Comment by whimsicalism

2 years ago

i can see why in highly segregated communities it might be more effective to have detectives who know xyz about a certain community, especially since criminal gangs tend to self-associate by race/ethnicity

would a police group dedicated to investigating the mafia be a violation of the civil rights act?

No, that would be ridiculous. An “Italian squad” might be, though.

  • any mafia squad back in the day was effectively an italian squad

    • The details matter when talking about legalities. A group of cops investigating a gang that happens to have a lot of italian members is different than having a group of cops that investigates italians.

    • And yet, it was never called that, right? It would have been a Mafia task force, a task force against a particular family, or a task force against organized crime. You wouldn’t call it an Italian task force because you’re probably hoping for help from the Italian-American community to help catch the Mafiosos, and that naming convention is pretty insulting to law abiding Italians-Americans.

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