Political Corruption In Timothy Gilfoyle's A Pickpocket's Tale

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Timothy Gilfoyle main argument from the excerpt of the book “A pickpocket’s tale” was about the political corruption, and the political influence that many gangsters of the late 19th century, and early 20th century had, as well as the overall role that gangs played in society. During the late 1800’s, and early 1900’s many gangsters had political connection, and because of this were able to get away with breaking the law without having to face any consequences (Gilfoyle, T., Chapter 9 pg.12, 13 &14). One example was Gould, who despite running an illegal bar (dive), threating a women to blow her brains out, assaulting a bartender and leaving him all bloody, never faced any charges against him, because of his political connections in New York in the late 1800’s (Gilfoyle, T., Chapter 9 pg.12). Gangster’s, and politicians had a strong connection in the late 19th …show more content…

Pickpockets used their brain instead of their physical attributes in order to commit their crime, and tried to avoid violence at all cause, while gangs were more likely to use violence in order to accomplish their goals (Gilfoyle, T., Chapter13 pg. 13). For a pickpockets, honor, statues, and success did not come from violent act, but from deceiving others (Gilfoyle, T., Chapter13 pg.13). Gangs used violence as a way to climb the ladder of what they saw as success, and the more violent a person was the more respect they would receive from others ((Gilfoyle, T., Chapter13 pg.12 & 13). Overall the difference between gangs, pickpockets and confidence men was the way that they committed their criminal acts, and what they saw as brining honor, statues, respect, and success to them. Gangs saw violence as the way to gain respect, honor, and statues, while pickpockets and confidence men saw these same things coming from using your brain, and not your physical attribute to accomplish your

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