1 VIOLENCE AND ORGANIZED VIOLENCE

By Omar Fundora
ofundora@aol.com

07/20/22

Our country, the United States, is a violent Society. The Data that we have collected over the years have
been analyzed for verity and used for statistical analysis to give us a very good picture of the magnitude
and frequency of the acts of violence we experience every year nationally. Violence cost us at least 1.5%
of GDP every year and we have come close to declare the problem a national emergency on several
occasions. To understand how complex the problem is, we need to show you a diagram for discussion:

ANABLERS in the ECOSYSTEMS AND SOCIETAL ENTITIES

Climate United Government Merchants Community Family Person
Nations
Cold or Int’l Law Democracy Products & Police Patriarchal Male
Hot or Services Fire Nurturing Female
authoritarian Schools Single Social
Community parent Anti-social
Centers Wealth Intelligent
Demographics Loving Handicapped
Hospitals Discipline Ambition
Businesses style Health
Religion Race/Mix
Parks
Housing
Scarcity Human Education Employment
of organic Rights Economy
resources Charter Social
Political
Water Enforcement Institutional
organization
& culture
2 VIOLENCE AND ORGANIZED VIOLENCE
By Omar Fundora
ofundora@aol.com

On each case of violence, it is possible to evaluate the root causes of violent events by identifying the
enabling elements of each one of these spheres of influence on the person. To do your due diligence in
the data collection, analysis and final report, it is necessary to draw from all the fundamental academic
fields. Fields like Biology, Environmental Science, Political Science, Education, Psychiatry, Psychology,
Social Sciences, Business Administration, Finance, Military Science, Security and more depending on the
type of violence that we are trying to analyze and find the root cause of it and make recommendations
that will prevent the act from repeating again. Sometimes, we find the enabling decisions in all of the
spheres do not follow a cascading sequence. The possibility exist for the sequence to skip a layer or two
depending on the interaction with the person. We can also have a case in which there is a cascading
sequence, but, there are backtracks that take place that causes a counter reaction from one of the
enablers. One example of this is what happened to George Floyd. George and the policeman that
assassinated him had interactions in the past. So the magnitude of the act of violence by the policeman
was augmented because of built up negative feelings about George Floyd that occurred prior and during
the engagement of the policeman and George Floyd. The Act of violence set up a wave of reaction
around the country with people protesting, organizing and pushing back on the State for the general
perception and conclusion that this assassination of Mr. Floyd was a combination of personal violence
influence by race and police department bias culture towards black people.
3 VIOLENCE AND ORGANIZED VIOLENCE
By Omar Fundora
ofundora@aol.com

To prevent this tectonic shakeup of our society from occurring again, our Justice Department, Congress
and President reacted with changes to the police organization, Programs like Environmental justice
which is an ambitious program that is directed to all the layers of enablers in our society to correct the
injustices that we have allowed to exist or not correct permanently for a very long time.

Time has passed since the assassination of George Floyd. We have seen good and bad results caused by
the interventions that have taken place around the country by institutions and organizations of our
society as well as in neighborhoods. Support from Religious organizations and other regional actors
helped reduce the anger in the People. The Chicago Program of “See Something, Tell Something”,
during the early years, had good outcomes. As part of this program, the City of Chicago Administration
recruited interrupters that where former criminals to try and mediate violence between gangs in
Chicago. It worked for a while and the city crime rate was reduced by more than 15%. However, lately,
a reversal has taken place and the frequency of violent acts has increased. The Pandemic impact on the
level of violent outcomes was to increase it. The Pandemic crisis became an enabler of violence because
of the necessity of State oppression that restricted people movement and gatherings. Funding became
scarce because of the emergency and the city of Chicago reduced the level of activities of the
neighborhood groups and associations driving the program.

Interrupters are the name given to actors in an organization that is trying to change its culture. We
know from places like Ecuador, where the gang violence problem is chronic, that authoritarianism or a
“strong hand” tactics do not work with organized gangs. But, they have had success getting the gangs to
resolve their own differences and reduce the violence in the neighborhoods where they operate. The
government of Ecuador realized and has accepted that the People of Ecuador and their government are
not going to irradicate violent gangs from the country, so they have resigned themselves to manage the
gang problem. The reason that in Ecuador the government cannot eliminate the gang problem is
because the fundamentals of a civilized society are not the best. Corruption is high, trust in government
is low. Foreign firms do not invest a large enough amount of their profits into the country and are taking
out the purchasing power they earn to their home bases leaving an inequality problem behind in
Ecuador.

