# The Badge — Tackling gangs in Chinatown



## kwflatbed (Dec 29, 2004)

Read the full "Badge" series

By John Koopman
The San Francisco Chronicle
SAN FRANCISCO - After dark, when the tourists have gone back to their hotels and families are having dinner, the streets of Chinatown are quiet. Two men walk down a deserted alley, lit by dim streetlights and open apartment windows.









Inspectors Jameson Pon (left) and Henry Seto (center) walk the streets of Chinatown and chat with residents. (Chronicle photo by Brant Ward) The smell of twice-used cooking oil wafts through the still air and hangs on the sound of mah-jongg tiles clicking on linoleum tabletops. Bursts of shouting and laughter erupt now and then as someone wins a bet, or loses. The sounds emanate seemingly from every other window and door.

"Gambling is a way of life in Chinatown," says Inspector Henry Seto, a 23-year veteran of the San Francisco Police Department. "You can't stop it. It's not even worth it to try."
Seto's not here to worry about low-stakes card games, however illegal they may be. He and his partner, Inspector Jameson Pon, work the Asian gang detail for the SFPD. They work the streets collecting information on the various gangs that focus on Chinatown, but spread out into the Richmond and Sunset districts, too, along with the Asian populations out there.
Seto and Pon are native sons of Chinatown. They grew up there, they speak the language, they went to the Chinese school classes after school and weekends growing up, and now they patrol the neighborhood trying to keep gang activity to a minimum.

Full Article: http://www.policeone.com/media-relations/articles/1355022/


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