OFF THE WIRE
AS speculation of an all-out bikie war blared across the media, members of several of Australia's most notorious outlaw clubs happily mingled for the cameras in a clubhouse in Liverpool in southwest Sydney on Monday night.It may not have been enough to assuage public fears, but at least it showed not all bikies are at war.
Comanchero stood at the bar chatting with three burly Hells Angels, memories of the deadly clash between the clubs at Sydney Airport in 2009 apparently forgotten. Lone Wolves rubbed shoulders with Black Uhlans and Rebels. Past bar fights and so-called turf battles were put to one side. With state governments, led by NSW, promising to outlaw their clubs, there might soon be no turf left to fight over, said "Errol" from the Rebels.
The bikers met under the banner of the United Motorcycle Council of NSW to denounce the recent spate of drive-by shootings and other public violence in Sydney. To their detractors, this had all the force of Dracula declaring that he had gone vegan, but the organisers deny this was merely a publicity stunt.
With a few exceptions, these are paunchy, old-school bikies with dirty ragged colours on their backs, greying mullets and fading tattoos. They seem as concerned as the public that their lifestyle has been hijacked by violent criminals but are at a loss as to how to stop it. All they know is that all bikies will be made to pay for it.
They have a lot to lose now, even if they have chequered pasts. Many have businesses, paid-off houses, jobs and families to support. The depiction of all motorcycle clubs as dedicated crime gangs is mostly a product of the media hype and police ignorance, they say.
Outlaw bikies are used to bad press. In fact, public contempt has always validated their choice to be outlaws. However, this week's avalanche of media is almost unprecedented and could not go unchallenged.
The onslaught began with the shooting of a Bandido, Jacques Teamo, in a Gold Coast shopping centre last weekend, allegedly by a Victorian-based member of the Finks, Mark James Graham. A bystander, a 53-year-old woman, was also wounded in the incident.
Although the injuries were relatively minor, it revived memories of the 2007 CBD shootings in Melbourne when Hells Angel Christopher Wayne Hudson shot and killed a solicitor, Brendan Keilar, and wounded Dutch backpacker Paul de Waard simply for having objected to the bikie bashing his own girlfriend in a city street. Hudson also shot his girlfriend, Kara Douglas, in his drug-induced rage.
This week's incident seemed to confirm that here is a group of people for whom settling personal grievances comes before public safety. All week, incidents with the most tenuous linkage to bikies were reported as potential fronts in a war that would leave ordinary citizens murdered in the streets.
Even the failure of bikies to speak out was seen as evidence of complicity, yet condemning violence is not a straightforward exercise for the bikies.
"Did Chris Hudson's family abandon him when he did what he did? No they didn't. Just because a club won't condemn a member who breaks the law doesn't mean they condone his behaviour," says one senior biker.
There has always been a place for violence among bikies, he says, but battles were traditionally fought away from the public eye with fists and motorcycle chains.
However, the creation of the UMCs reflect the struggle underway within many clubs to enforce discipline. The UMCs provide a forum for old-school bikers to connect and reinvigorate the movement that they fear has been infiltrated by wannabe gangsters.
In recent times, some clubs have enforced urine testing to detect members using crystal methamphetamine, or ice. Others have forbidden their members to run to the clubhouse if being pursued by police. Numerous members have been kicked out of clubs for their involvement in crimes of which the membership disapproves.
Police intelligence suggests that much of the crime within a club is controlled by small cells of members in partnership with elements outside the club. That is not to say that bona fide clubs are crime-free, far from it, but the proposition that clubs are set up for the purposes of organised crime has rarely been proven.
The problem for moderate bikies is that outlaw clubs have long tolerated criminals in their ranks. Men with long rap sheets can find a place in clubland as long as they follow the rules, they don't co-operate with police, or give evidence against one another - all of which, to the state, makes them enemies of justice.
"But don't people say it's un-Australian to dob on people? Don't we tell our kids that?" asks one biker. "We are the kids who didn't run to the teacher when we were bullied at school. We sorted shit out ourselves in our own way."
However, "righteous" bikies regard shooting at houses in the middle of the night as cowardly. The culprits are often associates over whom clubs exercise no direct control, they say. There are younger members who, intoxicated with power, don't know how to handle the responsibility that comes with the club patch.
