Rival Gangs Declare War in Daejeon

After two rival gangs in the city of Daejeon declared wars of revenge, episodes of gang violence have put the city on alert and led to a police crackdown. Online, Koreans are disgusted by reports of gangsters taking off their shirts and showing their full body tattoos to scare private citizens. While Korean movies romanticize the gangster life, such as 2001’s Friend and 2011’s blockbuster hit Nameless Gangster, average Koreans consider modern gangsters to be little more than bullies that should be eliminated. Organized crime in Daejeon was in the news earlier this year as well, when police arrested 73 people in connection with a gambling ring.

The early 1990’s bouffant Korean gangster, from the 2011 movie, Nameless Gangster [범죄와의 전쟁]

Two Organized Crime Syndicates Declare to Each Other: “We’re coming for you.”

Signs of war are growing on the nighttime streets of Daejeon. Reports are emerging that the two largest organized crime groups in the region are preparing to take revenge on each other.

The Daejeon Police Department is currently surveilling two organized crime syndicates, nicknamed “A” and “B”. Both groups are active in the entertainment districts of Yuseong, Dunsan and Yongjeon. On September 2nd, the police announced that recent feuding between the two groups has led them to step up their surveillance of the two groups’ movements in the area.

A police representative explained what gave rise to this ‘gangster war’, “Members of the two criminal organizations were drinking in the same establishment when a dispute arose between them, leading to a fistfight and one member stabbing someone from the other group in the leg…The victim stated that ‘this won’t be forgotten’, we now believe that they are in the midst of preparing for ‘war’.” Another police official stated that, “We have detected that members of one criminal group have been planning large scale violence at their base in an area motel.”

According to police, the syndicates’ movements are unusual, leading them to start a “100-Day Crackdown on Organized Crime”, starting from the 12th of August to the 19th of November. The Daejeon Police Department Investigation Team and the RCU have moblized all of their active officers and are conducting constant covert surveillance.

Recently, an incident where members of one of the criminal groups attacked an ordinary citizen has led to fear of future attacks and heightened concern in the city. At 3:00 a.m. on the morning of July 1st, a twenty-one-year-old man inside a bar in Daejeon’s Seogu area knocked his shoulder against a gang member from the A gang, which resulted in nine members of the group shoving the young man and three other bar patrons into an alleyway. The gang members proceeded to show off their tattoos to the citizens and talk about their membership in the gang. The nine men then jumped on the three citizens, beating one of them so badly that he had to be hospitalized for three weeks. A similar incident happened on June 1st at 3:00 in the morning, where an offense against members of the same gang inside of a bar lead to them beating a man so badly that he had to be in the hospital for four weeks.

This footage from the Daejeon Daily News shows a brawl between rival gang members inside a Daejeon noraebang during November 2012.

The police described the two incidents as inter-gang violence and, in an effort to show control of the situation, arrested the nine gang members, including the man who initially started the fight.

The Chief of the Investigative Branch of the Daejeon Police Department stated, “When violence erupts between rival gangs, it causes fear among our citizens. We are taking steps to prevent the gangs from carrying out illegal activities before they start.”

Comments from Daum:

-_-붕가:

Airdrop some special forces in, give them live ammunition, and kill ’em all.

꼬마우럭:

Human garbage.

정룡:

Take this opportunity to crush them all.

왼발잡이:

It’s a crime just to form a criminal organization. Isn’t it a mistake to hold back and just watch?? Wouldn’t it be better to just stamp this problem out early??

wowye:

Gangsters are eating away at our society. They are like a late-stage cancer. Please cut away this cancer.

청화:

Couldn’t you just grab them, cut off their heads, and hang them in the public square? Don’t waste precious time on surveillance, just kill them.

Map of organized crime activity in South Korea, based on 2011 police data. The large numbers represent the number of criminal groups, the small number are the number of affiliated members.

달구지:

The problem is that they are never sentenced harshly enough.

오스카델라호야:

Hey, you nine guys, get over here, we’re going to stomp all over you. You bunch of thugs, trying to scare people by showing off your tattoos.

향기777:

So that’s what a gangster is, huh? Guys who would never dare to fight somebody one-to-one but who are happy to get their crew and jump on somebody when they outnumber them.

왕과나:

The only solution is for the government to bring back the Samcheong Training Camp [a concentration camp President Chun Doo-Hwan created in the 1980s to hold large numbers of gang members].

www.우리.com

Isn’t this the time to use live ammunition?

yangwoosuk:

Let’s stop calling them ‘gangsters’ to begin with since they’re just a bunch of back alley wannabe thugs [양아치], just another kind of beggars. Guys who couldn’t do anything on their own. They screwed around in school and now just talk about all the trouble they caused when they were young. Now they whip off their shirts and show off their tattoos, bunch of beggars.

고객:

There are six police precincts in Daejeon, right? Combine all of their officers and you could get a strike force of around 60 people. Damn, just take those officers down and show what kind of force you have –;;

palgae1522:

Ke ke ke, so nine guys jumped three guys because some guys brushed their shoulders?! These bastards aren’t gangsters, they’re a bunch of pussy wannabe thugs.

제주님:

Gangsters!! Play cleanly without using weapons! Kim Du-Han and Sirasoni [regarded as the most famous Korean gangsters in history] must be laughing in their graves! Go back to the good old days.

너랑나:

Garbage like that like to threaten people weaker than them and grovel in front of people stronger than them. Scum hang out together and all try to show off how strong they are. Get them alone in a one-to-one fight, give them some black eyes, break their hands and legs and then you’ll knock some sense into them.

여우와는살아도곰하고는못살겠네:

Park Chung Hee’s contribution…complete crackdown on gangsters
Chun Doo-Hwan’s contribution…Samcheong Training Camp
Roh Tae-Woo’s contribution…the War on Crime
These are relatively good contributions they made..