Prohibition

Rory Gallagher Prohibition In this video on the prevailing happenings of the prohibition ear; 1920 to 1933 a period of time that forever changed American society. I will be analyzing some of the most distinguishing chapters in its manifestation, such as the enactment of the Volstead Act, rise and fall of the bootlegger, as well as the corruption and lawlessness that became commonplace. The Volstead act was the next motion for the supporters of a alcohol free union who were not yet satisfied with the 18 Amendment because it did not specifically state what a “intoxicating liquor” was nor state if or how these newly controlled substances could be possessed or used in any legal manner. The first attempt of total alcohol prohibition also didn’t say what level of alcohol content would be considered illegal which was altered to any substance with more than .5% alcohol content. This new Volstead act became possibly the most un-upheld federal law ever enacted. Due to the new laws that forbid the sale or possession of distilled spirits an illegal market for liquors began to form at an insatiable rate. In order to combat this new demand a lucrative black market was born and its operator being dubbed the “bootlegger.” The bootlegger started off as a small operation of individuals who sold illegal spirits that they had distilled themselves and later turned into an unrivaled crime cindicate in which a hand full of men controlled massive amounts of territory where they provided illegal spirits for tens of thousands of people and employed thousands to distribute, keep books on expeditures, and distill alcohol to keep up with the massive demands. However in some areas the greed of some resulted in large scale gang wars over territory because rival bootleggers tried to sell product in the their competitors territory or steal rival shipments of liquor. This level of organized crime created an influx of violence many cities never knew before and started to make people think that maybe the prohibition on alcohol created more crime and violence than It stopped which unltimately led to the 21st amendment and the nullification of the 18th. Another notable fact of the prohibition era was the widespread bribery of elected officials and peace officers who took massive amounts of money in bribes from bootleggers to secure the safe sale of the product and inside knowledge about if or when they will be raided by police. This kind of crookedness has never since been so common place; it was estimated that over 60% or police and elected officials of some of the most prominent bootlegging cities were on the take. The large amounts of money the bootleggers were willing to cash out in order to gain immunity made them near untouchable and let them go about their operations in broad daylight without opposition from the police. This kind of activity was easily afforded by the moonshiners because they were bringing in more money than could have made in a lifetime many times over, with the average truck load of moonshine paying out 40,000$ which equals over 500,000$ dollars worth of buying power in today’s market due to inflation rates. The prohibition era became an infamous time in American history however it was not for the reasons that prohibition was written into law which was the abolishment of alcohol and alcohol related crime but instead for the amount or organized crime as well as corruption it created. The prohibition was a sort of perfect storm of lawlessness and will likely never arise again because the entire experiment was a failure. It was a law the majority of Americans did not approve of therefore it was easy to break the law due to the lack of enforcement. People still sought alcohol in mass amounts creating the bootleggers and gangs who profited amensly and worked to protect their profits or expand them by killing competitors