Street Gangs, Choppers And Knives

I have been following  the recent developments about the rise of street gang activities in Singapore. It all started with the widely-reported murder of Darren Ng, 19, at Downtown East late last month.

More attacks emerged soon after, the notorious one being the Bukit Panjang slashings. Police has acted swiftly, assuring Singaporeans of a clamp down on gangster-ism in the society.

Street gangs are prevalent in our community for many years; they are just a hidden entity. Members are recruited from schools, instilling highfalutin fear among their peers. They are no traditional gangsters and are only capable of verbal abuse such as threats – a characteristic highly associated with bullies.

Nonetheless, the recent violent crimes have shed new light on the street gangs. Undetected and untouched since the 1950s, they have become more deluded and daring. They were not part of the government clamp down which saw the traditional gangs such as ‘Sah Lak Kau’ and ’18′ being squashed to near extinction.

Hence, they never experienced the government’s punitive measures against hoodlums. They thought street gangs are part of teenage follies. They thought they can assault others with impunity. They were wrong indeed.

The response by the police has been convincing so far. They are literally performing a clean sweep of the current street gangs in Singapore. Latest news reports have shown that they are nabbing any congregation of teens found with the possession of choppers. (A case of paranoia?) The latest incident involved a group of teens, aged between 14 and 18, found by officers with two choppers at the Costa Sands Resort in Pasir Ris.

In the past, the government imposed a ban of possession of guns to help effectively wipe out the threat of traditional gangs. The idea is to provide an advantage to the police. Now, I am left wondering if the government would one day introduce another ban -this time on choppers and knives brought in public – in order to curb the problem of street gangs metastasizing.