Cleveland has been particularly corrupt for ages, there's a reason it votes Democratic so consistently. There was actually a decent (I'd give it a B/B-) movie called KIll The Irishman regarding a rather famous period of time where there was a mob war going on in the 1960's, and yes, ethnic tension between the Irish and Italians fed into it. Every part of the government had ties to the mob, literally 100%. If you were in government, you got contacted by the mob. The cops in "The Flats" district not only demanded protection money from business owners, but also got put on the mob's payroll as well, collecting mob payoffs for them by the same business owners.

The cops were so fucking dirty that you had to bribe them personally, then bribe the mob, who were already paying them!