Here at home we have many in leadership positions in government, the economy, education and social
sphere that don’t believe that we can do better at controlling our violence outcomes without violating
Constitutional Rights and Human Rights. They don’t believe that we have an inequality problem, they
don’t believe that our merchants are responsible for climate change and health issues with our people.
They don’t want to change our laws that are the enablers for undesirable conduct of people and
personal decisions or on behalf of organizations and institutions that are disconnected with justice.
There is a strong correlation between lack of justice and violence. Some people understand this and
others simply complain because of the negative impact on their self. This is why we see them protesting
and demanding justice. Violence during periods of protests are caused by a cascading effect through the
spheres that influence people throughout their lives. We never have been able to get the unity and
commitment from everyone to irradicate the causes of violence. We can see what the causes are, we
know what we need to do, but we never fix the problem permanently. Too many conflicting interests.
No stronger commitment to compliance with the Charter of Human Rights in its totality. No universal
support for reforms that will change our country into a Green Country. No reforms to create greater
4 VIOLENCE AND ORGANIZED VIOLENCE
By Omar Fundora
ofundora@aol.com

parity in influence in government between the people that own Capital and those that provide Labor.
The recent decentralization of Women Rights to the States from the Federal government is an example
of bias experts influencing the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court response to the fragmentation and
the many cleavages in our society brought about by the state-of-the-art communication technologies
are the enabler of this decision.

Voter Suppression Strategies in Republican Control States. Police Response in Texas to the new
massacre that took place in a local school. The police response was called by a Texan member of
government as a complete and total failure in the reactionary structure of leadership that the police
officers and their supervisors had been trained on many occasions to deal with this type of violent
event. The community where the massacre took place was primarily a Hispanic Community, yet, the
police force responding to the 911 call was heavily represented by White policemen. Many have
question the commitment to protect and serve of the police force in this emergency due to the racial
make up of the response team. Parents and others in the Community wanted to go into the school to
save the children, but, the police did not allow it. But, when an 18 years old male volunteer to defend
property in Kenosha Wisconsin during a protest there caused by the shooting of a black man by the
police, the authorities welcome it. This double standards by security organizations in the country are
drivers for voter suppression specially in Republican controlled communities. Policemen are organized
into activist organizations that lobby politicians for benefits and changes in the law over the necessity of
the community they serve.

Illegal Immigration- Another tectonic impact to our society that enable violence. The flow of illegal
immigrants coming through our southern border is unsustainable and creating high cost to our society.
We have the most modern military systems in the World to defend us, but, our Southern border
protection is an embarrassment that may incentivized terrorists, drug dealers and potential enemies to
exploit this vulnerability that we continue to live with and once again, only we are successful at
managing the flow, but, we cannot stop it.

An enabler of violence that we have difficulty controlling is our Healthcare System. We rank low
behind other developed nations in the World when it comes to positive outcomes. Our life expectancy
actually dipped recently, but, it is correcting itself. The cost of Healthcare during a serious illness is a
leading cause of bankruptcy in our country. The stress created on the person when they are dealing
with a sick loved one has caused waves of anger and violence that has been documented and Hollywood
has made into movies. If it isn’t bad enough that the cost of care is beyond the ability of the majority of
Americans to pay for it, if you lose your employment, the only option you have as an individual is to buy
COBRA or the temporary insurance coverage that you can buy through your employer. If you are in the
90% of citizens that are not poor enough or don’t qualify for government programs, Obamacare is not
an alternative for you. You as an individual are expected to pay the company’s portion and yours plus a
fee when you have no income to continue your health insurance coverage. Many Americans with
chronic problems, in particular, leave the country to get medical help in Mexico or in the Slavic
Republics, like Poland, because it is more affordable than try to get similar care here. The distress
caused by the loss of income, cost and questionable outcomes creates stress which creates polarization
with the people you know and interact every day. If you are a relative of the person requiring medical
care, your work, in all likelihood, will be impacted negatively. Imagine if you have a leadership position
5 VIOLENCE AND ORGANIZED VIOLENCE
By Omar Fundora
ofundora@aol.com

in the higher spheres we presented above; the greater the number of people that your decision will
impact, the greater the damage will be if you make the wrong decision because of the financial distress
you and your family find themselves in. The risk of violence is real in this scenario

