Remembering Chicago's St. Valentine's Day Massacre

Today marks the 84th anniversary of the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, when Al Capone’s South Side Italian gang shot five members of Bugs Moran’s North Side Irish gang in Chicago. Among the weapons used were two Tommy Guns, fully automatic machine guns, the symbol of Prohibition violence. 

For his State of the Union address, Obama invited several victims of gun violence, including the parents of Hadiya Pendleton, a Chicago high-school student who had marched with her school's band in Mr. Obama’s inaugural parade. Obama stated that since the Newtown school shooting more than 1,000 Americans had died of gun violence, and called for gun control. How could he make such a misleading statement, and offer such a pointless solution, with Hadiya’s parents sitting in front of him right next to Michelle Obama? 

Suicides in the US outnumber murders 2:1, and half the murders occur among urban drug gangs, just like during Prohibition, just like in Hadiya’s city Chicago. The issue is not how people are being murdered, but why. To see how Alcohol Prohibition created the Mafia, watch the excellent TV series Boardwalk Empire. To see how Drug Prohibition created the modern drug gangs, watch The Wire. 

In 1933 we wised up and repealed Alcohol Prohibition; the time has come to do the same with Drug Prohibition.