutors who had done a lot of damage to the Mafia were assassinated in bombings. The Italian public was outraged, and the government eventually responded with the so-called Maxi trial. More than 400 Mafioso were tried in a specially built bunker. Large cells in the back of the courtroom held the defendants, who would often scream and threaten witnesses as the trial went on. Ultimately, 338 were found guilty, and 19 sentenced to life in prison.

This wasn't enough to stamp out Sicily's Mafia, however. In 1992, the Italian government sent 7,000 military troops to Sicily. They occupied the island until 1998. The Sicilian Mafia still exists today and is still active, but it is quieter and less violent. "At the macro level, the Sicilian Mafia is no longer a player in international drug-trafficking and is now buying drugs for the local market from Neapolitan dealers," reported the BBC in 2021. Nevertheless, the article mentioned that many Sicilians still turn to the Mafia to "recover stolen goods, claim unpaid debts and manage economic competition."

In its place, another mob, the 'Ndrangheta syndicate, has emerged. In early 2021, Italian authorities brought charges against 355 people associated with the Calabria-based organization, which has used billions of dollars made from the drug trade to expand its operation into Europe, Australia, North and South America, and Africa.

In the next section, we'll see how the Mafia came to the United States

https://people.howstuffworks.com/la-cosa-nostra.htm

>>20520004