Think of Prohibition and the mob as parallel to what happened in Black neighborhoods more recently. Back in the 40s and 50s you had mobs running numbers -- small stuff. When drugs hit big, you got the gangsters moving into drug traffic and growing a lot bigger and more dangerous.
So sure, you had protection rackets in Italian neighborhoods before Prohibition, but it was the alcohol ban that made the racketeers so numerous and powerful and dangerous and prominent.
Prohibition was a bad idea, but it's so easy to slam that it's almost mandatory for contrarians to put in a good word for it every once in a while.
“It’s really strange to find something like this coming from a site with ‘libertarian’ in the title.”
LOL: Well, it shouldn’t be – at least not for a free speech person. Why live under a strict label or be boxed? The title is “Weekend Libertarian” suggesting part-time, in any case.
I wonder: Do some libertarians have a right to make things up to “prove” their case? Why do they prohibit debates on their websites if they’re for “reason” and “liberty”?
Prohibition wasn’t all bad or all good. Again, if it was so bad, then why are libertarians hiding medical and criminal records, from some periods? I think there is a tendency for some libertarians to blame laws instead of holding thugs accountable, for their actions. Al Capone was evil.