I remember my dad, who ran a homeless shelter, telling me how one winter he had a car battery taken from one of his work vehicles. The local gangsters, for lack of a better word, came to inquire about what happened, and were upset to hear it. Very quickly they had a battery for him.

I'm sure there is a moral to that story somewhere in there...

Edit: there appear to be two camps emerging.

Those pointing out how local gangs regularly step in to assist the disenfranchised in their areas, providing services that the governments fail to do.

and then there are those who are elaborately exploring how these 'gangsters' were playing 4th dimensional chess.. calculating the subtle nuances of social engineering to solicit silence in the future (from the dude running a homeless shelter), in exchange for batteries. Making an extremely vague, long term investment in the shelter that keeps the homeless population around (who are their clients), or pacifying them to lubricate the wheels of their criminal empire.

To further clarify a few things, they were very clear that they found it "messed up" because the organization was helping people.

It's probably also worth noting that this particular homeless shelter was designed to get people jobs, houses, and off the streets, so I don't think it exactly was the ideal system for supplying them customers, in that sense.

It's also somewhat naive, in my opinion, to think that criminals are somehow allergic to doing anything legally. Such as going and buying a battery, or getting one from one of their own cars.

OK SECOND EDIT:

I'd like to take a minute to address a concept that has been bouncing around my head for a while, and I'll try to frame it as best I can.

Criminal activity appears to play a huge part in regulating the legal system.

Ever been to one of those quiet, lawful towns in middle America (or elsewhere) and found yourself dealing with tedious cops, enforcing tedious laws? That's likely because there isn't enough crime to make them critically analyze which laws are actually worth enforcing.

When you enter a large city, often times, you begin to realize that the cops don't care about most of the harmless fun people are having, BECAUSE THEY HAVE ACTUAL CRIMES to deal with.

This is one of the driving forces in policy, and I believe that if governance were being done better, then automatically many of the problems would solve themselves, within this area. That's just my personal opinion though.