Friday, June 10, 2011
Australia - Police must win this bikie war
OFF THE WIRE
A POLICE raid on a Hells Angels clubhouse yesterday proved to be only a skirmish in the war on bikies promised before last year's state election.
Heavily armed police went to the fortified clubhouse and three houses in Melbourne's suburbs but found only a shotgun and a stash of cannabis, which leads to concerns that outlaw motorcycle gangs are on the alert.
The Hells Angels will say, of course, that little was found because there is little to find.
Legislation to allow police to tear down fortifications at clubhouses is still to be finalised and gangs in the meantime are preparing a legal challenge.
If raids produce little more than was found, it is unlikely it would be enough to activate legislation similar to that thrown out by the South Australian Supreme Court in that state's fight against bikie gangs.
Laws to enable police to crack down on gangs in Victoria were to be passed by the Labor Government in the weeks before the election in November.
That did not happen and then opposition leader Ted Baillieu promised sterner action under a Coalition government.
That is still to happen and in the meantime gangs such as the Hells Angels, the Bandidos and the Commancheros, to name only a few, have had time to move guns and other weapons and drugs.
Members of Task Force Echo, which was formed in February to crack down on outlaw bikies, carried out yesterday's raids with Australian Federal Police from the serious and organised crime unit.
The raids follow serious assaults and firearms offences and allegations of drug trafficking by gangs, but police face resourceful adversaries and will need evidence to make use of the promised laws.
The Baillieu Government is under extreme pressure on its handling of law-and-order issues. The bikie war is one it must win after a lack of action led to outlaw gangs moving to Victoria.
