An RTHK story for those nostalgic for the old Hong Kong…
Police on Monday said they have arrested 125 people over suspicions that a triad syndicate used intimidation, arson, criminal damage and other violent means to corner the lunch box business at building sites.
The Organised Crime and Triad Bureau said a recent surge in residential projects in East Kowloon created a sharp rise in demand for takeaway meals among construction workers and it is thought that a triad group decided it wanted to seize control of the market.
…Acting Senior Superintendent Au Yeung Tak said a triad group is also suspected of threatening legitimate meal box suppliers using “methods such as extortion, arson, criminal damage and other illegal violent means”.
…The bureau said it arrested 48 men and 77 women, aged between 22 and 81, and seized assets worth HK$4 million, including luxury watches, delivery trucks and gambling paraphernalia.
The operation reportedly brought in nearly HK$1 million a month. Which, divided by 125 people equals HK$8,000 each – maybe half of which was actual profit. No answer to the really important question: what the food was like?
More in keeping with the times – HKFP reports…
Ami Chan appeared at the Eastern Magistrates’ Courts on Monday for the second day of her trial in relation to the protests and unrest in 2019.
Chan, who was arrested in 2019 but refused bail, left for Australia in 2021. She was charged when she returned to Hong Kong four months ago.
The defendant was 15 when she was arrested. She was 21 when she was charged in March this year
…According to the prosecution, she was carrying two laser pointers and two cans of spray paint when police arrested her on September 8, 2019, in Fortress Hill.
Magistrate Wong pointed out that at the time, the nearest place where protesters clashed with police was Causeway Bay.
“That’s some distance away,” he said.
Focus Taiwan on an exhibition of protest-era T-shirts – many of which could possibly get you arrested in Hong Kong today…
T-shirts worn in past democratic movements and public events in Hong Kong reflect the city’s evolving public culture and social history, the head of an academic association said at an exhibition highlighting Hong Kong T-shirts in Taipei on Sunday.
Chan Kin-man (陳健民), president of the Taiwan Society for Hong Kong Studies (TSHKS), said organizers of public events, marches, rallies and democratic movements made T-shirts of different colors, slogans and designs to express their messages, making them a distinctive feature of the city’s public culture.
Most of the T-shirts on display at the exhibition are black, though some are white or brightly colored, reflecting the distinct characteristics of the various public issues and events they represent.