I would imagine it’s a multi-part solution:

You either are jumped in and prove yourself to be tough enough to roll with them, or you can’t tough it out but they’ve already beat you to a pulp once so ideally they’ve made their point and intimidated you out of speaking against them/talking to cops or trying out for rivals.

Full disclosure: I don’t have experience in this and am mostly speculating.

I also picked it back up in Season 4 and have been having a lot of fun. Full disclosure didn’t play heavily beforehand, life got in the way.

If only we paid them a living wage so they wouldn’t have to seek additional income to survive.