Financial Institutions are a very important enabler of violence. Red lining, we know this happens more
than we like to admit it does. Urban Economics tells us about the invisible borders that are created
between the rich and the poor, the color people and the white, the people on welfare and the ones that
have a job. Lack of Purchasing Power created by inequality in Capital ownership is one of the leading
causes of violence including organized violence which we will discuss later in this paper.

Education or the lack of it- The cost of a 4 years college education is out of reach of most Americans.
The ones that sacrifice their economic wellbeing take out loans to pay for a college education that their
families cannot afford to help pay. The gap in employment opportunities and lack of good paying jobs
have led many to a life of crime selling drugs, engaged in human trafficking, contract killing, kidnapping,
robbery and any other imaginable illegal and immoral activity you can imagine.

Merchants- Are enablers of violence because some chose not to pay legal minimum wages to illegal
immigrants or people that cannot find a job because of having been arrested. Jobs that pay less than
$26.00/ hour are abundant in many industries. Anything below this rate, the worker has to sacrifice
necessities to make it possible to live. There are individuals who are owners or part of the
administration that perform their job in a way that violate the law and intimidate the employee. Sexual
harassment in the workplace is another consequence of the wrong person in a responsible job that
depending on the position can be a very high enabler of violent behavior. We know that shootings in
the workplace of supervisors, managers, and executives have taken place. Suicide also a form of
violence is common among people that lose a great deal of money while running their business. Racism
in the workplace happens often. Sometimes the racism is transparent, but, sometimes it is not. Our
government has attempted to reduce the impact of this behavior, but, we have not being successful in
reducing its negative impact in our society. Acts of racism exist in all spheres of enablers of violence.
Controlling racism needs to be one of the highest priorities in any society. A racist will deny people of
color their constitutional rights and their Human Rights to exist in a society. A racist is anti-civilization
and a great driver of the cascading effects that oppress the individual to the point of a violent reaction
to the individual or from the victim to others in the spheres of enablers. Where the Merchant chooses
to setup his/her business besides the restrictions of redlining, can be an enabler for the reduction of
violence or a cause of violence. The Environmental Justice Program of the Biden Administration tries to
address the forgotten communities where minorities live or the poor white can be found. People in
these communities for decades if not centuries have had to breathe polluted air and drink contaminated
water by byproducts or waste from manufacturing processes. Poor agricultural communities too have
been put at risk by contamination of local water sources and polluted air. Unhealthy conditions will
bring about not only poor physical conditions, but, also mental. Mental illnesses are not only
aggravated by distressful situations, but, also foreign chemicals in your body, such as mercury or lead
are well known toxic chemicals from past business ventures in our large cities that have left behind a
path of destruction of lives that have made people in those communities very angry. In Japan there was
an incident in a small fishing town in 1971 caused by the willful discharge of mercury into the Ocean
where the fishing village obtained their food. Mercury poisoning causes genetic deformities in the
6 VIOLENCE AND ORGANIZED VIOLENCE
By Omar Fundora
ofundora@aol.com

children of the victims. Life Magazine at that time published photos of the victims to help the victims
get compensation for their loss from the reluctant Japanese Chemical Plant. News Media businesses
can be a positive enabler to help keep other merchants in compliance with the laws of the land, but,
they can also be just as guilty of wrong doing as a chemical plant when they promote products and
services of actors in the spheres of influences on the person. Example of this enabling behavior of the
Media is fake news or in the recent pass, cigarettes and hard liquor commercials. These example of
corruption are possible because of our Constitution and the laws and statutes that have been created
over time. Many of them are disconnected with the realities of the 21 st Century and makes enablers of
violence possible instead of preventing them from contributing to the exploitation and oppression that
is created by these organizations everyday over people.

