Originally Posted By: Turnbull
Well, you're right, Shake. There isn't much media coverage of Asian gangs in the US because nearly all the reporters and editors aren't Asian. In NYC, Asian gangs didn't get any coverage--or police attention--at all until well into the Seventies. In fact, NYPD didn't have a single Chinese officer until that time. Chinatown was considered "inscrutable" rolleyes, and the tongs were regarded as legitimate business cartels. Gambling, drugs, etc., were basically ignored, as if Chinatown were its own separate entity.

Then a combination of increased immigration from China, coupled with the influx of Vietnamese after the fall of Saigon, led to the creation of young street gangs. They were into overt violence, like the massacre you cited in SF. A guy I worked with was shot and nearly killed in a restaurant in NYC's Chinatown in a shootout between the Ghost Shadows and the Flying Dragons.

While Italian Americans are moving to the suburbs, more Asians are coming into America. NYC's Little Italy has shrunk dramatically, and much of it has been absorbed into neighboring Chinatown. While the Mafia's gotten weaker, Asian gangs have gotten stronger. But Asian gangs are still under-discussed today.


In New York, Russian and Asian groups are the biggest domestic organized crime investigative priorities for the FBI after the Italians. But even they are generally considered "criminal enterprises," as compared to La Cosa Nostra which is considered "organized crime." Except for when they controlled the heroin trade following the end of the Pizza Connection, from about the mid-1980's to mid-1990's, the Chinese's influence has never really extended beyond their own communities. But you could say this about many crime groups. Even today, all you have to do is look at the indictments to see that LCN still has far more of a presence than the Asians, Russians, etc.