Tonight, as I am sure you have all noticed by now, a CL of mine Finnick went against my wishes and rogued out, attacking first his own RHM and then moving on to do more damage that would never be done. 

Some of you might be wondering what happened. The events played out like this, Finnick was asked to step down by me for reasons detailed later. Arrow was scheduled to take his place which is why he was shot. Despite me attempting to do this necessary change with no bloodshed to anyone, Finnick decided to go against my wishes and rebel. 

The truth of the matter is Finnick was inactive to the point of most of his members either giving up and going inactive themselves or openly declaring to me that they wanted nothing to do with his family. Many asked to transfer out, some just asked that I do something about it. I let it go for a long time. I talked to the guy on multiple occasions, asking him to step it up, get it together. This was always met with a resounding "I will," and "other things out of this place have gotten in the way, but I will be stepping it up now." The stepping up never happened however and in fact things declined to a worse state than ever before with the only activity coming from his RH desperately trying to get things together. 

Clearly things were not working out, and after several attempts to right the ship I finally made the decision that Finnick needed to step down. I made him the offer that he could do this subtly and without losing face, saying that he was unable to keep up his duties for real life reason. Honestly I went out of my way not to kill the guy and give him a chance to keep on. I think he was a decent fellow, just doesn't have the time or the chops to keep up a family (that was inherited after the war in the first place). 

Anyways I am obviously currently licking my wounds and paying for my mistake here. I suppose in the future I wont be quite so easy going when it comes to matters like this. It is really disappointing trying to give someone a chance and having them respond by putting themselves and their members in danger for no reason, but thats his prerogative and this is mine. 

This being said. Rest in peace to all of the fallen. I am sorry and hurt that it came to this and wish that no bloodshed would have ever entered my district. 

tony listens solemnly from the crowd as he whipes away the blood of a few fallen friends wrongly and injustly killed before stepping towards Lynch and turning to the crowd

There will be many who come forward and speak unknowingly of what has transpired this dark and disappointing day. However from a first hand perspective I will assure all of you that Godfather Lynch speaks the truth of these events. There were a few good men and women caught inside a black hole that sucked a many down with it. Arrow did all he could to hold things together as they fell apart.  A many of us tried to pull things together and move this family forward despite Finnicks unwillingness to put forth an effort and we now see what comes of the fews hard work and effort.

I mourn the deaths today of Arrow and Cassi, Arrow for being the target of an enraged man unwilling to admit his faults and lack of leadership and Cassi to being someone whom had ranked up within the family based upon her works and not her relationship with an obvious loose cannon alone. While I shed tears for my brethren and for Chicagos West Side, my home. I feel a burden has been taken from the city and from those who worked hard to help move it forward within this family. 

Thank you Godfather Lynch for doing all you could to set things right, it is only sad to see that doing the right thing has had to end so badly.

tony bows his head and walks slowly back into the crowd

I made him the offer that he could do this subtly and without losing face, saying that he was unable to keep up his duties for real life reason.

Let's clear something up here. You made an offer prior to announcing it to the world. Sort of. Yeah, it was just an upper structure massmail but that may as well have been a public announcement. I had people outside the upper structure asking me about it without me having to say a word. Typically, when you call something an "offer", you wait for a response from said recipient. Considering both Arrow and SammyGravano were made aware of the fact that Finnick was moving in his other life. I don't know about you, but, typically when I move to another location in my other life, I'm not only fairly busy but probably lack reliable ways to send mobmails for a few days.

Finally, Finnick was much more active prior to this move. Guess it wasn't enough, but, that was obviously your decision to decide on whether or not it was enough. Just like it was Finnick's choice to decide you were wrong and do what he had to do. We really didn't do much damage, to be honest but you'd think from the threats I've received and the lies that are being spread that we'd done a hell of a lot more damage. 

With perhaps a dose of irony, Finnick's actions have inadvertently proved Lynch absolutely right.

A few weeks back, -lefty- took the rogue course of action and managed to fell a RHM and a newly authed CL. This was, in terms of bare damage dealt, a quite impressive feat. Given this is still fresh in many people's memory, it was with a great deal of trepidation that that I learnt of Finnick's 'roguing' in the coffeeshops. His quarrel was with Chicagoans and I had just flown into Illinois and was trapped for 11 hours - I genuinely feared for my life.

