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Police in Atlanta recently announced that they have finished off what was left of the "Black Mafia Family," a group of individuals who once controlled nearly all the crack and cocaine being sold in Atlanta, Detroit, Los Angeles and other cities around the country.
Police recently retrieved $875,000 in cash and a large cache of weapons from the seat of a Hummer owned by the family. Two BMF members were picked up by police last Friday in Buckhead and two more this month in Atlanta and Ohio.
Police claim that the group is not as wealthy or dangerous as they once were. One of the men apprehended, 37-year-old Ernest Dennis, was on the Atlanta Police's 10 Most Wanted List and was taken in to custody on an outstanding aggravated assault charge.
BMF was notoriously powerful and got on to the radar of Atlanta police in 2003. Since that time, they've been working with authorities from around the country to bring the organization down.
The black community is affected by groups like BMF, where it continues to be glamorous to be affiliated with illegal activity. A failing educational system produces scores of African-American men who are encouraged to choose careers that lead to either caskets or jail cells.
The fuel for this social fire is further provided by hip-hop music, which makes it seem cool and exciting to be part of the drug trade. Rappers like Jay-Z, Rick Ross and Biggie Smalls (Junior Mafia) have always had an odd fascination with both drug dealers and mafia crime families. None of these messages are ever productive for young, impressionable children.
Most of us older than the age of 25 fully understand that those who deal drugs are eventually caught or killed. The same brilliance it takes to run a large criminal enterprise can be applied to safe and legal business ventures as well.
If the members of BMF had applied their expertise to business or law school, they could have still made tons of money in a way that doesn't require them to look over their shoulder and ultimately end up in prison.
But now, it appears that most of their hard-earned resources are going to go toward paying attorneys, assuming that police even allow the Black Mafia members to keep some of their money. This is sad, and I hope that perhaps one day, hip-hop will let go of the fantasy of the wealthy drug dealer.
Watch the Black Mafia Family story here (start at 3:57):
Dr. Boyce Watkins is the founder of the Your Black World Coalition To have Dr. Boyce commentary delivered to your email, please click here. To follow Dr. Boyce on Facebook, please click here. 
Comments: (31)
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By: hilroy on 2/25/2011 8:03AM
I get it like we always have. Arrest the white/Jewish blood suckers/other mafias and then gun down the black mafias like the KKK group calling themselves the Hoover FBI killed the Black Panthers in the early sixties. RACISM BLATANT RACISM.THERE IS A PRICE TO PAY.
You will not get rid of these groups.
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By: teabaggeredgar on 2/25/2011 4:01PM
@HILROY: Yes grow up. BOYce is trying to put failed education,hip-hot music to explain why some of COLOREDS MALES sell drugs. GROW THE F$$$ UP.
To me, some of the parents, should not even be born.
HILROY, GROW THE F$$$ UP: COMMUNIST.
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By: david 1111 on 2/26/2011 6:48PM
@Teabaggeredgar: Preach On!!!!! Hip-hop/rap music has fried the brain of BM, everyone knows that EXCEPT them. Oh well that's their problem not mine.
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By: FRANK on 2/27/2011 12:19AM
FOOLS LIKE THE BMF ARE NOTHING BUT A BUNCH OF
BLOODSUCKING MURDERERS THAT PARTY, DRIVE FANCY
CARS, AND THROW AWAY MONEY ON FOOLISHNESS BY
SELLING POISON THAT CAUSES WOMEN TO BECOME HOS AND
CATCH AIDS, NOT TAKE CAKE OF KIDS ...MEN TO STEAL,
ROB, AND MAKE THE STREETS UNSAFE FOR
EVERYONE....IT IS GREAT THESE punks ARE GOING TO
PRISON...WHERE THEY SHOULD BE
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By: bob on 2/25/2011 8:14AM
@hilroy GROW UP!
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By: Dj on 2/25/2011 10:04AM
For all the old, young individuals that think not getting a good education and going into crime, is a good thing may need to rethink their lifestyles. It doesn't if the person is Jewish, White, Black, blue or Yellow, a kkk, crime does not pay in the long run.
For Black people if really doesn't pay. What if the the brain power used to be a criminal is used for good, just imagine the prison system would end. I know some you are thinking Dj is living in a dream world, but I am not, I understand what is going on.
I am so tired of hearing about the bad school's , what we have are some bad parent's that should not have had a child in the first place. Then they want someone else to raise them. In year's gone back money wasn't there from Black people, but the children went to all Black schools and graduate, but now Black children have car's, phone's, getting nail's and toes's done and lack the will to be successful, but they think crime is a good thing, "hell no", it isn't.
I am happy to hear about this crime family in Atlanta. Selling drug's killing people is digraceful and some of the young rapper are disgraceful also, if they were so smart they wouldn't be going prison, where they need to be. They are loud, they look bad in the appearance and they curse all of the time, but some drive which causes them to be on the radar, becasue they are dumb.
Black people live is some of the best homes in the Atlanta and in the Metro area, some on section (8) and some paying their own mortgage and working to give their families a good lifestyle, some Black middle class people they think they are rich, but they aren't they are working class Black people and some of them would do well to save more money than the put it on their back's and buying large ticket items, but this is their money.
Good put them all in prison, but one thing I know, when some of them get out of prison and some of them will become preacher's to steal money from stupid people.
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By: Andre on 2/25/2011 11:06AM
Why do we as black people have any factories. For some people they will tell you that is heaven. I must agree on earth that is. Our atheletes who earn all this dough cannot conglomerate and start a few enterprises shoes, shirts bottle anything. WTF. Magis did even start a factory. Factories put alot of people to work. Dope boys are the only group that go into manufactoring.
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By: Kenyat on 3/16/2011 10:19PM
because you ain't smart enough
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By: SAY WHA'? on 2/25/2011 11:04AM
It's amazing how the police, and government can squash black crime organizations so quickly, but they can't seem to find Bin Laden, nor can they find these militia groups, kkk's, and nazi's over here. If they could only put so much zeal in extinquishing those white groups, then there would possibly be some legitimacey to them stopping the BMF so quickly. Black men really need to wake up and stop being so stupid, crime only pays if you are italian, irish or white. You black men, I pray that God give you the common sense to find a legal "hustle", one in which you are not preying and killing off your own. It's the same scenario across the country, they'll let you put major drugs in the community, let them kill off several brothers, and when they have had enough of the foolishness, they kill you or put you in prison for the rest of your lives. WAKE UP BROTHERS, Wake UP!
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By: WholelyOne on 2/25/2011 11:13AM
These OrGanizations Can Thank Mostly Themselves And The Entertainers They Support For Supplying The Law With All The Information That They Need To Conduct An Investigation! They Also Can Thank Those Members Of Their OrGanizations In South Central Los Angeles That Took From My OneGodMinistries!
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