Evidence
Based
Knowledge
sources

Strategy and
Policy
Making
sources

Direct
engagement
and response
sources

Organized
violence
7 VIOLENCE AND ORGANIZED VIOLENCE
By Omar Fundora
ofundora@aol.com

ENABLERS OF ORGANIZED VIOLENCE

Evidence Based Strategy & Direct Engagement & Response
Knowledge Policy Making sources
sources Sources
Interest groups Regional Peace Operations
Organizations
Consulting/Risk International Private Sector Companies
Analysis firms Financial
Institutions
Academia International Armed forces, police, Intelligence
Organizations
Foundations Humanitarian & Development Aid
Agencies
Think tanks Private Military Contractors
Alliances

ORGANIZED VIOLENCE

While organized violence has experienced a transformation wherein the relative decline in direct
war fatalities is now replaced with the ever increased coerciveness of states and non-state
organizations, the expansion of military spending, the development of selective and strategic killing
systems, the unprecedented scale of population displacements, staggering incarceration rates,
worldwide increase in suicides, the opioid epidemics and the irreparable destruction of the
environment leading towards very likely future wars over scarce resources. As the UNHCR
documents show us, there are currently 68.5 million (dated info but relevant) forcibly displaced
people in the world, which is the highest number ever recorded. To fully understand how and why
violence surges over the course of human history, it is necessary to zoom in on the role of
organization, ideology and small group solidarity. Violence is not a biological propensity but
something that is dependent on ever-increasing organizational capacities – the presence of effective
state apparatuses, social movements, political parties, private corporations and religious
institutions. As these entities grow and expand, they attain greater coercive power that is
periodically deployed for mass destruction. With the rise of infrastructural capacities, including
better communication networks, transport, technology and information exchange, modern social
organizations possess enormous coercive capabilities that are also successfully justified through
the use of elaborate ideological narratives. The democratization of politics in the modern era
8 VIOLENCE AND ORGANIZED VIOLENCE
By Omar Fundora
ofundora@aol.com

allows for the state’s greater ideological penetration into society. Ultimately this process creates
conditions for the mass justification of violence as well as for the mobilization of millions of people
for wars, genocides, revolutions, terrorism and other forms of organized violence.

Ideological narratives gain traction from their ability to emulate small group solidarity – our
intimate networks of families and friendships. It is no accident that all major ideological doctrines
invoke kinship concepts such as motherland and fatherland, our sacred brotherhood or precious
sisterhood.

Organizational and ideological powers work best when they successfully tap into our micro-worlds
and justify the use of violence through 'ethical' and emotional appeals of solidarity and justice.
Hence collective violence is dependent on organizational capacity, ideological diffusion and small
group solidarity, and as long as these processes proliferate so does the potential for large-scale
destruction.

Evidence based knowledge sources

Interest groups- Interest groups send representatives to state capitals and to Washington,
D.C. to put pressure on members of Congress and other POLICYMAKERS. They engage
in LOBBYING, or the organized process of influencing legislation or policy. Lobbying can
take many forms. Interest groups can testify in CONGRESSIONAL HEARINGS. For
example, several years ago, when Congress was considering discrimination in private clubs,
representatives of the Boy Scouts and the Girl Scouts appeared in hearings to try to
persuade Congress to allow each one to remain a single-sex organization. Lobbyists also
contact government officials directly or informally, present research results and technical
information, talk with people from the press and the media, and sometimes even help to
draft legislation. Why should the politicians listen? Interest groups also actively involve
themselves in political campaigns. This electioneering is intended to help elect
candidates who favor their positions or to defeat those who oppose them. It is generally
conducted by POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEES (PACs), who serve as special political arms
for the interest groups. The number of PACs has grown rapidly since the early 1970s,
when CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM laws were passed that restricted individual
contributions to campaigns. PACs have changed the face of American elections. They
have contributors who write checks to them specifically for the purpose of CAMPAIGN
DONATIONS. For example, if a person wants to support candidates who oppose gun
control, he or she can contribute to the PAC that represents the NATIONAL RIFLE
ASSOCIATION. The PAC, then, will make direct contributions to individual campaigns of
selected candidates.
Do interest groups corrupt government by "buying" influence? Critics believe that they
do because more money comes from businesses and corporations than from any other
source. This, they contend, gives them a connection to government that ordinary
people do not have. From another point of view, everyone is free to form and join
interest groups. So many exist that there is literally a group for everyone. These
multiple contacts make the American democracy stronger, because they give the
opportunity for all Americans to have better access to their government in theory only.
9 VIOLENCE AND ORGANIZED VIOLENCE
By Omar Fundora
ofundora@aol.com

