OFF THE WIRE
http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/police-lookout-biker-gang-4138701
Police will be monitoring a biker gang holding a poker run in the North Island today.
The Rebel Motorcycle Club has been trying to break into New Zealand from its stronghold in Australia.
Whangarei is one of the places where police are tracking the gang's movements.
It is feared today's poker run, in which the bikers draw a playing card at set checkpoints, from Whangarei to Paihia and back could double up as a recruitment drive.
Earlier this year police said they were cracking
down on the gang.
In an incident at Auckland Airport an Australian Rebels member was turned away upon arrival.
Police said the gang had been involved in serious violence as well as drug manufacturing and trafficking in Australia.
Gang patch ruling worries Wanganui police..
Police are hoping gangs wearing their colours won't flood Wanganui's streets after a court overturned the city's ban on gang patches.
The council will meet on Monday to discuss appealing the High Court ruling and has vowed to bring back the ban.
The bylaw banning gang patches in Wanganui came into force in 2009.
Now there has been victory for the Hells Angels gang that took the legal challenge, even if only for a short while.
"What they don't realise is that Wanganui wants this gang patch ban and the key point of the judgement was that we have the right to make one. It just disagreed with the way we went about it," said Michael Laws, former Wanganui mayor.
The High Court said the council did not specify places in the city where the ban would operate and did not consider gangs' rights to freedom of expression.
"Council did look at civil rights of Hells Angels gang members. We decided that their civil rights were not as important as our community's," said Laws.
The city police chief said gang members wearing their patches in the city would not now be arrested. But he said he hopes that doesn't signal a stampede of gangsters.
The council has 20 days to lodge an appeal and will decide on Monday whether to that, make a new bylaw or just accept the ruling."I suspect that our community would not be happy about that given there is widespread feeling that this bylaw has worked," said Annette Main, Wanganui mayor.
One man said he's totally opposed to the council changing the current by law because "It's been a good thing".
A woman said she's afraid the gangs might see might see the court ruling as an opportunity to express themselves with their patches again, "and we really don't want that".
Although the gang patch ban is now invalid, the council's legal advisers say any previous convictions under the bylaw will remain.