Civil Society/Crime/Theme

 Crime and Philadelphia are old bedfellows. There's crime in city hall, crime in the police department, crime in the unions, crime in the churches, crime in the media, crime in the hospitals; pretty much anywhere you look in Philadelphia, there's crime. After the powers that be are done picking the fat from the calf, the leavings trickle down to be scavenged by the numerous organized crime groups vying for dominance within the city and its surrounding area. The intricate network of regional alliances and national beefs see to it that Philadelphia and South Jersey have histories of being slow burning war zones. And that's not even taking into account the low level crime and street gangs which dominate the city's "badlands".

 Street crime in the city tends to be opportunistic, demarcated by differing blocks and streets, and motivated entirely by old enmities, or access to the drug market. In Philadelphia's street gangs, where you are from matters far more than the color of your skin. Such concerns as race and nationality are, for the most part, the concern of Philadelphia's organized crime groups.

 If you live in one of the major neighborhoods of North, West, or South Philly, odds are your block has a set. Maybe not a large one, maybe not one you've ever heard of or dealt with, but it's sure to be there.

 Organized crime, on the other hands, has very formal boundaries and very formal alliances. Rivalries crop up from time to time, of course, but most of the rivalries these crime organizations undertake are with rivals outside of the region. New York, Camden, Trenton, and Baltimore send the fingers of their criminal organizations into Philadelphia, and Philadelphia sends their own out, likewise. With major regional airports, a major trade port, and enormous rail infrastructure, Philadelphia remains a major hub in the illegal drug trade. And what they don't ship in, they manufacture locally. Cooking meth and cutting fentanyl are typically left to the lower tier allies of the major families, with the old stand bys of embezzlement, racketeering, and keeping the books feeding the coffers of the upper echelons.

Organized crime groups active in Philadelphia:

• Philadelphia Mafia, an Italian crime family
• K&A Irish Mob, an Irish crime family
• Junior Black Mafia, an African American crime family
• Warlocks MC, an outlaw motorcycle club

You can read more about Philadelphia's street gangs here. This list comprises a list of PC created gangs and is not by any means exhaustive.