Mob Justice
What do plutocrats and Supreme Court members get from being friends?
By Brooke Harrington, The Atlantic
What is a Mafia? At the systemic level, it’s different from other criminal groups. Above all, as Diego Gambetta—the premier scholar of the Mafia—has shown, it’s a network for the exchange of favors and the imposition of obligations in the name of “friendship.” That’s how the crimes get done.
We see this in the first Godfather film, when the mortician Bonasera offers to pay Don Corleone to commit murder; the undertaker wants revenge on the men who beat up his daughter but, in the formal court system, were spared from prison. The Godfather reacts to Bonasera’s offer with dismay—not because of the request for murder, but because of the explicit suggestion of cash payment. “What have I ever done to make you treat me so disrespectfully?” the Godfather asks. “Had you come to me in friendship, then this scum that ruined your daughter would be suffering this very day.”
