A crime scene in Chicago, July 9.

A crime scene in Chicago, July 9.

Photo: Antonio Perez/Zuma Press

Congratulations to Joseph Epstein for committing the dual effronteries of calling for vigorous law enforcement as a remedy for the crime that plagues our hometown and for pointing out that the disabling of “the Outfit” was not an unmitigated positive for our city (“Crime is No Longer a Family Business in Chicago,” op-ed, July 31).

Federal prosecutors crippled the Outfit with a series of high-profile trials over the past 30 or so years, including the “family secrets” trial in 2007, which resulted in nearly the entire upper echelon of the Outfit—including Joseph “Joey the Clown” Lombardo, Frank Calabrese Sr. and James Marcello—going away for life.

If the prosecutors and those who cheered them on thought the result would be a great abatement of crime in Chicago, they were sorely mistaken. The disabling of the Outfit in Chicago, and of the broader Mob throughout the country, has resulted in the replacement of organized crime with disorganized crime.

Mark M. Quinn

Naperville, Ill.