Are there Asian gangs?

Answer 1

ASIAN GANGS: A BIBLIOGRAPHY

by Binh P. Le
The Pennsylvania State University
Abington-Ogontz Campus



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"Too many people will not testify about gang crimes because theyare afraid of violent reprisal. We must not allow the voice of justice tobe frightened into silence by the violent threats of gangs...I am determinedto break the backs of criminal gangs that have ruined too many lives andstolen too many futures by bringing the full force of the law against them."

President Bill Clinton - Jan. 11, 1997



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INTRODUCTION

Over the past decade, the number of violent crimes committed by Asiangangs in the United States and Canada has increased substantially, especiallyin areas with large Asian populations. Asian gangs, who do not respect thelaw, the lives of their victims, or even their own lives, have terrorizedmany Asian-American communities. The problem for law enforcement officials,however, is that unless the crimes end in deadly confrontations, the victimsrarely report them to law enforcement agencies.

Unlike Asian organized crimes, Asian gangs are a relatively new phenomenon.They began to emerge in the late 1970s and early 1980s, as the Asian populationin the United States increased. Some of the Asian gangs are highly organizedand have ties with Asian organized crime syndicates such as the Triads,14K, United Bamboo and the like, while many others are loosely formed. Generally,the members of these gangs consist of recent immigrant Asian youths. Forexample, most of the members of the Born to Kill gang are Vietnamese streetyouths, commonly known as bui doi (dust of life). Other Asian gangs(e.g., Dai Huen Jai, Kung Lok, Flying Dragons, Ghost Shadows) are composedof gangsters from Hong Kong and China and runaway Asian youths. Many Asiangangs, especially Vietnamese and Cambodian gangs, are made up of Amerasian- children of American servicemen of the Vietnam war. When the war ended,these children were left behind and treated harshly by the societies inwhich they were born.

In terms of gang formation, there seems to be a common pattern. ManyAsian gangs, usually nameless, are formed by the youths who once workedfor well-established Asian gangs. In other cases, they are formed by localAsian delinquent youths, who often claim to be a part of the better- knownAsian gangs. In reality, they just use this claim to intimidate their victimsand enhance their prestige.

Asian gangs engage in a wide range of criminal activities including extortion,home invasion, prostitution, gambling and drug trafficking; however, robberyis still their crime of choice. A common method of robbery or "homeinvasion" is for gang members to break into the homes of Asian immigrantsor Asian business owners, tie up the victims and beat them until the victimsproduce valuable items or money. Asian gangs are most active in major metropolitanareas such as New York City, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Chicago, Houston,Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland and the major cities in Canada.

Several factors have made fellow Asians their primary target. First,Asians, especially the recent immigrants and business owners, often do notput money in banks. For many of them, banking is a completely new experience,since many Asians came from countries where banking services have yet tobe fully established. Thus, instead of putting money in the banks as mostAmericans do, they keep their money at home or invest it in jewelry, especiallygold. From their point of view, buying gold is not only the safest way toprotect their money, but also the best form of investment, since the priceof gold rarely falls. Moreover, this form of investment is convenient becauseit requires neither paperwork nor English skills. A visit to an Asian mall,such as the mall in Little Saigon in Orange County, Calif., reveals thatalmost the entire second floor of the main complex of the mall is occupiedby large jewelry stores.

Second, Asian gangs also recognize that they are not likely to get prosecutedfor their crimes against other Asians because most Asians are unlikely tocall or report the crimes to the police. It is unfortunate but true thatmany Asians resist or avoid dealing with law enforcement officials or agenciesfor as long as possible. This problem is not the result of police actionsor practices, but rather an ill-conceived notion about the role of law enforcementofficials in the community. To many Asians, law enforcement officials representa source of extreme terror rather than a source of help or service. Thismisconception was deeply cultivated by the social and political conditionsin the places from which they came. For years, many Asian governments (e.g.,China, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Taiwan, North and South Korea, Indonesiaand Burma) have used the police as a political weapon to suppress politicaldiscontents and to protect their powers rather than as an instrument toenforce justice. Moreover, unlike the U.S. legal system, in which an individualcannot be arrested without a warrant or imprisoned without receiving a fairtrial, many of the legal systems in Asia seldom provide these protectionseven if they're written into law. In fact, the police in many of the underdevelopedAsian countries can arrest people without a probable cause or a warrantand can put people in jail for years without a trial. The police, especiallythose in countries under communist and authoritarian regimes (China, Vietnam,Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia, Burma and North Korea), have also used unciviland barbaric interrogation techniques (which have been widely documentedby the mass media and international human rights organizations) to exactinformation from suspected civil and political criminals. Many Asians inthe United States are political refugees who spent many years in prisonor reeducation camps and suffered through various forms of maltreatment,including severe physical and mental tortures. Finally, the police in underdevelopedAsian countries are often associated with or involved in many criminal activities.These unfortunate experiences have helped Asian immigrants form a very negativeimage of the role of the police in society.

