I first got this news from the radio. It didn’t mention what the sign/wording was on the T-shirts and postcards. The online versions of most local newspapers (except Apple Daily) also didn’t give the details. After a couple of days overseas Chinese newspapers started to reveal the sign/wording.
While we have to be constantly vigilant in fighting organized crime, I think Hong Kong’s finest has jumped the gun in this case. We are talking about arresting 18 people for a design gimmick, which could have been resolved more gracefully by having a senior Police office discussing the matter w/ the owner of the chain store. The authorities should by now be well aware of the Streisand effect. I am not saying that we would see T-shirts bearing the sign “拾肆K” appearing everywhere, it is just that in our slowing awakening civic society it may be difficult to gauge public opinion on the balance of freedom of expression and organized crime, especially when noone has heard of any relationship between the chain store in question and organized crime. The Police’s heavy-handed operation is not helpful in building our “harmonious society”.
I first read about the story of Stetson Kennedy infiltrating the Ku Klux Klan in Freakonomics. It is the secrecy in secret societies which captures public imagination and fascination, and the best way to fight such secret societies (in the case, the Triads) would be to strip away their secrecy. I say expose the Triads to public scrutiny, and let everyone know that Triads “foot soldiers” earn less than minimum wage and are really right at the very bottom of the food chain in our society.
Our friend Vincent told me that he is also involved in a government committee in censoring approving submissions for custom vehicle registration number plates. He mentioned that one of his tasks in the committee was to disapprove any applications for number plates bearing reference to Triad Societies.
I told Vincent that such disapproval would actually be irrelevant, for the reason that any vehicles bearing such number plates would get no end of hassle when in town, from the Hong Kong Police as well as rivalling Triad Societies.