Nice review. Things have certainly changed since the Black Panthers I grew up with. I just finished a related book from the West Coast (L.A.), female/child angle. It is called "Love and Consequences" by Margaret Jones and was reviewed in the N.Y. Times yesterday. Both books leave me wondering,can we find a way to give every child equal, or at least reasonable, opportunities to succeed in this country?

... the Black Kings kept their members in line. In my experience, police departments are either unable or unwilling to keep their members in line. I've taken enough beatings from our official protection rackets that I'd much rather deal with their competition.

It wasn't the intention of this article, but it was a good illustration of the reason for the failure of Bush's Iraq policy. The one that went: we will get rid of a dictator and give the Iraqi people democracy and they will go on to freedom and prosperity.

If the government cannot do "nation" building in a Chicago project what chance did it have in Iraq where it didn't even speak the language. Or have the vaguest idea of the culture.

As I read the review, I was thinking, "Yes, this is one reason I love the Wire: it has always portrayed the drug dealers as business people." Now I'll be fascinated to see the results of the author's interviews with actual dealers about what is, after all, just a TV show (even if it's the best one that's ever been made IMHO!).

But in any case, the overall point seems to be that people create economies out of whatever resources they have to get what they need. There is a rational basis to even the most depraved and violent human-made system, and the reviewer is correct in pointing out that this basic truth is often ignored by both conservatives and liberals.

A nice philosophical "companion piece" to this review is the somewhat surreal and fundamentally horrifying piece in the current Rolling Stone about Iraq. Apparently, one primary purpose and strategy of the Iraq "surge" has been to bribe (via arms, jobs, and cash) former Sunni and AQI insurgents to keep the peace in their mini-territories. If America shuts off the money faucet, all hell will break lose.

I pity our next president, whoever he or she is. They will not be able to extract our country easily from the corrupt and violent military-enforced economy (militaristic socialism?) that we've created over there. Welcome to The Projects, hon.

Behind all J.T's talk of the Black Kings' role as a "community organization" lurked the stark fact that his authority was founded in the threat of violence.

When you dig right down to the fundamentals, *all* authority is founded in the threat of violence.

Be that violence economic "do what I say or get fired" or physical "submit to my authority or go to jail", it is nevertheless violence.

The Black Kings and similar organizations could be put out of business with the stroke of a pen.. Legalize "drugs" and their raison d'etre vanishes in the twinkling of an eye.

But then that would remove power from many other quarters as well, so it will never happen.

I wish I had the balls to do something like this. Can't wait to read this one!

Selling crack or killing people? Now I know why terrorists are so popular with the left.

When you dig right down to the fundamentals, *all* authority is founded in the threat of violence.

Be that violence economic "do what I say or get fired" or physical "submit to my authority or go to jail", it is nevertheless violence. -- Aycharaych

Imagine that, having to do a job you were hired for and get paid for or you might lose that job. How the hell does that relate in any way to the deserved threat of going to jail if you commit a crime?

Imagine that, having to do a job you were hired for and get paid for or you might lose that job.

That's not what you're responding to. The previous commenter said that the issue was "do what I say or you're fired," which is different than "do your job or you're fired."

The latter is a competence test, the former is a loyalty test. We just went through seven years of American government being run on the latter philosophy with very little of the former.

Billion Angry Bees...I'm sorry, what?

It's not his name; it's what the inside of his head sounds like.

If you are poor and black in Chicago you get a FREE college education paid for by the taxpayers just for graduating high school. The fact that people choose to forgo this to join a gang isn't a sign of oppression, it's a sign of stupidity. I'm not buying this crap anymore.

You must be new around here. Welcome.

Which Anonymous did you used to be?

It's not his name, it's what kind of flare we send up when he's doing his retarded wandering in the forest thing.

on the "underground economy" ...

More and more of the world is being run, essentially, by gangs and the "underground economy", under the table, off the books, duty-free has been growing in the United States for a lot of reasons ... the two are often intertwined as the "employer" of some pickup labor (legal or illegal, foreign or domestic, but for whom there is no insurance, no payroll taxes, etc.) or "purveyor" of gray-market goods is often backup by semi-legal, possibly criminal enterprise. (Again, while "illegal alien" workers are castigated, their employers are rarely publically called criminals ... it's just "biznes").

Anyhow, it seems from what I read on the subject, that once these criminal enterprises, gangs or mafias or what have you, take root, it is very difficult to uproot them. Understanding how they work and why they work and what roles they play is very important as is grappling with the consequences of this odd two-tier economy where more and more people are turning to the expanding underground economy as they are ecnomically squeezed.

The project "housemother" working in a somewhat symbiotic, sympathetic, reality based manner is pivotal. The goal of "stamping out gangs" needs to be redrawn. The force required would be unsupportable, racist, and likely unconstitutional.

Gangs are a symptom of systemic failure.

I'll have to get my library to get both books for me ... learning to work with gangs, whether in Anbar provice or San Francisco, is likely to become increasingly urgent ... it's part of having disposed of so much of the "safety net"