Many Asians are unwilling to report the crimes inflicted on them by Asiangangs for other reasons. To many Asians, talking about the criminal activitiescommitted by Asians against their own people in public (e.g., reportingthe crimes to the police or the mass media) is an admission of failure notonly of the ones who committed the crimes, but also of the entire Asiancommunity. This notion of collective shame is deeply rooted in the teachingsof Confucianism, in which the whole community must share the blame for individualfailures, since individuals are parts of the community. Moreover, many Asianshave attempted to present a positive image of themselves to the Americanpublic. Consequently, they downplay their shortcomings in their strugglefor respectability and acceptance by the American people.

Added to the social and cultural problems is the fact that Asian gangsare often willing to use excessive violence to stop victims from reportingcrimes. As a Chinese business owner said:

Asian criminals grew up accustomed to blood and violent death. They preferplaces that cater to Chinese because those people are afraid to go to thepolice. The victims know police cannot be there all the time - and theyknow the gangs can be there 24 hours a day. They can get you.(1)

Indeed, the nature of Asian gang violence needs to be reckoned with.As one law enforcement official commented:

These new Asian criminals are unbelievably ruthless. They're not afraidof pain, and they're not afraid to die. Every day that they're alive isjust another day to them.(2)

In response to the rise of Asian gangs, law enforcement agencies haveemployed numerous strategies, including hiring Asian officers and makingthe fight against Asian gangs a top priority. The results of certain anti-gangstrategies have been encouraging. For example, over the past few years manyAsian gang members, including some gang leaders, have been arrested andprosecuted. In addition to arrest strategies, law enforcement agencies mayconsider the following strategies:



A. Community Relations and Education

As noted above, in many Asian societies the police are viewed as a sourceof fear; consequently, there is a big gap between the police and the people.The problem is that although Asians have lived in the United States formany years, their perception of the police has not radically changed. Thus,there is an urgent need to educate Asian Americans about the American legalsystem, especially the role of the police in the community. It is not aneasy task, particularly because many of the recent Asian immigrants havelived most of their lives under authoritarian and outdated legal systems.On the other hand, these people have virtually no idea how the Americanlegal system, one of the most highly developed and complex legal systemsin the world, works. Education of Asian Americans is possible, however.For example, law enforcement officials, with the help of Asian religiousand civic leaders, could sponsor "town meetings" in which lawenforcement officials address community members or inform them about thelaw. It is important that law enforcement officials attempt to identifyand work closely with Asian civic and religious leaders, since these leadersnot only have regular contact with the Asian communities, but also are proficientin the English language. They can help to bring the message to the people.Moreover, many Asians, especially the elderly, have tremendous respect forreligious leaders such as Buddhist monks and priests.



