"Does the organized crime in Toronto have some sort of heroic devotion to statistics?
If not, it seems we are discussing a third hand anecdote."
Do you need 'statistics' to understand the difference between Google and Facebook culture?
Tunisian and Somali culture?
Or maybe if you visit and know Googlers and FBers, or if you visit Tunisia and/or know a lot of Somalis, you start to get the idea?
People in organized crime have jobs, just like those at Facebook. Their cultures are distinct, and generally known to those in the business, like cops, just as you would be familiar with FB culture if you visited or even knew just a few of them. There are no secrets there.
Are HN readers so completely socially inept that they have no grasp of the cultural attributes of our society? I don't think so :)
None of what I said is news to anybody.
Hint: organized crime is usually run something like this - the Italian Mafia imports most of the hard drugs, they sell it to the Bikers who have regional networks, and the Bikers push it into the street gangs and small time dealer networks. That would be East Coast mostly. West Coast, I'm less familiar because it's Asian cartels and I don't know if they use their own networks or bikers or both. This is Canada mind you.
Distribution territories for drugs are very tightly controlled, by various entities, and everybody in the business (including cops) knows who runs which territory, usually.
The Somalis don't have any of these layers sorted out, yet there is heavy involvement in drugs, I think they bring it in and distribute themselves, to specific communities. Which probably causes tension & violence. I'm not sure. But I am sure wherever they go, whatever layer they are at, they are facing 'competition' from an incumbent, and disputes are settled through violence or the credible threat of it, and sometimes a buyout/payoff between more 'friendly' parties, I don't think the Somalis fit into the nicely tuned Mafia/Biker relationships. They don't do 'sit downs', as it were, in the classical sense.
Again, this is all common knowledge in that line of work.