Chapter 587: Classification

That night, in the “archive room” Lina had set up, Wayne, Inessa, Doug, Willie, and “Soften” sat together, listening to Lina’s summary of her work during this period.

Lina and her team hadn't been investigating for long, and the information was mainly obtained through interviews and inquiries, largely still in the “hearsay” stage.

However, a sufficient amount of shallow intelligence, when compiled, filtered, and organized, could already begin to outline some “contours.”

“Based on what we currently understand, there are at least nineteen organizations in the Dock Area that can be considered ‘gangs.’

“In my opinion, I’ve roughly divided them into three categories: those that primarily operate on ‘funding,’ those that primarily operate on ‘plunder,’ and those that are loosely gathered together.

“For example, James, who came today, his gang’s income source is collecting debts for bankers, which falls under operating on ‘funding’; while the ‘Sailor Gang’ he mentioned, besides helping bankers collect debts, also forcibly charges dockworkers additional entry fees, which belongs to the plundering or mixed type. The rest fall into the category of loose gangs, which might be fellow villagers or friends, or just some ruffians who often hang out together.

“However, these are just my rough classifications. For instance, two ‘plundering’ gangs are actually spontaneously organized by laborers. They will pay compensation and medical expenses for those among them willing to resist the gangs, or pool money to support the widows and young children of those people. The source of funding is indeed ‘head fees from ordinary people,’ but they bear no ill will towards outsiders.”

The situation in the Dock Area was indeed a bit chaotic, with high fluidity and many laborers from different places or countries arriving with ships and transportation.

The role of America’s customs at that time was to give “legal status” to free citizens entering normally, allowing them to maintain their original status or be more easily accepted by local circles.

There was a loophole here: if some people had no desire to “ascend” or no intention of integrating into “civilized society,” simply coming to America to join “fellow villagers” or “relatives,” and could find sources of income relying solely on existing connections, then customs at that time was meaningless to them.

—I’m just here for odd jobs, I don’t have money and don’t need legal status to buy houses or land, I don’t even necessarily need to stay in Richmond or this broken place in America for my whole life, so I don’t care about all that stuff.

However, America at this time generally lacked manpower. Ordinary citizens might not welcome these foreign laborers who would compete for their jobs, but some demands were actually irreplaceable.

This situation led to Richmond’s City Hall having little motivation to manage these types of people in the Dock Area. The enforcement vacuum was almost equivalent to a breeding ground for crime, and then the law of the jungle came online, and life would find its own way.

Lina briefly described all nineteen known gangs, varying in size, with “full-time” and “part-time” members, and differing profit models.

Wayne looked down at the Richmond map in his hand, trying to find a breakthrough:

“According to your classification, Lina, those ‘plundering’ gangs, whether they are gangs charging forcibly or people voluntarily contributing money, ultimately, they all have their own general activity areas, right?”

“Of course.”

Lina nodded, then turned like a teacher, pointing with a thin stick at the Richmond map hanging on the wall beside her, “For example, the ‘Sailor Gang’ is currently mainly active around these few docks. There’s more than one gang similar to them; basically, besides the docks exclusively used by the military and some large merchant associations, every other dock in the Dock Area has at least one gang present.”

“Is there a detailed corresponding distribution?” Inessa asked.

“We only have a general understanding for now. Because the ‘gang affiliation’ of many docks is dynamic, there have been some changes just in the two weeks we’ve been investigating.”

Lina said, pointing her “pointer” at “Soften,” “Later, you make a power distribution map, and update it monthly for everyone to see.”

“Soften” quickly nodded. Teacher Lina had already given about two lessons and probably wanted to switch to someone else: “That’s roughly the basic situation. Does anyone have any other questions?”

Willie was the first to raise his hand, “According to the criminal evidence I’ve gathered, people tend to have the most hatred for those gangs that collect debts for bankers or local merchants, which are the ‘funded’ type we just discussed. They don’t seem to have specific activity areas?”

Teacher Lina replied, “Actually, they do. But they’re not as regional as ‘plundering’ gangs; they often target specific people. Some gangs that survive by charging ‘brokerage fees’ or ‘management fees’ also seem to allow debt-collecting gangs to enter temporarily.”

Willie thought for a moment, then looked at the three partners inquiringly, “It sounds like the ‘funded’ gangs are generally larger in terms of personnel. Most of the cases I currently have witnesses for also seem to fall into this category. If you all have no objections, then the prosecutor and I will continue to successively prosecute these gang members for whom we have evidence?”

All eyes then turned to Wayne. Wayne was pondering, and seeing “Soften” quietly lower his head, he asked him, “‘Soften,’ what are your thoughts?”

“Soften” seemed not to have expected to be called upon at this moment and answered honestly:

“I support the partners’ decision. However, in this period, the few witnesses who helped testify in court have been retaliated against three times. Two ruffians who attempted to break in at night were sent to the Police Station by us, but they both claimed they were only attempting theft. One received an intimidating letter of unknown meaning, thrown into their home through a broken window with a stone wrapped around it, and another’s front door was splashed with spoiled animal blood late at night.

“I’m a bit worried that if the number of protected targets continues to increase, it will be very difficult to ensure their safety with just the few of us we have now.”

Damn it, the gang members Willie had actually prosecuted so far were all subordinates of James Damody.

That Jimmy seemed timid in front of him, but when dealing with ordinary people, he really showed no mercy…

Of course, it could also be the banker behind him causing trouble.

Wayne was silent for a moment, trying to sort out the situation from what was known:

“Let’s do it this way, we’ll take it one step at a time. For now, let’s shift our attention to those ‘plundering’ gangs that have territories. Willie, you should also temporarily stop prosecuting members of James Damody’s gang, and put them lower on the priority list.

“My personal guess is that the reason the reporting rate for ‘plundering’ gangs is lower than for ‘funded’ gangs might be because they are more inclined to solve problems through gang methods and don’t have much hope in the law. And those ordinary people targeted by debt-collecting gangs might no longer have any effective means of resistance locally, which is why their relatives choose to testify in court, seeing it as their last hope.

“Among those gangs that can spontaneously resist other gangs, we should still be able to find witnesses. Considering the need for gangs to compete for territory, there might even be more people within those gangs willing to help us testify. And because they will have companions for protection, the safety of witnesses will be more assured, which can also reduce our workload.”

Willie quickly nodded, then Wayne turned his gaze to “Soften.”

“Go tell James Damody this: if even one of those previous witnesses gets hurt, I don’t care who did it, all the people in their gang who have done bad things will be buried with them. In the future, notify them the same way for similar situations: witnesses without blemishes first, witnesses with blemishes later. If anything happens to a witness after testifying, whichever gang is involved, we will target that gang first.”

No wonder even the police didn't want to get involved; given the current situation in this place, it might really have to be managed by “gangs.”