Since Alcohol was no longer readily available, ordinary citizens, who were undisturbed by the act, “it wasn’t a hanging matter” (source 4) just turned to the gangsters and the organised criminals who supplied, otherwise stated as a “dirty trick” in source 4, the hard liquor and spirits in concentrated quantities, such as ‘moonshine’, as it was much easier to obtain and transport (trying to avoid being caught), thus being less expensive then less concentrated alcohol such as beer. In result of Prohibition, Americans drank more intoxicating alcohol, resulting in crime rate to soar to nearly twice that of the pre-prohibition period. However these incidents would seem minor when compared to the powerful gang related crime.
Prohibition encouraged Gangsterism. Chicago became the capital of swindlers, followed by many other cities located in the urban north. The swindlers, also known as bootleggers set up 100,000’s of illegal ‘speakeasies’ in Chicago alone and worked along the lines of “intimidation, blackmail”, bribery and homicide. These businesses, often hidden in basements, office buildings, and anywhere that could be found became straightforward for customers to lay hands on hard liquor. On the other hand, the Bootleggers smuggled liquor from oversees and Canada, stole it from government warehouses, and produced their own. The bootlegging business had become so extensive that the laws were flagrantly violated by gangsters, commoners and even sly government officials who had formed “corrupt alliances” with the mobsters, hence making it impossible to prevent immense quantities of liquor from entering the country.
The industry turned-over large amounts of profit, promoting more gangsters to become involved in the illegal money making business. As a result of this very profitable businesses in the illegal industry, there was much rival between gangs. This is emphasized in source 5, “underworld gangs set out to control the illicit liquor business” The profit motive caused many violent outrages and cold blooded mass murders, the worst being St. Valentine’s Day massacre, which was ordered by Al Capone, The most powerful and infamous bootlegger. Prohibition resulted in an increase in aggressive and brutal gang warfare attacks.
Another source of alcohol supply came from doctors, for medical purposes. This was technically legal, even though strict restrictions applied, these rules were blatantly ignored. This illustrates the general disregard for the law by doctors as it’s similarly stressed in by Maccurrie source 4.
Statistics showed the drop in alcohol related deaths before prohibition quickly rose during prohibition, while arrests for alcohol related crime and misuse of illegal substances increased by 51%.
Many would believe organized crime was the main consequence of Prohibition and would avow that organized crime grew into an empire.
The problems prohibition intended to solve, such as crime, grew worse and have never returned to their pre-prohibition levels. “The worst consequence of Prohibition was to stimulate organised crime” (source 5). Not only was prohibition ineffective, it was also damaging to the people and society it was meant to help.
Prohibition did not achieve its goals, Even though ‘consuming alcohol declined in the country as a whole’ (source 5), the disturbing factor of crime rose radically, and added fuel to fire for gang warfare, bootlegging and organised crime.