How silly of me; I'd have had more to fear from Helen Keller armed with a wooden pop gun. Let's recap here, and present the full list of victim's that died by Finnick's own hand:

Arrow

That is all. His former RHM who needed to be demoted for the shot to be a sure thing. Visicaro's LHM died too, at the hands of Myrddin - albeit after a period of rather abject failure.

Either way, the fact that a 166 day old Crewleader can go 'rogue' and not even manage to personally fell a single target outside of his own family is just beyond pitiful. Whether it was through lack of strategy/tactics or just through his own personal weakness and inability to know the barrel from the stock; he proved he was incapable as a Leader.

Are people obliged to train guns? Of course not. Are they obliged to spend every waking hour here? No. Ultimately though, more is expected of Leaders. Finnick clearly wasn't deliver him, Lynch was aware of this and offered Finnick a way out; Finnick's response was one of the more futile and childish responses I've seen on our fair streets.

Recently, I spoke of political suicides and rogues being the same thing; with rogues deserving more respect because they had the balls to go through with something more damaging. In retrospect, I wish Finnick had sucked the end of his barrel instead of subjecting us to this wretched, pathetic, public humiliation.

I think you exaggerate a little bit with the whole wretched, pathetic and public humiliation comment. You'd be surprised by the number of well wishers Myrddin and Finnick had and the number of people who respected their decision to attempt to war the rest of Chicago. 

Even the best gun has a chance of failure. My ancestors have seen Godfathers with cannons miss on people they should have gotten and multiple times in one war. It happens. Sometimes, luck is just not there. The targets picked were targets that based upon the gun stats of my father and his friend, were ones they should have been able to hit. Should they have succeeded, would have meant the death of a CH RH and a LH. Sadly, not the case. 

Really, they should have waited a bit longer until they could secure more pro's and really have done some damage. I think they moved a little too early. 

One final note, would Finnick retiring have caused this much discussion in the streets? Instead of the usual boring speeches, you get a little excitement thrown in. Excitement that ultimately cost Chicago one RH and one LH. Not very much of a cost at all. Plus the innocent loss of Cassi who was offline for a while prior to the war effort. :( 

You lot act like your opinion is the correct opinion on the matter and try to ignore the fact that plenty of people would disagree with you.

Public humiliation? They did not start a war nor did they want to. Their main goal was to kill Morty and it was achieved. They could have failed 700 people, their goal was met. Their message was sent. To risk their characters to send this message is admirable. Well, Finnick had no choice it seems. He was being forced out no matter what. He didn't have much to lose other than this reputation you all feel he deserves, despite him killing his own crew who turned on him. All within his rights. He showed he would not be mistreated without repercussion and I respect that. Myrddin risked his own life and reputation following his CL. Very respectable and admirable. He could have stayed out of it, let Finnick kill Morty, and then hope to get auth. He could have had it handed to him and had no negative reputation. But he did the honorable thing and followed his CL. There is no humiliation in that.

I think people are making a mountain out of a molehill. It is sad to see two people who have never rogued treated so unfairly. No one stops to ask why? Why would they rogue? Perhaps the problem lies with Morty?

I'd love to know what each of you would do in this situation. Your RHM convinces the GF to force you to step down. You take it like a girl? Or do you take the person who turned on you with you? I would do the exact same think Finnick did. He had no choice, in my eyes. Trusted RHM makes a move to replace me? I'd take that bastard with me. And anyone who would walk away with their tail between their legs deserves no respect. A top mafia member walk away like a little girl?

Cataclysm laughs at the reactions of these fools.

I hope those of you who pity Morty now know better than to trust him later. He turned on one CL, why wouldn't he do it again?

Cataclysm walks out to visit Finnick's and Myrddin's graves.

'Finnick asked my grandmother to step down months ago.. Like a good friend I said no, we could work with it.. We'd do better and get the crew moving.. Finnick improved slightly but had other worldy issues still and was very inactive within the family.. Everyone had seen it.. Including those who were not from his family, his district or fuck, even his city.'

'The fact that you were not even from The Careers or even The West Side shows how little you know, I never turned on Finnick.. Its the exact opposite infact.. I prolonged his step down until the point to where I didn't matter anymore and when he was asked to step down? Godfather Lynch asked my grandmother Arrow to step up since I knew all of the family and I knew the West Side community better then any of the other Careers.'

