Prohibition: Why Did America Change Its Mind?
The 18th amendment declared it illegal to manufacture, transport, and sell alcoholic beverages in the US, this was known as prohibition. They said drinking was behind some of America’s most serious problems such as corruption, child abuse, crime, unemployment, and worker safety. Crime went up in the prohibition era. The enforcement for the amendment was not strong. Congress men were being hypocritical and doing exactly what they were telling everyone else not to do.
In 1919, when prohibition law was passed, the homicide rate was 7.2 per 100,000. The years following the homicide rate was never lower than 6.8. America saw that Prohibition was about more murders than World War 1 and World War 2. Many were getting sick and were still willing to do anything to get an alcoholic beverage. The Volstead Act had an immediate impact on crime. Organized crime grew because prohibition created a high demand for illegal alcohol that criminals could sell at high prices. Al Capone was one of the best at organized crime. After (document b)
Of 7,000 arrests in New York between 1921 and 1923, only 27 resulted in convictions. Breaking the law, even flaunting it, also became exciting and popular. The seaways, ports, and borders made it difficult for law enforcement to stop bootleggers. Smuggling was very successful because it was impossible to cover the thousands of mils of Canada and Mexico’s borders. The government paid police poorly which resulted in gangsters and bootleggers to pay them