Policing Hong Kong in
the 1960s and '70s
This picture I shot shows a
uniformed
Police Superintendant and a Detective
Inspector from Wanchai Police Station, Hong
Kong, examining
a weapons cache they had just siezed
in a raid. The weapons consisted of butchers
knives, sharpened iron water pipes
(for stabbing) and 20-inch long iron
bars
for cracking peoples skulls open.
The police
knew two warring gangs were going
to meet in a restaurant. The leaders
would
sit across a table to drink tea and talk...
Then is agreement could be reached,
all the gang members would return
home quietly. But if not, someone would
shout "DA!" (which means "hit!"
or "strike!")
and there would be a few seconds of
panic
while everyone reached for the nearest
weapon .
The fight
would be brief and
vicious. Heads were smashed with iron bars... Opponents
were hacked open with kitchen meat cleavers, or stabbed
with butchers knives (see picture). Other makeshift weapons
included sharpened iron water pupes - ground to a sharp
point or another HK Chinese gang favorite, a sharpened
triangular file.
Like most
fights, it would all be over within two minutes. Only the
dead would remain by the time
the police arrived at the scene.
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