Of course not. However, not all organized crime rackets are the same nor do they do what they do for the same reasons. Look at the Yakuza. They're semi-legit as is, make their profession publicly known by having public offices and a style of dress that immediately points them out, and (until recently) only did deals with legitimate businesses that were reluctant to get the police involved in certain matters.laserkid wrote:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triad_societyKendamu wrote:What exactly does the Chinese mafia do? Do you know exactly what they're into and what kinds of things they do? Is there some sort of text or video to support it? Sure, they're criminals. However, let's not assume that all organized crime syndicates do the exact same thing that you see in Italian Mafia movies.
"Their activities include drug trafficking, contract murder, money laundering, gambling, prostitution, car theft, extortion, and other forms of racketeering."
Honestly, what did you THINK a mafia did, play chess?
That, and the Yakuza provides things like disaster relief.
While they are criminals, they're not the stereotypical types. Sure, they do bad things, but not in the stereotypical fashion. The Yakuza operate in a way that's very Japanese (at least their Japanese branches do) and do things similar to blackmailing large corporations rather than harassing the small businesses.
The worst thing they do is run prostitution rings and smuggle uncensored porn. Half the time, the girls they import from China and the Philippines are, instead of becoming what we'd consider a prostitute, they're instead put to work as hostesses and strippers. Not that those are respectable jobs in many places by any means, but it's a lot better than having sex against your will to line someone else's pockets.
As I don't have a large understanding of Chinese culture, I didn't know exactly how the Triad worked. Were they more similar to the Italians during Prohibition in the US or were they more similar to the Japanese in modern times? That's what I was wanting to know.
So, no, smartass. I wasn't thinking that organized criminals sit around and have European tea parties while wearing ballet clothing or whatever. What I didn't know was if the Triad was the "we fuck with overly-rich and uncaring corporations, act as semi-law enforcement for businesses doing technically illegal things that don't really hurt anyone, provide disaster relief with a decent chunk of our profit, and don't act secretive about what we do at all because we're actually half-legit in terms of an organization" or if they were the stereotypical dirty criminals that are depicted in mafia movies that are based off how "the families" acted during American prohibition.