B. Cultural Awareness

There is also a need to train law enforcement officials who are likelyto work in Asian communities about the social and cultural traditions ofvarious Asian groups. Again, this is not an easy task, since it is estimatedthat there are more than 40 cultural groups, speaking over 50 languages,among the Asian population in the United States. Furthermore, accordingto the U. S. census, this group is the fastest growing minority in the UnitedStates. Nonetheless, the need to understand them is imperative. As the greatarchitect I. M. Pei has succinctly pointed out:

People must realize that there isn't such a thing as an Asian American...Thereare Chinese, Koreans, Japanese, Vietnamese and so forth. So many differentcultures. So many different experiences. We need to understand their differencesand complexities, their successes and failures. The first priority for Americansis to learn more about Asia.(3)

There are several approaches one can use to learn about the social andcultural traditions of Asian Americans. For example, law enforcement officialscould attend seminars and workshops about Asians and Asian Americans, whichare offered by many colleges, universities and consulting agencies acrossthe country. Furthermore, law enforcement training academies should considerincorporating these topic areas into their training curriculum. The simplestand the least expensive method to learn about these cultures, however, isby reading books on Asians and Asian-Americans, which are readily availablein libraries and bookstores. One does not have to read only scholarly worksto get an understanding of Asians and Asian-American cultures; it can bedone by reading popular novels such as China Men, The Woman Warrior:Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts and The Joy Luck Club.Similarly, many popular films such as The Shanghai Triad,The Last Emperor, The Killing Fields, Indochine, Raisethe Red Lantern, Eat Drink Man Woman, Farewell My Concubine,The Wedding Banquet, Heaven and Earth, To Live and TheScent of Green Papaya, and plays such as Broken Promises: Four Plays,The Sound of a Voice, The Chickencoop Chinamen and The Yearof the Dragon offer some social and cultural aspects of Asian and AsianAmericans. (More books on Asians and Asian-Americans are listed in the appendixes.)

This bibliography is designed to serve as a guide to resources on Asiangangs and their activities for students, researchers, librarians, practitionersand public officials. The work is comprehensive in scope. It attempts tocover a variety of sources related to Asian gangs in the United States,albeit the literature on this topic is severely limited. The bibliographyconsists of monographs; scholarly and popular periodical articles; newspaperarticles; publications by national, state and local governments and agencies;and master's and doctoral theses.

The work is divided into four sections. Section one provides resourceguides to the literature. Section two covers monographs, including books,documents published by public agencies and theses. Section three consistsof scholarly and popular periodical articles. Section four contains selectedarticles from the nation's major newspapers such as The New YorkTimes, The Los Angeles Times, The San Francisco Chronicle,The Atlanta Constitution and The Washington Post. Also includedare three appendixes. The appendixes are designed to aid users who wantto get a better understanding of the historical, social and cultural backgroundof Asians and Asian Americans. Law enforcement agencies or departments thatintend to establish cultural resource centers (cultural resource centers)may consider the resources listed in the appendixes as the core of the collections.Within each section entries are arranged alphabetically by author, withfull bibliographic information.

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Answer 2

Asian Gangs In Houston

Answer 3

Vietnamese, Laotian, and Cambodian gangs represent the bulk of the Asian criminal street gang problem in California.
These gangs ranged in size from 5 to 200 gang members; and their crimes included residential and business robberies, auto thefts, and burglaries. Rarely were they involved in drive-by shootings. The gang members varied in age from 15- to 25-years-old, and the older gang members were usually the leaders.

They had little, if any, loyalty to a particular gang. Unlike Hispanic and Black gangs, Asian. gangs began with no unique Characteristics such as tattoos, hand signs, or graffiti. They had no names for their gangs nor were they organized or turf oriented.
By 1985, the Vietnamese gangs were committing organized auto thefts, extortions, firearms violations, home-invasion robberies, witness intimidations, assaults, and murders. They frequently used some type of weapon during the commission of their crimes.

Answer 4

The Gang is a family,doesn't matter what ethnisisity.The main reason for gang membership is for the person joining to get validation and being accepted.Unfortunately with our young people they get nothing at home.Parents are there to give children love,social guidance,respect and to be there for the children when they need counseling.The child is isolated at home,so he/she seeks a family amongst the pier group.The gang supports each other no matter what.

Answer 5

Yes.
Dude there are gangs of all kinds man, you'd be surprised!

Answer 6

Yea

Answer 7

Japanese Yakuza

Chinese Tongs

Arab Terrorists

Answer 8

Not sure if that's correct

Answer 9

whenever i ask a question, even if it is the easiest one, they cant give me a proper informed answer here. what happened to people that really take the time to answer??

Answer 10

yes

Answer 11

Yes,there's too many where i live.