Teemo sits on the wee little mushroom he had put down and smiles to the slightly insane woman spewing filth out of her mouth, so fitting of one such as her.

tony shakes his head in disgust and pitty before once again emerging from the crowd

I don't think you've quite paid attention to what Godfather Lynch gave as his reasoning for having Finnick step down. I also don't believe anyone other than Finnick pinpointed Arrow as the one to blame as an excuse for killing him. 

Finnick was angry and felt a false sense of betrayl by Arrow for being asked to step down when in actuality Arrow was the one holding Finnicks crew together while he disappeared for days at a time. Multiple members of Finnicks family had spoken out at their dissatisfaction and disappointment. And as Godfather of the district, Lynch was able to see the failure first hand on a day in day out basis. He gave the man more than enough opportunities to turn it around yet he'd fall back to the same habits. 

For the district Finnick serves, as well as the district Lynch governs it was an embarrassment and a travesty to let it go any further. Arrow was killed because he was to take his rightful place as Finnicks deserving replacement. 

And as far as him having no intentions of war? I can show you a hand written note from the man himself declaring open war against not only the West Side district, but in fact everyone if you'd like your proof.

Otherwise, perhaps you should not get biased facts before approaching the streets and speaking of such matters.

tony once again falls in line with the rest of the crowd gathered

I usually don't come back into the streets to defend my points as I believe that people have opinions and there is no use arguing an opinion. There are some cold hard facts that have been gotten wrong though so I though I should address them all in turn. 

Let's clear something up here. You made an offer prior to announcing it to the world. Sort of. Yeah, it was just an upper structure massmail but that may as well have been a public announcement. I had people outside the upper structure asking me about it without me having to say a word.

If you want to argue semantics I guess you could call it more or an ultimatum however Finnick was informed before the housekeeping mass mail to West Side upper structure was sent out which delt with multiple things besides Finnicks stepping down and to quote the mail "For those who have not heard yet, Finnick will be stepping down his position as CL in the near future and a majority of his family will be going over to Arrow who will be setting up in his place. There are a lot of real life issues that are coming into play here and this is the best decision for Finnick, his family, and this district." Hardly slandering his name or giving out any gory details. 

One final note, would Finnick retiring have caused this much discussion in the streets?

Lets be clear. Finnick was never asked to retire, he was asked to step down from crew leader and rejoin a family. 

I'd love to know what each of you would do in this situation. Your RHM convinces the GF to force you to step down. 

Frankly this is just uniformed bullshit. Never once did Arrow come to me asking that I force Finnick to step down. On the contrary, he all but steered me away from the idea several times over and was always one to defend Finnick. Even up through the IRC conversation where I offered he take the family after I forced Finnick to step down he defended him until I told him that it was no longer a discussion, but a decision. Arrow did more for Finnick and his family than most would ever know, and to say that he convinced me to do this so that he could have a family is completely incorrect. The decision was mine, and mine alone, Arrow had nothing to do with it until the family was offered. 

Thats all for now. There are plently of opinions I could have touched on, but as I said earlier, I only want to talk about cold hard facts. 

The main point I'll address there, and the one I believe I can sum up my feelings up concisely in response to:

I'd love to know what each of you would do in this situation. Your RHM convinces the GF to force you to step down. You take it like a girl? Or do you take the person who turned on you with you?

As far as I'm aware, the idea that Arrow engineered this entire situation seems to be at best hearsay, and at worst paranoia taking control of Finnick. By his own admission before he died; he had this to say publicly about Arrow:

"All in love morty [Arrow] you were a great hand. but i sucked dick...You did run my crew, I can't deny that"

 So, by the Leader's own admission that he was under par and Arrow was picking up the slack; he seems the natural choice for succession, no?

Anyway, let's assume for a moment that Arrow did engineer the entire situation; the question of 'What would I do' is still irrelevant because I would never allow myself to be put in that situation. Leaders are not there to suit themselves, and in the presence of a Godfather they are not the top of the chain either, they are a rung in the ladder. If their presence is making other people's job more difficult than it needs to be and is having a negative impact on  profitability, they have no reason to be there.

If I knew I was not performing to the level expected of me as a Crewleader (Finnick did) and I knew that my lack of effort/presence was making other people's lives more difficult (Finnick did) then I would do the right thing for my Godfather, district, but most of all my family - to whom I owe a debt of loyalty as much as they to me. Finnick chose the option of clinging on to the bold suit like a stubborn shit-berry on the ring of my arse.