The battle for control over New York’s Chinatown

The deadly battle for control over New York’s Chinatown http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-deadly-battle-for-control-over-new-york-s-chinatown

Remember me a scene of China Girl where in 1986 little italy was dying and two Chinese mobsters said that "for eat pizza will go to Brooklyn".
Even the genovese and gambino dont had a pieve of chinatown rackets ?

If you read the 1996 book The New Ethnic Mobs, the author devotes more chapters to the Chinese than any other group. He spends much of the book using the Chinese as his foremost example of the new wave of OC groups replacing the old Italian guard. However, at the end of the book, he almost does a total reversal and says he doesn't see Chinese OC really expanding outside its insular communities (save for its involvement in the drug trade).

Earlier on in the book he gives the breakdown of the 4 Chinatown gangs and the Tongs they were affiliated with. He says that, like the city's 5 Mafia families, the Chinatown gangs are "almost indestructible." Yet, in a more recent article one law enforcement official said prosecutions had reduced them to "roaming wolf packs" more than true street gangs.

Chinatown expanding and Little Italy shrinking doesn't necessarily mirror the state of those respective OC groups from what I can tell. The only area one can see a direct increase of Chinese activity coupled with decrease in Italian activity was the heroin trade. But the Chinese being at the top of the NY heroin trade seemed to last about a decade, mid 1980s to mid 1990s, before the Colombians moved in.

I doubt the Chinese kick up to the Italians or anything.

There are no ethnic Italian communities even close to Chinatown anymore. Plus, the Mob probably doesn't instill the fear it did in the past.

Chinatown night be the last real ethnic community in Manhattan below the streets in the triple digits.

In the area that used to be "the 5 points" there were recently still a few Italian restaurants holding on. They were opposite the courthouses and the empty space which now occupies the "mulberry bend".

The Jacob Riis book called "How The Other Half Lives" exposed the mulberry bend to the public, taking many photos of "bandit's roost" and homeless italian children. The city's answer to fix the Riis problem was to tear down the entire block. It was replaced with a park and courthouses.

The park is literally PACKED with Chinese immigrants nowadays.

I've been around Chinatown all my life when I was younger

There were the usual Chinese/ Hong Kong based gangs that pretty much ruled the area.... I wouldn't say there was much fighting for turf once it was established who "owns" what ie once a restaurant pays a certain group/ another will not extort it

There was a period when the Vietnamese tried to take control of Chinatown & they started targeting the small gambling parlours

One incident my dad told me about (his colleagues dad died in the inferno) the viets turned up & said loudly in their native tongue "any viets here better leave"

Now most of the patrons that didn't understand were Chinese/ and they barricaded the doors... Set it alight to send a message

I heard a few went jail for 25yrs

Anyway the viets lost in the end... Now fast forward to the last 10 yrs, Chinatown started seeing a huge influx of illegals coming over from mainland China

Another turf battle ensued.... These newly arrived guys had the numbers!! Word on the street was one new gang phoned a casino and said they were coming to collect money

When they turned up- they were met withn 20 guys...

A local waiter who saw the fight said one got hacked to pieces and tried to jump through a shop window/ ended up cutting himself up worse

But yeh haven't been anywhere near Chinatown in the last 10 yrs and no idea who's running what now... I would say the triads as they're known here or as Chinese call them "black society" (never hear this term tongs) much, mainly target their own

Eg a viet gangster would extort viet store owners. He wouldn't even bother with a Chinese owned store

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/404814.stm

Here's an incident from around 17 yrs ago... The dead victim was a member of the 14k triad gang/ he was very well known but not sure what, word on the street was he had a falling out with his own gang and they sent 7 cars full of youths after him

The chase lasted an hour and all the guys involved got manslaughter...

Lower Manhattan is overwhelming flooded with recent Chinese immigrants. One of my favorite old school Italian restaurants in the city, Forlini's on Baxter Street downtown is an old holdout in the middle of all the Chinese. Tip: if u go there sit at the bar, they have tons of nice TVs to watch the games and a lot of old school Italians who used to live in the area and now live out in the suburbs meet there and hang out at the bar, it's a great time! Good food too, right by the courthouse as well if you're there because u got jammed up or for jury duty....

That place is where we celebrated every family event from weddings to funerals, communions etc. when we were kids my brother from age 5 to 7 would stop every Chinese person outside and ask them "who are you, you all look alike". Dante is right it's a great spot and the last Italian holdouts from the neighborhood and Knickerbocker go there

The real-life gangsters of New York’s Chinatown – From the underworld to the NYPD https://gangstersinc.org/blog/watch-the-real-life-gangsters-of-new-york-s-chinatown-from-the-un