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Revelations from law enforcement: "Police say lawyers aid Mafia, new book suggests"

Police suspect a handful of practising lawyers play an indispensable role in the dealings of Canada’s most notorious crime family, protecting sensitive meetings from police scrutiny with their mere presence, and even subscribing to cellphone numbers for mobsters in order to thwart police eavesdropping, a new book reveals.

Mobsters have lawyers. Who knew?

Comments

[Eric Jaffa]

“We have never encountered such systematic, large-scale and apparently purposeful misuse of the legal system.”

How about George W. Bush appointing lawyers who believe that Republican presidents have unlimited power under the Constitution, and that torture and warrantless wiretapping are legal?

[Jason E.]

That doesn't seem particularly surprising. Frank Ragano, who defended Trafficante in 1957, and went on to work for a number of shady characters, was openly referring to himself as a "mob lawyer" clear back in the early 60s. His 1990-something (I don't recall the exact year at the moment) autobiography was quite open about his mob ties and how successes at defending mob bosses led to this became his main type of work. I've always just assumed that the first thing you do after starting down the road to establishing a criminal empire was to get a good lawyer, keep with him, and pay him well to handle all your needs.

[Lindsay Beyerstein]

They call it organized crime for a reason. Of course they have lawyers. Major criminal syndicates are multi-million dollar transnational businesses. They need lawyers and accountants just like any other enterprise. I don't understand why that's supposed to be news. I mean, the details of the Canadian mob's lawyers are probably fascinating, but the lede is just inane.

[parse]

They call it organized crime for a reason. Of course they have lawyers. Major criminal syndicates are multi-million dollar transnational businesses. They need lawyers and accountants just like any other enterprise.

Unless other enterprises need lawyers to shield them from police scrutiny and subscribe to cell phones to thwart eavesdropping, the lede does a pretty good job of describing how the mob's need for lawyers is different from that of other multi-million dollar transnational businesses.

[TB]

What's next?

Water's wet?

Getting high gives you the munchies?

Great job guys, I feel much safer.

[Chris O.]

Me! Me! I knew!

Wait, that was a rhetorical question, wasn't it? Hmph.

[Mandos]

Multinational corporations of any size are often involved in something shady somewhere and use their lawyers to weasel out of the consequences.

[mudkitty]

Ya gotta hand it to 'em. Fuckfaces that thet are.

[Lesley]

This brings to mind a line (spoken by drug dealer Jesse) in Breaking Bad:

"You don't need a criminal lawyer, you need a "CRIMINAL" lawyer!"

[sadfasf]

The lede summarizes the article, I don't know how it could be improved on. What would you have written?

Maybe you think this is inane and unsurprising but if you aren't interested in boring minutiae about the Canadian mob why are you reading "Mafia Today"?

[PurpleGirl]

Bruce Cutler, who was John Gotti's lawyer for many years, was singled out by the Brooklyn DA for his possible roles in the Gotti organization and possible knowledge of illegal activities. He was forced to leave Gotti's employ.

[Lindsay Beyerstein]

Of course the minutiae of the Canadian mob are interesting. I wouldn't be reading and blogging about them if I didn't think so.

But the headline makes it sound like the news is the mere fact that they have lawyers who do what you'd expect a mafia organization's lawyers to do, and more or less what you'd expect lawyers for any international corporation to do. Sadfasf, you've to to admit, the a "Police say lawyers aid Mafia, new book suggests" buries the lead.

Quote:"Police suspect a handful of practising lawyers play an indispensable role in the dealings of Canada’s most notorious crime family, protecting sensitive meetings from police scrutiny with their mere presence, and even subscribing to cellphone numbers for mobsters in order to thwart police eavesdropping, a new book reveals."

Surely the newsworthy revelation isn't that the police say the Mafia have lawyers who help them. What's newsworthy is that the lawyers are buying cellphone numbers to thwart surveillance or that they play a bigger role in the group's operation than was previously known, or that new details have come to light about the inner workings of the legal arm of the group.

Lawyers shield their clients from police scrutiny by their presence? That's a pretty normal lawyer thing to do. It's also pretty normal for lawyers to play a big role in the mob. The only thing that might be unusual is that they're subscribing to cell phone numbers on their clients' behalf.

Lighten up. Everyone writes inane headlines from time to time.

[PurpleGirl]

Actually the headline is a pretty accurate description of the situation.

[parse]

Lindsay, you wrote that was inane, not the headline. I mean, the details of the Canadian mob's lawyers are probably fascinating, but the lede is just inane. Now you say the problem is that the headline buries the lede, which you now acknowledge contains the newsworthy revelation from the story.

Lawyers shield their clients from police scrutiny by their presence? That's a pretty normal lawyer thing to do. The story suggests that, by attending meetings, mob lawyers prevent police from conducting surveillance on mob meetings. Unless the business meetings of multi-million dollar transnational businesses are routinely subjected to police surveillance, I don't think it's accurate to describe the role the mob lawyers are playing as "a pretty normal lawyer thing to do."