Anyone who has moved from elsewhere to Hong Kong soon realises this place is different. Sure there is crime: family members murder each other, people rob and steal, but the streets... the streets of Hong Kong are generally safe.
The triad gangs? There are several, the biggest being the Sun Yee On (新義安). At the sharp end of capitalism, criminal enterprises such as Sun Yee On generally only resort to violence if it concerns finance, loyalty, discipline, internal or external affairs. Eight or ten toughs beat someone unconscious; a hitman imported from the mainland puts a bullet in the head of a current or ex- business partner; two or three street fighters chop the arms and legs of someone who has tried to wriggle out of paying any of their debt to the loanshark.
So, the triad-style attack on Thursday evening against a seven-year-old boy -- chopping the little lad's arms so that the muscle in his arms has been all but severed -- has provoked public outrage.
Methinks the Old Bill will be pressuring people in the grey economy and making their lives uncomfortable until they deliver up the malefactors.
Story here.
More on the triads in Wikipedia.
Saturday, August 27, 2005
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