Confessions of a Cat-holic (122)

I checked the dictionary for the definition of what might constitute an organized crime. Organized crime could be a category of transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals to engage in illegal activity, most commonly for a common goal of revenge or enemy annihilation. Some criminal organizations, such as terrorist groups, were politically motivated. Sometimes criminal organizations forced people to do business with them, such as when a gang extorted money from shopkeepers for "protection". Gangs might often be deemed organized crime groups or, under stricter definitions of organized crime, might become disciplined enough to be considered organized. A criminal organization could also be referred to as a gang, mafia, mob, ring, or syndicate; the network, subculture, and community of criminals might be referred to as the underworld. Sociologists sometimes defined a "mafia" as a type of organized crime group that specialized in the supply of extra-legal protection and quasi-law enforcement. Academic studies of the original "Mafia", the Sicilian Mafia, which predated the other groups, generated an economic study of organized crime groups and exerted great influence on studies of the Russian Mafia, the Chinese Triads, the Hong Kong mafia, etc... Other organizations — including states, churches, militaries, police forces, and corporations — might sometimes use organized-crime methods to conduct their activities, but their powers derived from their status as formal social institutions. There could be a tendency to distinguish traditional organized crime (which was often gang-like and more working-class in nature, frequently involved secret subcultures, and was often formed around shared ethnic, regional, territorial, or cultural identities) from certain other forms of crime that also usually involved organized or group criminal acts, such as white-collar crime, financial crimes, political crimes, war crimes, state crimes, and treason.

Once I left my alma mater, I figured that the world outside, especially that of the CBD, was highly individualistic that emphasized competition, antitrust, rivalry, malicious slandering, race, contest, tournament, championship. So soaked in treating their schoolmates or friends as their potential foes that they forgot that the rest of the world often worked together in a pact. I came from a school with school spirit and military training. I didn't believe in being the best or beating the rest in order to be acclaimed "worthy of success". In other words, I had friends. Yes, I would repeat that again. I had friends, many many many.

Having studied in my alma mater for about a decade, I could maybe give my own interpretation on what would qualify as an organized crime. Organized crimes were crimes committed by an organization. An individualistic crime differed from an organized crime that the conviction for a personalized crime usually fell upon one or a few individuals while organized crimes would be much harder to track because it was done by a team of specialized experts with roles distributed among the entire organization across different divisions. A murder or drug dealing or human trafficking, when done by a mafia, or the church, or an institution, would usually be executed by a dispersed group of skilled experts, each with a certain role to fill so that altogether the crime could be committed collectively.

I came from a Roman Catholic girl's school with sister schools all over Hong Kong, some even enrolled males. I was trained under the Roman Catholic Church and our school had a heritage that even outlasted the establishment of Hong Kong. Most importantly, our school historically had sent countless candidates to the military units of Hong Kong, that included but not limited to the Hong Kong Customs and Excise Department, Hong Kong Police Force, Hong Kong Auxiliary Police Force, Emergency Ambulance Service, Correctional Services Department, Immigration Department, and the Government Flying Service. I did not believe life was a musical chair game or a monopoly.