Many central members of the Peaky Blinders gang are frequently at odds with the law. Apart from their many run-ins with Sam Neill's Inspector Chester Campbell during the first two seasons, several members even receive capital punishment sentences and are due to be executed by hanging (though they're pardoned before the execution can be, uh, executed).
As the Telegraph tells us, the real Blinders were significantly less offensive in the eyes of The Man. In fact, court reports of the era mostly write them off as "foul mouthed young men who stalk the streets in drunken groups, insulting and mugging passers-by," which frankly sounds less "Mafia" and more "Friday night in a dodgy neighborhood." While they reportedly did make some money from running protection rackets, betting and black market stuff, a look at the arrest papers of real, historical Peaky Blinders doesn't exactly make them look like master criminals set to take over the country, Tommy Shelby style.
Actual Blinders such as Harry Fowler, Ernest Bayles, Stephen McHickie, and Thomas Gilbert were arrested from heinous crimes such as breaking and entering, "false pretenses," and ... bicycle theft. As a side note, an episode where Arthur Shelby drunkenly steals a bicycle and spends a day running from a pair of Keystone Cops-style beat officers while desperately trying to fence his loot does sound like a fine hour of television.
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