[JohnMitchel]

It's definitely on my mind as a factor. How "out 'n about" is organized crime in the streets these days? Is it underground, or are there still "Sparks steakhouse" style high profile killings going on?

As for the ethnicity, who is in power now? Still the mob bosses, or have the Italians/Jews been eclipsed by the Russians, Thai, Viets, Chinese gangs, etc?

Organized crime infiltrates all sorts of industries, but what about tech? Anyone hear of stories of IT companies getting the shakedown by organized crime? You don't read about stuff like that in Fortune, Forbes, or Computer Reseller News. :-) Having worked in the Silicon Valley in the 90's, our HQ would get robbed by organized gangs who would resell the chips/ memory to gray marketers, or front it themselves w. bogus companies. These were all asian gangs, never heard of mafiosi being involved, but one never knows who is actually pulling the strings...

PS I am an asian american, and this is in no way a slam against any ethnicities, just what I have seen/read in the mass media.