Word: ganglander
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...contracts pledging hours of extra homework. He spends summers poring over the school records to find recruits for his classes like he was a coach." As a result of such dedication, 70% of last year's graduating class was accepted by colleges -- a stunning score for a former gangland satrapy...
...surfeit of aging buildings crumble in disrepair. Desks occasionally spill out of overcrowded classrooms into hallways prowled by student hoodlums who "have been bringing weapons to school for years," says one principal. An overpowerful custodian's union, whose president was killed last year in what police described as a gangland-style rubout, dictates the hours schools will be open. Tenured high school principals cannot be fired without interminable hearings. Under a 19-year-old decentralization plan, elementary and junior high schools enjoy wide latitude in curriculum and administrative matters -- which has resulted in a chaotic absence of accountability. Nevertheless...
...South America and who also testified in the "Pizza Connection" trial in New York City, which led to the conviction of 17 drug traffickers. Buscetta described to the jury the Mafia's pyramidal structure, capped by a twelve-member cupola, or commission, that ruled on all major gangland murders. There were plenty of those. The prosecution charged that between 1978 and 1982 the cupola directed a wave of terror in which some 425 people, including magistrates, police investigators and politicians, were killed in Palermo alone...
Extortion, protection rackets and tax fraud are the stuff of daily life. There are threats and occasionally even executions. It sounds like Al Capone's Chicago or Mafia-dominated Sicily in the days of gangland wars. But instead, all those evils are flourishing in today's Northern Ireland in neighborhoods controlled by extremists. Says Brian Feeney, a Belfast city councilor: "This is real godfather stuff. Everybody pays. If you don't, they threaten to harm your family or workers...
...vacancies that may not be easy to fill. "The machinery to resolve those disputes has been wiped out," contends Ronald Goldstock, head of the New York State organized-crime task force. But if Mob rivalries are allowed to fester, he notes, the result could be a new outburst of gangland violence...