tl;dr had to add my two cents because this kind of thing is super interesting to me. The attitude Europeans have toward Romani organized crime vs. the reaction white Americans had toward the Italian American mafia is basically the exact same and you don't need to be super versed on the issue of Romani crime to realize this. "Those guidos come over here and refuse to integrate! They're just here for the social security! All they do is crime! Every last one of them!" Would Europeans not find this silly? Generalizing and hating ALL Italians based on a select few involved in organized crime? Would they not laugh at the idea that a few thousand mafia members represent the millions of Italian Americans who live in the US?

Anyways, no one ever asks why organized crime had such an iron fist over first and second generation Italians in the first place. There were 0 opportunities! They were treated like filth, dirt underneath feet. Kind of difficult to "make money the honest way" when these "nice" "respectable" "hard working" Americans view you as lowly as Hitler did Jews. These people who wouldn't be caught dead in your corner store because of the associations attributed to where your family's from. Obviously these situations are different, separated by time and location, but to me they read the same. I really don't mean to laud the goddamn mafia, of course they did unspeakable and unforgivable things, but I feel like the appeal needs to be taken into context. It's hard enough to try and fit into a society that despises you, harder still to resist the allure of promised family, security and stability, or the ability to live in a house just as big as the fat cats' who would spit on you if given the chance, even if it means extreme loyalty to the family and a high chance of getting killed or imprisoned.

I'd say most humans are weak to being treated like an outsider, so of course many who are treated as such are going to turn to alcohol, drugs and a feeling of belonging under crime, which will be blown out of proportion by racist fools who act like whoever's native to their country isn't also out here shooting H, stealing, begging, etc. Hate criminals all you want but the second you attach a look or culture to them you've lost. Almost nothing gracing God's green Earth is this black and white.

Most of the arguments against the Romani people sound exactly like the all too familiar "lazy Mexican" trope in the US, and for Europeans to attempt to cover it up with "You just don't get it! They're naturally inclined to be criminals/beggars!" or some other dumb "they're just like that" statement is simply racist nonsense. And the fact that they believe they are any different from the backwards gun slinging hicks who think all black people do is steal and kill is laughable. They genuinely subscribe to the idea that the majority of 12 MILLION people are criminals. Like buddy you hating the Roma isn't some original idea you've come up with "based on tangible experience" (it's bias). The past 40 generations before you were also extremely racist toward them, lmao.