ABSTRACT
There are sound political, economic, and organizational reasons for creating the myth that to stem the tide of street crimes committed by young black men requires massive expenditures, the expansion of police powers, and the erosion of civil liberties. This myth also serves another function for politicians and law enforcement agencies: Keeping a nation focused on street crimes and the myth of young black men as super predators is a smoke screen. Crime in the streets also obscures the prevalence of state-organized crime, that is, criminal acts committed by government officials in the course of their duties. The complicity of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in the smuggling of illegal drugs, particularly cocaine and heroin, has become part of the government's unofficial policy since the Vietnam War and is a prime example of state-organized crime. The CIA and the Federal Bureau of Investigation covered up murders committed by their informants, murders that may have been ordered by the CIA.
