AUSTRALIA, Bikie gang threat can't be ignored

OFF THE WIRE
REPORTS of the predicted consolidation and growth of bikie gxxxs into super gxxxs is both frightening and worrying.

Frightening in that the potential for criminality of these outlaw gxxxs will be greatly multiplied.

Worrying in that it seems the police and the Government are doing nothing to prevent the phenomenon.

Last year the Government went to great lengths to show it was being proactive in the face of the danger represented by bikie gxxxs, forcing through legislation designed to facilitate cracking down on this cancer in society.

It hung tough in the face of opposition by biker groups, misguided civil libertarians and even the Opposition LNP.

Attorney-General Cameron Dick said the law was necessary to prevent Queensland becoming a safe haven for such gxxxs.

The law, passed almost a year ago, cleared the way for outlaw motorcycle gxxxs to be declared criminal organisations -- which they are -- and for members to have their movements restricted with control orders.

However since then police and government have sat on their hands and done nothing.

Consolidatio n is a well-documented first step in the process of super bikie gxxxs forming.

The phenomenon of proliferation, expansion and consolidation was first identified and studied in the US and Canada in the '70s and '80s.

The spread of Hells Angles in that era triggered other gangs to unite to fight them and soon dozens of gangs merged into four super gangs -- Hells Angels, Outlaws, Pagans and Bandidos.

Those super gangs spread their tentacles to control huge swathes of territory and in the process transformed themselves into efficient producers and distributors of drugs and have proved almost impervious to legal action to destroy them.

Police must act now to prevent this happening in Queensland.

If, as critics suggest, the anti-bikie law is flawed and will not survive being tested in court and this is why police are not using it, the time to find out is now, not when the gangs have had time to become stronger and more entrenched.

http://www.goldcoast.com.au/article/2010/10/30/267235_editorial-news.html