Prohibition in the 1920s
By definition, prohibition is the forbidding by law of the manufacture, transportation, and sale of alcoholic liquors except for medicinal and sacramental purposes (Prohibition 2). This is very ironic because in the 1920s, during the prohibition, thousands of big city law officers were paid off to look the other way when alcohol was being illegally transported and distributed(Gingold). People would think that if they took the trouble to make alcohol illegal, the police officers would be willing to do their jobs and do them well. The eighteenth amendment, also known as Prohibition, was designed to reduce alcohol related crimes and to boost other entertainment industries, but in this author’s opinion, prohibition …show more content…
From Boston to Kansas City, powerful gangs carved up all of the major cities, but 1920s Chicago will be the main city mentioned(Gingold). In 1920s Chicago, there were two main mobs that basically ran the whole city. There was the Italian-Sicilian mob, and the Irish-Jewish mob. The Italian-Sicilian mob was led by Johnny Torrio then by Al Capone on the city’s south side, and the Irish-Jewish mob was led by Dion O’Banion on the north side(Feb 14). These two mobs controlled most of the bootlegging and were always trying to gain more territory. In the author’s opinion, this is why crime spiked during the prohibition. People were willing to break the law and even kill just to make a profit. To many people it may seem weird that they went to such extreme lengths for money during a period of time called the Roaring Twenties, but what most people do not realize is that prohibition caused thousands of people to lose their jobs and resort to crime just to make it by. It still does not make any of the crime right because during gang disputes, for over a decade, there were probably thousands of lives lost, a lot of which were innocent workers trying to do their job. A lot of these disputes occurred when the country’s demand for bootleg booze grew and the gangs began to ¨muscle in¨ on other gangs’ territory(Gingold). In 1924, a …show more content…
They realized so quickly, that the first organized bootlegging crimes occurred just one hour after the amendment went into action. This shows just how determined gangs were to make a profit as soon as the opportunity arose. So, just a little after one on January 17, 1920, a truck load of masked gunmen pulled into a railroad switching yard in Chicago. When the truck stopped, the six masked gunmen got out and grabbed the six night watchmen and tied them up. After locking them up in a shed, they broke into two freight cars and stole $100,000 worth of whiskey marked ¨For Medicine Use Only.¨ Also on the same day but somewhere else in Chicago, a truck loaded with whiskey was hijacked, and four barrels of alcohol were stolen from a warehouse(Gingold). How did the government let prohibition go on from 1920-1933, when within the first hour of it being a law there were several major crimes committed? Not to mention the thousands upon thousands that will happen throughout the next thirteen years in all of the United States. As the years went by, the struggle for profit grew bloodier and newspapers with vivid accounts of gangsters and their crimes were soon snatched up by the public. The public began to read the newspapers with horror and fascination, probably because they did not realize how the gangs were getting the alcohol
By definition, prohibition is the forbidding by law of the manufacture, transportation, and sale of alcoholic liquors except for medicinal and sacramental purposes (Prohibition 2). This is very ironic because in the 1920s, during the prohibition, thousands of big city law officers were paid off to look the other way when alcohol was being illegally transported and distributed(Gingold). People would think that if they took the trouble to make alcohol illegal, the police officers would be willing to do their jobs and do them well. The eighteenth amendment, also known as Prohibition, was designed to reduce alcohol related crimes and to boost other entertainment industries, but in this author’s opinion, prohibition …show more content…
From Boston to Kansas City, powerful gangs carved up all of the major cities, but 1920s Chicago will be the main city mentioned(Gingold). In 1920s Chicago, there were two main mobs that basically ran the whole city. There was the Italian-Sicilian mob, and the Irish-Jewish mob. The Italian-Sicilian mob was led by Johnny Torrio then by Al Capone on the city’s south side, and the Irish-Jewish mob was led by Dion O’Banion on the north side(Feb 14). These two mobs controlled most of the bootlegging and were always trying to gain more territory. In the author’s opinion, this is why crime spiked during the prohibition. People were willing to break the law and even kill just to make a profit. To many people it may seem weird that they went to such extreme lengths for money during a period of time called the Roaring Twenties, but what most people do not realize is that prohibition caused thousands of people to lose their jobs and resort to crime just to make it by. It still does not make any of the crime right because during gang disputes, for over a decade, there were probably thousands of lives lost, a lot of which were innocent workers trying to do their job. A lot of these disputes occurred when the country’s demand for bootleg booze grew and the gangs began to ¨muscle in¨ on other gangs’ territory(Gingold). In 1924, a …show more content…
They realized so quickly, that the first organized bootlegging crimes occurred just one hour after the amendment went into action. This shows just how determined gangs were to make a profit as soon as the opportunity arose. So, just a little after one on January 17, 1920, a truck load of masked gunmen pulled into a railroad switching yard in Chicago. When the truck stopped, the six masked gunmen got out and grabbed the six night watchmen and tied them up. After locking them up in a shed, they broke into two freight cars and stole $100,000 worth of whiskey marked ¨For Medicine Use Only.¨ Also on the same day but somewhere else in Chicago, a truck loaded with whiskey was hijacked, and four barrels of alcohol were stolen from a warehouse(Gingold). How did the government let prohibition go on from 1920-1933, when within the first hour of it being a law there were several major crimes committed? Not to mention the thousands upon thousands that will happen throughout the next thirteen years in all of the United States. As the years went by, the struggle for profit grew bloodier and newspapers with vivid accounts of gangsters and their crimes were soon snatched up by the public. The public began to read the newspapers with horror and fascination, probably because they did not realize how the gangs were getting the alcohol