Australasian Biker News
Police v bikies war looming in South Australia
Friday Feb 22 13:00 AEDT
By Adam Shand
ninemsn
Bikies and social analysts both claim new laws banning club colours in
South Australia are likely to cause a backlash, with club members
targeting police and gangs moving further into underground activities.
Professor Arthur Veno of Monash University told the Nine Network's
Sunday program a similar ban on the Hells Angels club in Canada sparked
heightened tension and violence with police, with bombs placed under
police stations and public officials murdered or assaulted in the line
of duty.
He says the SA laws heightened "the probability that law enforcement
officials themselves will become targets for the clubs".
advertisement
"It makes the clubs more violent, more radical — they go underground,"
he said
Professor Veno also said the Canadian ban did nothing to alleviate
organised crime.
"The Hells Angels have been banned for several years and they still
maintain their status as the number one organised crime entity in
Canada," he said.
"They are underground, it's a special ring, a flash of colour … they are
now truly criminals."
The bill now being debated by parliament provides that if members of
banned organisations continue to associate six times or more in a year,
they would face five years in jail.
South Australian Attorney-General Michael Atkinson has brushed aside
fears proposed anti-bikie laws will spark violent conflict between
police and the state’s outlaw motorcycle clubs.
Speaking on Sunday, Mr Atkinson vowed to run the bikie gangs out of
South Australia and if that involved "public officials putting
themselves in the line of fire that’s what we will do".
There would be no judicial review of such orders, in order to prevent
bikies from using expensive lawyers to evade justice, Mr Atkinson told
Sunday.
"The gangs have proved they have vast amounts of money to get the best
legal representation," he said.
"We are prepared for our laws to be taken to the highest courts in the
land and tested for fairness."
Mr Atkinson said the new laws, which would enable the Attorney-General
and Police Commissioner Mal Hyde to declare any group a criminal
organisation, were a template for other states dealing with the problem
of bikie gangs and organised crime.
The proposed laws also allows government to ban the wearing of club
colours and other symbols in public where community safety is put at
risk.
Bikies have told ninemsn they will openly defy this ban which amounted
to a "dress code" for South Australia.
"Who does this idiot politician think he is saying I can't wear (my
colours)?" asked one club member.
"You know what I would love? For him to come to me and try to tear it
off me … not send his little foot soldiers in to do his dirty work."
Bikies also told Sunday they would defy the new laws and continue to
associate and wear their club colours.
'Brenton', the sergeant-at-arms of an Adelaide chapter of The Finks
motorcycle club said tensions were rising as a result of "police
harassment".
"How would you tell some of your members — blokes who have known each
other for 40 years — that you cannot associate anymore?" he asked.
"I think some blokes will end up going to jail because they won’t abide
by it."
Violence against police was not inevitable but attitudes were hardening
amongst members, Brenton said.
"That's when it gets real ugly: we don't run around blowing up police
stations or telling them take their uniforms and stop doing their job,"
he said.
"I have told a few they are dickheads because of the shit harassment and
its getting pathetic, but you know you have to have it, society has its
make-up and it's got to have it."
Lawyers warned the new laws would wind the clock back to the days when
the state controlled the right of association through consorting laws.
Solicitor Rob Chrzaszcz is planning a High Court challenge to the laws,
saying the bill is populist and unnecessary.
"The average Mum and Dad would support this legislation: they would see
this as another motherhood statement of 'I really feel safe, I feel more
safe than I did before'," he said.
"The problem is not that we don't have the laws, it's that the laws we
have are not being enforced."
Mr Atkinson said his government had public assent for its war on bikies
and that the High Court should leave South Australia alone.
"Fortunately for the people of South Australia they are not governed by
the unelected judges of the High Court," said Mr Atkinson.
"The judges have a judicial role, they don’t have a legislative function
— thank God."