Attikus runs his operation out of DeGen Alley and behaves like what he is: the authority there.
The uncomfortable part is that it works. With the League absent and crime climbing, ordinary residents started to conclude that Attikus's system at least offered some safety, and turned to him instead.
His hold is not secure. After the parade, new warlords began rising in the Alley, and they are not interested in the arrangement he built.