Wo Shing Wo or WSW is the oldest of the Wo Group triad societies, and is the triad with the longest history in Hong Kong. According to the Hong Kong police, the triad is involved in extortion, drug trafficking, gambling and prostitution.
Like many other communities, the older Chinatowns face certain social problems. Although Chinatowns are now generally viewed and valued as tourist attractions, their earlier reputation was that of dangerous or dilapidated ghettos and slums, sites of brothels, opium dens, and gambling halls.
The Golden Dragon massacre was a gang-related shooting attack that took place on September 4, 1977, inside the Golden Dragon Restaurant at 822 Washington Street in Chinatown, San Francisco, California. The five perpetrators, members of the Joe Boys, a Chinese youth gang, were attempting to kill leaders of the Wah Ching, a rival Chinatown gang. The attack left five people dead and 11 others injured, none of whom were gang members. Seven perpetrators were later convicted and sentenced in connection with the murders. The massacre led to the establishment of the San Francisco Police Department's Asian Gang Task Force, credited with ending gang-related violence in Chinatown by 1983. The restaurant itself closed in 2006.
Wah Ching, meaning Chinese Youth, is a Chinese American criminal organization and street gang that was founded in San Francisco, California in 1964. The Wah Ching has been involved in crimes including narcotic sales, racketeering and gambling.
Fred Harry Lau is a former Chief of Police for San Francisco, having served from 1996–2002. He was the first Asian American to ever hold that position, and has been called the first Chinese-American to lead the police in any major American city. In 2013, he became the TSA Federal Security Director of the San Francisco International Airport.
William Lee is an American writer. He is the author of three books. He is a former member of the San Francisco Chinatown gang that was responsible for the 1977 Golden Dragon massacre.
Wo Hop To, or WHT, is a triad group based in Wan Chai, Hong Kong. The name translates to "Harmoniously United Association", or "Harmonious Union Plan", and is thought to have been founded in 1908 in Sai Ying Pun as a secret political organisation in opposition to the Qing dynasty. They are one of the Four Major Gangs (四大黑幫) of Hong Kong, the others being Wo Shing Wo, 14K and Sun Yee On.
Fajitagate was a series of legal and political incidents in San Francisco that began with a street fight outside a neighborhood bar between three off-duty San Francisco Police officers and two other local residents over a bag of fajitas, leading to numerous civil and criminal complaints, police misconduct allegations and eventually, the resignation of the city's Chief of Police and Deputy Chief of Police.
The San Francisco Police Department began operations on August 13, 1849 during the Gold Rush under the command of Captain Malachi Fallon. At the time, Chief Fallon had a force of one deputy captain, three sergeants, and thirty officers.
Raymond Kwok-Cheung Chow, nicknamed "Shrimp Boy", is a Hong Kong-born felon with ties to a San Francisco Chinatown street gang and an organized crime syndicate, including the American branch of the Hong Kong-based triad Wo Hop To and the Hop Sing Boys.
Peter Chong is an organized crime figure previously convicted of racketeering and extortion who has been described by prosecutors as the former leader of the Wo Hop To syndicate in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
The murder of the Bologna family occurred on June 22, 2008, when Anthony Bologna and his sons, Michael and Matthew, were shot dead near their residence in the Excelsior district of San Francisco, California, by Edwin Ramos Umaña, who mistook the victims as rival gang members for whom he wanted retaliation.
Fullerton Boys, commonly spelled Fullerton Boyz, is a group of gang members mostly composed of Korean-American delinquents that lived in the city of Fullerton, California. Most of its members belonged to the LVM Gang, SZA gang (Sarzana) gang and some from the Wah Ching gang. These gang members were known to also claim Fullerton Boyz against their rivals and as the gangs disbanded in Fullerton, most of them started to claim Fullerton Boyz as a gang.
The 14K (十四K) is a triad group based in Hong Kong but active internationally. It is the second largest triad group in the world with around 20,000 members split into thirty subgroups. They are the main rival of the Sun Yee On, which is the largest triad.
The Joe Boys, or JBS, was a Chinese American youth gang founded in the 1960s in San Francisco's Chinatown. The Joe Boys were originally known as Joe Fong Boys, after its founder Joe Fong, a former member of the Wah Ching. Most of their members were born in Hong Kong or were of Hong Kongese descent.
San Francisco currently has lower-than-average rates of violent crime when compared with other major U.S. cities, while property crimes, such as theft and burglary, are higher than the national average.
Joe Fong is a Macanese-American former gang leader who founded and led the Chung Ching Yee gang in Chinatown, San Francisco from 1971 until his arrest and incarceration in 1973, when he was eighteen years old. After his release in 1979, Fong attended college and graduate school.
San Francisco, California, United States