You know, the old protection rackets (which probably still exist) were easy to make seem non-illegal. If that&#x27;s a word. One person offers to prevent the consequences of ignoring threats, but doesn&#x27;t make the threat themselves. A person with little or no known connections to the first makes the actual threat and carries them out. The first guy was trying to help a neighborhood business with a potential problem, you see. In other words, if you pay me I&#x27;ll protect your store from these lawless thugs destroying other people&#x27;s stores who do not pay for my protection.<p>Now, looking at such things from a common sense perspective makes it quite obvious what&#x27;s going on. But proving the same in a court of law, which often will have a much higher requirement of proof, may not be so easy.