Speakeasies and Bootleggers
Speakeasies:
Speakeasies in the 1920s were unltimately a way to get around to get around the law of prohibition. In order for people to obtain alcohol illegally, they went underground to find hidden saloons/nightclubs. They are called speakeasies because once inside, the people would speak softly or "easily" to avoid being found.
Speakeasies could be found everywhere-basements, penthouses, apartments, stores, ect. For every legitimate saloon that closed, half a dozen underground clubs were born. To get into one, you had to have either a card or a password. Eventually there were thought to be 100,000 speakeasies just in New York City.
Even though speakeasies were illegal, the benefits of those that were responsible rose. Profit got higher, and soon, police were being paid an extra $40 to overlook places where alcohol could be given out. The alternative to paying the cops was to have a thorough and most likely expensive system of concealing evidence when the place would get busted.
Bootleggers:
Bootlegging is defined as the illegal transport of alcohol from foreign countries such as Mexico and Canada in which people would hide it in containers in their pant legs to smuggle it across borders.
It all started with prohibition. It was an attempt to solve social problems with government solutions, and it backfired miserably. People saw a huge profit in bootlegging. Respect for law enforcement went down tremendously when, as I said before, organized crimes would pay off the cops to overlook evidence of the crime.
Some famous bootleggers include:
Al Capone
William McCoy
Joe Kennedy
I think it's kind of pathetic that our country couldn't last very long without alcohol. You'd think the country would have worried about bigger problems than how much poison they can sneak across the border. Use your brain for something else. Please.
Comments
true true. good point.
While I agree with you opinion, I think for some people it was more about the fact the gov't took away their right to do what they want.