Stallion walking along the streets stops at a crossroads. Finding a dusty soap box he carries it over to the middle of the street, stands on it and begins to address the crowd which is slowly forming

"I'm sure everyone has at least once in their bloodlines history been betrayed in some form. If you haven't then watch out cause it's coming. So many people are focused on getting to the top they don't care who they fuck over even if it's their "friends". But you know? That is apart of life, watching out for people who are going to screw you over and if you manage to miss one then hope you learn from that mistake. As they say why do people pat you on the back? To find the weak spot to put the knife in."

"Sometimes these betrayals go unnoticed, staying between the people involved but others times the betrayal can have such a large effect that our entire community hears about it. Lets recall some examples. The Dean, betraying his own Godfather the mighty giant Deimne for a reason that I don't know nor do many others and we can only assume it was a power move. Cherokee, betraying his Godfather for reason such as his Godfather no longer being able to fulfill his job adequately. More recently we have seen people wanting to betray their Godfather but get caught out and slaughtered. There are more examples but these are the ones I can think of off the top of my head."

"Now what I am trying to get at is, is there a time when betraying a friend, crew leader and/or Godfather necessary? As much as we frown upon treacherous acts, is it sometimes needed for the benefit of the family or the city? Can we just go "I know what you did is wrong but it had to be done"? Or do we let the rules we signed and oaths we spoke rule our decision and do nothing when we see our crew leader or Godfather doing a piss poor job and ruining everything we have?"

"If these betrayals, and betrayals they still are no matter what reasons, are sparked by incompetence from the victim then is it still a treacherous act? Or was the crew leader or Godfather already committing a treacherous act when they weren't doing their job properly? Can people sleep with a better conscience knowing yes what they did was hard betraying someone like that but it had to be done for the better good? I hope so."

"I admire loyalty in someone, I myself am a fanatic when it comes to loyalty. But I also believe that if a friend, crew leader or Godfather is ruining everything you and they have worked for, and you have tried every other way to fix the problems. Then sometimes it is just necessary no matter how much you hate doing it, to do that last resort. But this is my opinion in the matter, please speak up and let me hear yours."

Stallion steps down from the soap box to let someone else have their turn

DurzoB listens from the back of the assembled crowd, towards the end of Stallions speech he moves forward towards the front intent on getting his views heard. After Stallion steps down he stands in front of the small crowd.

"Assembled wise guys and wise women, im sure we all have an opinion we want to share on this sensitive issue. Why just last week as Stallion mentioned we saw one of the worst attempts at betrayal that has arrived on our shores in many a generation. And I don't mean worst because it failed, o no my friends. I mean worst because when I picked up the paper the following day I was shocked and appalled to hear about what 3 crew leaders had been planning to do. It is the lowest of the low to conspire against a fellow city boss, infinetly worse still to try to plan and scheme like rats to attempt to remove your cities patriarch. But I digress..."

DurzoB takes the match he was chewing on out of his mouth and flicks it away behind him.

"I believe that going behind your superiors back and plotting against him is NEVER acceptable. However and I will use an example from the recent LA conflict if I may...if for example a wise guy or even a button had discovered that their crew leader was scheming to remove their Godfather then it is their DUTY and an EXPECATION to betray their crew leader to the respective city leader. Durzo adds with a chuckle But you better have some fucking good evidence. Godfathers aren't used to talking with anyone but their close inner circle. So for anyone less to come up and accuse their most trusted friends of betrayal..well lets just say you would want to have a rock solid case as to how and why they are."

"Stallion brought up the suggestion that a crew leader or Godfather is already committing treason to their city by acting in an incompetent way. I say no, no he isn't, a king cannot be charged for treason. Why not? BECAUSE HE IS KING. A godfather is KING of his or her city, there is no higher authority than them. Even a meeting of godfathers holds no official power over another if one decides to go against the recommendation or requests made by the others. That is their right, it may not be condusive to long life choosing to ignore this fellow godfathers but its still his right to do so if he chooses."

"A godfather is top dog in their city, people seems to think that a person in power should do what's right for the masses. What are we bloody commies? This is a paramilitary organisation, this thing of ours. Money flows up and shit rolls down. Now don't get me wrong I don't feel that the soldatos should be treated like slaves, they too have to earn their piece. But when we talk about "taking out so and so for the good of the city" in my mind they have gone WAY to far. A godfather by rights commands the people of his city, they are his soldiers. You don't plan to kill your general because your fellow solders are feeling a bit uncomfortable or haven't seen any action in a while or are having to kick too much money up the ladder, that's just not how its done...

DurzoB takes a breath to compose and calm himself down as he steps off the soap box

"Well im sure you all want to say your piece so nows your chance"

Durzo lights up a smoke while he waits for someone else to voice their opinion

I always have been and always will be a believer in the family, at times in the past my line has been in families and things have not been what they wanted. But that family took them in, helped them throughout their career and kept them safe so for my line to betray them...

pauses for a moment

No I couldn't do it, I would rather lay down my life and allow the next of my line to come along and find a new way rather than attempt to betray someone who had laid initial trust in me.

