Jackson Street Boys

The Jackson Boys gang was the successor to the Wo Hop To Triad which ruled the streets of San Francisco's Chinatown in the 1980s and early 1990s.[1] The Jackson Street Boys was founded by three brothers, Bobby Tsan, Johnny Tsan and Tommy Tsan, who were former Wah Ching members who had defected to the Wo Hop To after the Wo Hop To forced the Wah Ching out of San Francisco.[2] After law enforcement cracked down on the Wo Hop To around 1992, the Jackson Street Boys resumed what a SFPD officer described in 2000 as "the same stuff on a smaller scale and without the same visibility", including extortion of local merchants and operating gambling dens.[2]

Unlike many other Asian street gangs which are composed primarily of American-born or Americanized Asians, the Jackson Boys has a mix of foreign-born and American-born members. The gang is unique in that though some members engage in low-level street crime like stealing cars or drug-dealing, other members also engage in sophisticated money-making schemes such as credit-card fraud, racketeering, illegal gambling, and other white-collar crimes.

In the gang's history, there have also been instances of the gang branching out into other cities, such as nearby Oakland, and even as far as places like Seattle, Washington and Denver, Colorado.[3][4] These developments have been temporary, however, and their center of operations remains San Francisco.

One of the more noted crimes that the gang was involved in occurred on June 30, 1995. One faction of the Jackson Street Boys opened fire on another on a busy Chinatown street, Stockton Street, during the daytime. Seven innocent bystanders were struck, including a pregnant woman. Three males, ages 18, 16, and 14, were arrested in connection with the shooting.[5] Jackson Boys were also the primary trafficker of illegal fireworks back when fireworks were blatantly sold on the streets of Chinatown.[1][6][7][8][9]