reuters Friday November 2, 11:38 AM 18 arrested at HK lifestyle store over triad T-shirts HONG KONG (Reuters) - Police have arrested 18 employees of a Hong Kong lifestyle and retail chain over a controversial new line of T-shirts bearing the name of a well-known triad gang. The Goods of Desire, or G.O.D. store, known for its idiosyncratic and trendy designs drawing on Hong Kong street culture, printed a batch of T-shirts with the Chinese characters for "14K" -- the name of one of the former British colony's major triad societies. "Possessing triad products is a violation of the law and people wearing a shirt with such logos will be arrested," Hong Kong's Standard newspaper quoted Cheng Fuk-chuen, a police superintendent with the Organised Crime Triad Bureau as saying. Nine men and nine women were arrested and released, including G.O.D's founder Douglas Young. No charges have yet been pressed. Doezens of the T-shirts and more than 500 postcards printed with the "14K" logo were seized from several outlets. "Creativity is creativity -- that's different. The industry should study the legislation, which clearly states symbols representing or constituting triad symbols are illegal," Cheng was quoted as saying. The store said, however, it had been unfairly victimised. "Yes, there's the law, but we didn't even have a warning beforehand," Cherry Ma, G.O.D's marketing manager told Reuters. "We never considered the logo as related to a triad society, we approached the design as related to (14K) gold," she added. Triad societies have long operated in Hong Kong with a widely reported presence in the entertainment industry and other commercial sectors, as well as enjoying a stranglehold over traditional criminal activities such as drug smuggling, prostitution and protection rackets. "Triads are still a very nasty thing against law and order in Hong Kong," said Democratic legislator James To, a deputy chairman of the Legislative Council's security panel. "The 14K is widely recognised and known in Hong Kong as a triad society. I think it's very sensitive and the police are obliged to take action to investigate."
Thats simply dumb. Its only clothings, whats the big deal about it? HK definitely has some weird laws. <_<
^that's only if you live in a gang community, if there's only fake crips and blood, I don't really give a shit. Anyways guess no freedom of expression there...
i heard this on the radio few days ago..they wre tlkin about it for a long long time i actually saw on newspaper that ther r reports on ppl getting beat up for wearing blue or red in malls
there are gangs called the bloods and crips. the bloods wear all red and the crips wear all blue. they have been beefing for a really long time now.