Melis stands there for a moment looking at Stallion. Listening to his words her mind starts into motion. 

I don't want to go into an elaborate speech about my thoughts on this so I will keep it short and sweet.

If my Crewleader and/or Godfather ever started to ruin something they worked so hard for I really would hope they would come to their senses sooner or later. However, that being said I hope that is never the case because I honestly wouldn't know what I would do since I have never been in that situation.

As for betrayal of a friend, I have learned recently that it will happen. It won't be easy to keep or even mend that friendship afterwards if at all. Do I personally think there is a good reason for it? Not unless you think it'll affect your city at some point. As I'm sure we all have friends outside of our cities but for most of us our own cities will come first over our personal friendships.

Having finished her train of thought she looks around and backs out of the way for other people.

Shedao listens to the questions asked and thinks upon his response before speaking.

I find that if you believe that your leader is handling things wrong then you keep your mouth shut unless you are in the inner circle; then you can raise your concerns. If he still doesn't listen, then, well, you just deal with it. You swore an oath and you live up to that oath.

However, I find that, as usual, things change when a Godfather is introduced to the mix. If you are a leader who is under the command of the Godfather, you live up to that oath as long as it's the best thing for your people. If you find that your Godfather is taking actions, making policies, or creating situations that are detrimental to your people you have to ask yourself a question: Which will bring more harm to my people, following the Godfather, or deposing him?

The way I see it is that one you are simply a member of a crew you are not responsible for anyone but yourself. If, however you are a Crew Leader under the authority of a Godfather, than you hold a responsibility to the people that are under your banner as well.You have to do your best to support the members of your crew because they've entrusted their very lives into youir care. You expect them to do their best for you, so you can do no less.

A recent example was that of Godfather Cherokee. He decided, with the agreement of the other Saint Louis Bosses that the best course of action for their crews was to depose Godfather Joey and for Cherokee to take his place. Was the the best course of action? We'll never know, but my father did tell me that he enjoyed his time under Godfather Cherokee's leadership.

Indeed, It is a very tough decision to verify if it is an act of betrayal or just a must to do for the survival of the many or Himself. My bloodlines has encountered many of this things.  The fact that everyone has an ambition to be on the top or just to survive is a clear evidence that it is a necessary thing to do on the person's perception on the very least.

Walks and whistles away in the darkness

Africanus adjusts his tie and begins to speak, An old friend told me these words in reference to similar subject manner. "It's a crime if we lose and if we don't it isn't." Africanus begins to smile, his smile pauses as he sucks in more air to continue to speaking. He was an avid mouth breather when passion got the best of him. I do believe that makes the difference. Winning and Losing. TheDean won. Cherokee won. All the while many others have lost are named traitors. I'm not raining on either man's legacy as my closest friends and family worked feverishly for TheDean and would of followed him to the River Styx.

Over hearing a discussion about treason, Katie stopped to listen. As Stallion asks the questions to the crowd that gathered, she mulled over her own answers in her head.

Betrayal comes from good and bad reasons and much like many other things in life the two are only separated between a fine line. Sometimes that line is blurred and one may not even be able to determine if the situation is good or bad, a true representation of the gray area.

Katie could feel her ideas on the subject coming faster then she could speak. She arranged them carefully in her mind only taking a moment before continuing.

Usually the idea to betray comes from the feeling of already being betrayed. So when an under boss arrives at their Godfather's house in the middle of the night, murders the man while he sleeps and takes over the empire, that under boss had a reason. That reason commonly to improve the current city's situation.

Is it okay to betray someone you feel betrayed by? That's a hard call. Loyalty is much like respect, if respect is given respect is reciprocated. If a Godfather starts to or flat out drops the ball and will not take any thought to their action, respecting the concerns of the ones around them. The situation changes, respect and loyalty towards the Godfather is questions and new plans may be laid out.

Decisions of treason with the city's well being are carefully discussed and hardly put together with haste. I believe that in a situation like this, where the Godfather is not holding up their end, they are the one doing the betraying, not the other way around.

A treacherous act, a betrayal? I wish you could have walked a mile in my shoes this past week.

Considering I still get approached about the events of the last week in Los Angeles, I thought I'd lay it out for you all. Everyone noticed the deaths of Opus, SousChef, and Cross-DeCaprio, three of my former captains. Along with a woman who at the time was calling herself Ivory_Malinova, these three were secretly putting together plans to take Los Angeles by force. They tried to hire outside help, and were subsequently taken down.

Their planning and scheming had been going on for a while and it didn't go completely unnoticed. I had spoken to my Right Hand Woman and expressed my concern about the way Opus was acting. Days later, their plan came to light. For weeks they had sat with me in my bar and in my HQ. They told me they respected me and continued to pay their tribute and then some.

Recently the issue of 'sins of the father' have been ringing around the streets in many different speeches in many different forms. Id like to point out that Opus' father, DonPardo, also betrayed his city head and also tried to take power via a coup. I have never been one to tar a whole bloodline with the same brush but after this, I will think twice.