Interest groups that represent money and corporations represented by PACs can
influence government policies making process that increase the exploitation or
oppression of the individual by the cascading effect from the outer sphere in the
diagram on page
Consulting/Risk Analysis firms- Political risk consulting firms specializing in analyzing the
business risk presented by the political environment in a region or country--including but not limited
to regulatory risk in particular sectors, risks of appropriation or nationalization, and broader
geopolitical risks. Eurasia Risk Consultants, for example, engages in monitoring political,
economic, social, and security developments around the world and forecasting their impact on
countries, regions, companies, and financial markets. By identifying key political drivers,
analyzing global trends, highlighting risk trigger points, and building comprehensive strategic
and tactical scenarios, the group assists clients in reducing their exposure to risk in potentially
volatile regions. These type of businesses can make or brake deals nationally and internationally
that can improve the lives of many people. Their advise to large businesses can be an enabler for
intervention by our government or private contractors if the intelligence given to the company is
then used to leverage favors from politicians at home or abroad.
Academia- The ‘Mapping Funds’ project is creating maps based on collaborative and
crowdsourced (public contribution) information as an active way to support the scientific
activities and studies of at-risk scholars. These scholars are encountering constraints on their
research activities due to the restrictive regimes they live and work in. The constraints
include travel bans, deportations, arrest, prosecution and imprisonment. The project began in
2016, and Dr Asli Telli of the University of Siegen is project supervisor. Initially focused on
academia in Turkey, the project’s scope has spread to include scholars working in the Middle
East as well as Central and Eastern Europe who experience restrictions on academic freedom.
This is a global problem. In addition to the oppression of the scholar, we also have the
influence of scholars on government and businesses that can do harm. Chemical Companies
like DuPont created Teflon a toxic chemical. No one came forward to stop the
commercialization of a dangerous product to life. This led to bad health outcomes and
protests. A scholar from Harvard University was an activists for Racism and his writing on
racial differences influence the behavior of racists organizations in the country.
Foundations- can be made into tools for political activism and drive people to organize and
be founded by them for Right or Left politics that can create undesirable outcomes for the
common good of the people. Foundations certainly can help, but, they also have being used to
leverage the American vote for policies that are contrary to the interest of the People like
abortion laws, gun control, refinery or land development for oil and gas. Strong correlation
exist between Climate conditions and incidents of violence. We are living right now with the
anger and deaths caused by gun violence. Money from foundations have had an impact both
positive and negative in these topics of debate.
Think Tanks- One of the best known enabler of organized violence in the World. Their
analysts and their work are indispensable to the decision-making process to wage war, covert
interventions. Economic sanctions and diplomacy.
Strategy and Policy Making Sources – Regional Organizations like the Organization of
America States, Association of Southeast Nations, African Union, Common Wealth of Nations,
Union of South American Nations, Economic Cooperation Organization and others create
consensus between their members and can facilitate security, development and response to
10 VIOLENCE AND ORGANIZED VIOLENCE
By Omar Fundora
ofundora@aol.com

Catastrophes, Recessions, intervention by Super Power Nations or enable aggression by the

Super Power by members turning into proxies or bases for covert operations or conventional
military operations. They form temporary treaties to deal with criminal elements that sale
arms, engage in terrorism, human trafficking and other illegal trades. All these activities part
of the cascades of events that lead to organized violence.
Direct engagement and resource forces- This group of enablers of organized
violence are directly engage in the violence act or in the case of humanitarian aid, try
to alleviate the consequences of organized violence. But if their programs are not well
directed or funded can be an enabler of conflict enlargement and more suffering.
Final Words – violence is created by a tapestry of decisions by many that wrap
the person in such a way that it causes the person to latch out with fear and
anger at another human being. People are only violent when their needs and
wants are not met. The State has a responsibility to protect the citizen and
ensure the citizen can live a full life. Civilization and the State creates the
spheres of influence to keep the peace and prevent chaos, the system is not
perfect, but certainly working together we can make Civilization and the State a
better enabler for Peace than Violence. We have a long way to go to get it right.