It's so gouda you to ask

I know there's an element of humor in all of this, but the Patriarca crime family just isn't funny. They kill people. They extort money from honest businessmen. They beat and maim people who displease them. And Di Nunzio has twice been convicted of extortion, even before the current allegations were made public.

I can forgive the Globe for looking for a local angle, but not for the tone of the piece. The attitude, in essence, is that our local mobsters are kinda cute, and add to the local color. That's how people felt about Whitey, too - ignoring the death and destruction for which he was responsible. It's provincial, and it's wrong. Personally, I tend to feel that if the price of locking up a guy who runs a destructive criminal enterprise is some expired buffalo mozarella, so be it. That'll just make you sick. These folks kill people.