The older members detest such upstarts but have little power to kick them out when they are beginning to dominate some clubs. They still enforce a one man, one vote democracy that makes change painfully slow.
However, as the bikies vacillate over how to respond, state governments and police forces are moving decisively against them. This week, The Australian revealed that NSW Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione had ordered officers to fast-track an application to have the Hells Angels declared a criminal organisation under revamped gang legislation.
Police in Newcastle are also trialling a new beefed-up version of consorting laws once used to break up Sydney's razor gangs.
Consorting with habitual criminals, which was once a summary offence, is now a crime in NSW punishable by up to three years' jail. Barrister Wayne Baffsky told the UMC meeting in Sydney that police had recently stopped a carload of Hells Angels who had criminal records. They had been ordered to disperse and find other means of transport, or risk a warning for consorting. A second offence can bring a jail term and there was virtually no defence to the charge, he said.
Baffsky, counsel for the Hells Angels, said that he was pessimistic about the chances of success if the bikers were to mount a High Court challenge.
The Hells Angels had been lucky to win a challenge to anti-association laws last year in NSW and important lessons had been learned from the judgment.
NSW is also moving to ban bikies from owning or working in tattoo shops. Tattoo shops have been the scene of numerous drive-by shootings and other violence around Australia. Police have alleged the parlours are a front for money-laundering operations. It's expected that other states will follow the NSW example if the tattoo ban is successful.
The move has angered many older members who have run their tattoo parlours as separate entities to their clubs and do not employ their bikie brothers. They argue the move is not aimed at stemming crime but de-legitimising a section of society that police and politicians don't like.
"The guys I employ mostly have graphic arts degrees and diplomas. You can't just walk off the street and start tattooing. It would ruin my business," says "TB", a club member who owns a tattoo parlour in Adelaide.
TB had previously run a security business until state legislation banned members of clubs from holding a licence. Despite some minor convictions, TB was able to meet the criteria to run a security detail at the Sydney Olympics in 2000. At the stroke of a pen, he later lost the right to run the business. Now he expects to face a struggle to keep his tattoo parlour.
Another Adelaide tattoo shop owner is less restrained.
"If they take my livelihood away, stop me associating with my brothers, harass me whenever I ride my bike, raid my house at all hours, I'll give them war," says Bear.
"I'll cut loose, get a gun, go and shoot a couple of c . . ts. Then I'll go give myself up and let the state look after me for the rest of my days. Three meals a day, roof over my head. Nothing to worry about ever again. Me off the streets! Isn't that what they want?"
Members of outlaw clubs from around the country tell Inquirer that anti-association laws will do little to quell the public violence.
Contrary to popular belief, conflicts are usually not over drug trafficking or other criminal activities. Defections, disrespect and "pissed fights that become gunfights" are the most common causes. Turf battles are more usually over the location of a tattoo parlour in enemy territory, rather than the right to sell drugs there.
These fights rarely involve all members of the clubs and are not directed by the leadership. Office-bearers spend much of their time defusing conflicts between members of their respective clubs.
The UMC has also played a role in keeping the peace. For instance, the feud between the Hells Angels and the Nomads in NSW, which sparked the recent drive-by shootings has been grossly overplayed, according to club insiders and police alike. There have been tensions between the clubs over the defection of a Nomad to the Hells Angels, but this is a conflict largely fought between associates, not full members of the clubs.
"We can't control the actions of associates who hang out with our club. Mostly we don't even know them," says one Hells Angel.
Once police arrested two alleged Hells Angels associates last month, the drive-by shootings connected to the bikie conflict ceased, police say.
Senior members of the outlaw world describe this as a political struggle. They have to show the critics that they have a right to exist. This right was upheld by the High Court when South Australia and NSW tried to bring in draconian anti-association laws. The clubs and the UMC effectively won the right to self-regulate but that is now at risk as members and associates engage in selfish acts of public violence.
The depiction of bikies as an anti-social force has been ingrained in public consciousness. And the idea that bikie leaders would stand by as their members run amok is also familiar.
It seems the quality of truth to these stereotypes is still being worked out, by both bikies and the public at large.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/opinion/bikies-bite-over-bad-reputation/story-e6frgd0x-1226347233377
