Prohibition
There are many ways in which prohibition of alcohol consumption in the United States of America, damaged the very economic and social aspects of American culture, that it was designed to heal. “Prohibition did not achieve its goals. Instead, it added to the problems it was intended to solve.” On 16th January 1920, one of the most common personal habits and customs of American society came to a halt. The eighteenth amendment was implemented, making all importing, exporting, transporting, selling and manufacturing of intoxicating liquors absolutely prohibited. The intent of Prohibition was to reduce the amount of alcohol consumed, which in turn would reduce: crime, poverty, death rates, and help the economy. Unfortunately, the lofty goals of Prohibition were not achieved. The law was rendered ineffective because it was unenforceable. Instead of creating a better way of life for Americans, it caused various social and economical problems such as: the explosive growth of organized crime, increased liquor consumption, massive murder rates and corruption among city officials. The rise in crime coupled with the economic down turn called for a new method in combating these problems from a law enforcement standpoint.
Prohibition also initiated several economic problems. Alcohol consumption was wide spread throughout the U.S before Prohibition. The banning of alcohol resulted in less revenue from taxation. Every cent the bootlegger made, went into their pockets or was used to bribe city officials and pay their own thugs. The government didn’t collect a single red penny from the illegal sells of alcohol. Instead, they were busy at work spending taxpayer’s money on programs to enforce this law. A new task force called the Federal Prohibition Bureau was established. It was the job of these 1,500 federal officers to enforce the prohibition law. Many of those officers found themselves in the midst of the exchange of dirty money between the bootleggers and themselves. Tax dollars were also spent on prosecuting bootleggers who were captured. Millions of dollars annually were spent convicting and keeping the prisoners in jails. The FBI was another federal law enforcement agency that went through changes during the Prohibition years. The FBI was having limited success combating organized crime using its narrow jurisdiction to investigate. Organized crime caused problems within the FBI because they were local crimes, but they fell under the scope of the Federal Government. By 1924, the FBI was losing the war against organized crime. Field offices didn’t coordinate with each other, highlighting the lack of organization throughout the Bureau. The FBI also had too few field officers. Fortunately, the appointment of J. Edgar Hoover began to right the ship. When Hoover took over, the Bureau of Investigation had approximately 650 employees, including 441 Special Agents who worked in field offices in nine cities. By the end of the decade, there were approximately 30 field offices. Hoover set out to make the FBI a well-oiled machine in order to counteract organized crime, which meant having officers qualified to undertake the tasks expected of them. He immediately fired those Agents he considered unqualified and proceeded to professionalize the organization. For example, Hoover abolished the seniority rule of promotion and introduced uniform performance appraisals. He also scheduled regular inspections of the operations in all field offices. Then, in January 1928, Hoover established a formal traini
Some topics in this essay:
Prohibition Bureau,
Special Agents,
Senators Governors,
United America,
Rochester York,
IRS Capone,
York City,
Internal Revenue,
Prohibition FBI,
ATF FBI,
organized crime,
city officials,
law enforcement,
field offices,
alcohol consumption,
law enforcement agencies,
bootlegging industry,
smuggled liquor,
speak-easies replaced,
intoxicating liquors,
american society,
federal prohibition bureau,
alcohol related deaths,
goals instead added,
achieve goals instead,
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Approximate Word count = 1558
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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