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2 part series on A&E this past weekend. I don't watch much television, occasionally American Pickers (great show btw) or some retro stuff in syndication.
I couldn't care less about the Gotti family and their sick and twisted history. My wife wanted to watch it because her late father was interested in the history of the mafia.
There were a few times during the documentary I found myself, or my wife pointed it out to me, in an uncontrollable rant. What really set me off was when John Gotti was warning his son about the government while he sat in prison dying from head and neck cancer. I told my wife that everything he was telling his son about his hatred of the government was a bunch of BS. I had to explain it to her.
For one thing, at certain times during his life, the government through the process of corruption, assisted John Gotti in becoming the top dog of the Gambino crime family. There is no denying that the local, pobably state, and quite possibly even the federal government assisted him at certain times.
To understand those kind of people, you have to look at them from a different angle. Gotti didn't hate the government because they put him in prison for breaking the law. He looked at the government as competition. He felt they were being unfair by putting him away so he couldn't operate like the government.
What I'm trying to say is those ignorant people up in that community that celebrated John Gotti and looked up to him as a hero and legitimate leader, instead of looking at him as the psychopath murderer that he actually was, is akin to how citizens cheer on their evil dictators in many countries around the world.
He said he hated the government, yet he was trying to be the government by running the Gambino crime family. Afterall, they operate just like the government. They take profits of businesses in their territory and if they don't get their cut, they take it by force. Sure, the government doesn't do "hits" on people. However, the principle is the same. The government gets their share in the end through garnishments, property seizure, civil forfeiture, and imprisonment.
Gotti's government got their share through threat of death. That's the only difference I could see between John Gotti and the legitimate government that he said he hated. He was full of BS.
Watching that series simply reinforced my promise to myself to never go up there to NY. To watch all of those people up there cheer that idiot before he finally got nailed was sickening.
Anyway, just was wondering if anyone else watched it.
I couldn't care less about the Gotti family and their sick and twisted history. My wife wanted to watch it because her late father was interested in the history of the mafia.
There were a few times during the documentary I found myself, or my wife pointed it out to me, in an uncontrollable rant. What really set me off was when John Gotti was warning his son about the government while he sat in prison dying from head and neck cancer. I told my wife that everything he was telling his son about his hatred of the government was a bunch of BS. I had to explain it to her.
For one thing, at certain times during his life, the government through the process of corruption, assisted John Gotti in becoming the top dog of the Gambino crime family. There is no denying that the local, pobably state, and quite possibly even the federal government assisted him at certain times.
To understand those kind of people, you have to look at them from a different angle. Gotti didn't hate the government because they put him in prison for breaking the law. He looked at the government as competition. He felt they were being unfair by putting him away so he couldn't operate like the government.
What I'm trying to say is those ignorant people up in that community that celebrated John Gotti and looked up to him as a hero and legitimate leader, instead of looking at him as the psychopath murderer that he actually was, is akin to how citizens cheer on their evil dictators in many countries around the world.
He said he hated the government, yet he was trying to be the government by running the Gambino crime family. Afterall, they operate just like the government. They take profits of businesses in their territory and if they don't get their cut, they take it by force. Sure, the government doesn't do "hits" on people. However, the principle is the same. The government gets their share in the end through garnishments, property seizure, civil forfeiture, and imprisonment.
Gotti's government got their share through threat of death. That's the only difference I could see between John Gotti and the legitimate government that he said he hated. He was full of BS.
Watching that series simply reinforced my promise to myself to never go up there to NY. To watch all of those people up there cheer that idiot before he finally got nailed was sickening.
Anyway, just was wondering if anyone else watched it.
