Monday, September 21, 2015

On the shores of Yamaguchi-gumi

Then the angry Hiawatha
Raised his mighty bow of ash-tree,
Seized his arrows, jasper-headed,
Shot them fast among the serpents;
Every twanging of the bow-string
Was a war-cry and a death-cry,
Every whizzing of an arrow
Was a death-song ....

Meanwhile, in Japan;
"... it is now illegal for the operators of legitimate businesses to pay protection money to the yakuza. ....

Japanese police have stepped up preparations for a possible outbreak of violence between gangs after the nation's largest underworld group, the Yamaguchi-gumi, split in late August.
.... The authorities remember the civil war that erupted between different factions when the Yamaguchi-gumi went through a spell of internal upheaval in 1984.
25 people were killed in the 'war' that lasted 3 years. Iow, a week-end in Chicago. But, the new law against paying protection means;
"The message is that the police now have the ability to label any one of these groups an 'anti-social force,' which gives them the right to move in and close down their offices," said [Jake] Adelstein, author of "Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan" and an expert on Japan's underworld groups.
But the really big war club;
A second fear among the gangs' leaders will be falling foul of what amounts to employer liability laws if one of their underlings kills or injures another gang member or, by accident, a regular citizen.
"A mob boss can now be held personally responsible for anything that a low-level member of their gang does," he told DW. "And, not surprisingly, they have no wish to be hit with multimillion dollar compensation suits."
 Not exactly the way Longfellow saw it;
Fiercely the red sun descending
Burned his way along the heavens,
Set the sky on fire behind him,
As war-parties, when retreating,
Burn the prairies on their war-trail

1 comment: