Police in Atlanta recently announced that they have finished off what was left of the "Black Mafia Family," a group of individuals who once controlled nearly all the crack and cocaine being sold in Atlanta, Detroit, Los Angeles and other cities around the country.
Police recently retrieved $875,000 in cash and a large cache of weapons from the seat of a Hummer owned by the family. Two BMF members were picked up by police last Friday in Buckhead and two more this month in Atlanta and Ohio.Police claim that the group is not as wealthy or dangerous as they once were. One of the men apprehended, 37-year-old Ernest Dennis, was on the Atlanta Police's 10 Most Wanted List and was taken in to custody on an outstanding aggravated assault charge.
BMF was notoriously powerful and got on to the radar of Atlanta police in 2003. Since that time, they've been working with authorities from around the country to bring the organization down.
The black community is affected by groups like BMF, where it continues to be glamorous to be affiliated with illegal activity. A failing educational system produces scores of African-American men who are encouraged to choose careers that lead to either caskets or jail cells.
The fuel for this social fire is further provided by hip-hop music, which makes it seem cool and exciting to be part of the drug trade. Rappers like Jay-Z, Rick Ross and Biggie Smalls (Junior Mafia) have always had an odd fascination with both drug dealers and mafia crime families. None of these messages are ever productive for young, impressionable children.
Most of us older than the age of 25 fully understand that those who deal drugs are eventually caught or killed. The same brilliance it takes to run a large criminal enterprise can be applied to safe and legal business ventures as well.
If the members of BMF had applied their expertise to business or law school, they could have still made tons of money in a way that doesn't require them to look over their shoulder and ultimately end up in prison.
But now, it appears that most of their hard-earned resources are going to go toward paying attorneys, assuming that police even allow the Black Mafia members to keep some of their money. This is sad, and I hope that perhaps one day, hip-hop will let go of the fantasy of the wealthy drug dealer.
Posted By: DAVID JOHNSON
Saturday, March 5th 2011 at 3:15AM
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