The ABC's 7.30 has gained exclusive access to a rare meeting where the heads of rival motorcycle gangs have vowed to fight new laws designed to halt the wave of bikie related violence sweeping the country.What started out with a few shootings in western and south-western Sydney several months ago has erupted into a spate of drive-by attacks.
Senior members of the country's most notorious bikie groups - the Hells Angels, The Rebels, The Lone Wolves, the Commancheros, the Nomads, the Black Uhlans - gathered on Monday night in a clubhouse in Western Sydney.
At the meeting, several of the bikies said the violence showed the code of honour had broken down between gxxgs.
"Enough is enough. We have got to start saying something, and unless we say something we are going to get bent over left, right, and centre," one representative said.
"These people fighting over turf - there ain't going to be a turf to fight over."
"I'll tell you why these shootings are happening: it's because nobody follows the rules anymore," said another.
"It used to be, for bikies: no shooting houses, no shooting in front of family members, no attacking businesses.
"[There's] no respect mate, no respect, family members are gonna get hit, someone's wife is gonna die."
In the month of April there were 23 such shootings in Sydney alone, and there have been over 60 since the start of the year.
Homes have been sprayed with bullets while children slept inside, and there have been several related shootings in South Australia, Western Australia and Queensland.
New South Wales police are pointing the finger at two rival bikie gangs - the Hells Angels and the Nomads - who have been locked in fierce conflict over numbers and turf: the epicentre of the illicit drug trade, Kings Cross.
'Draconian' legislation
But it took what these traditional foes say is an extraordinary act of police provocation to get them to meet.
Starting on Friday morning, NSW Police launched a 72 hour blitz - raiding more than 1,000 homes, properties and businesses, all allegedly connected to members of bikie gxxgs.
And in a bid to return law and order, several states have now introduced legislation that would criminalise membership and association with bikie gxxgs.
At the meeting, the bikies were outspoken on the causes behind the violence, but united in their opposition to the laws.
"I am worried that anyone who rides a bike, happens to wear a leather jacket, you are going to be targets as being a gun-toting assassin," said one representative.
In Western Australia, the sentiment is the same. This week bikie groups united in Perth to protest against the proposed new laws.
"It is so good to see you have united on a common cause, a common issue, because this issue is bigger than all the other small issues," one member at the meeting said.
"If you don't stand up for yourselves, if you don't continue this fight, it'll just pass as another draconian piece of legislation."
But despite previous attempts to criminalise membership and association failing in the High Court, authorities are vowing the crackdown will continue.
NSW Police Minister Mick Gallacher said he was under no illusions that while the statute may be redrafted, the fight will be a fierce one.
"I've got no doubt they will try to challenge it, they've got lots of money, lots of bravado, but what they have now worked out is the New South Wales Police Force is supported by government and will continue to put pressure on," he said.
'War stage'
Whether the laws stand up to the challenge or not, former NSW assistant police commissioner Clive Small says Sydney is one step away from a full-scale gxxg war.
"I think we are and it could take only one incident to step it up," he said.
"We have seen a lot of drive-by shootings, and if it was the case, in one shooting, that a family or a child was killed or injured, it could throw you in to war stage."
Commissioner Small says the past decade has seen a deepening of links between bikie gxxgs and organised crime.
"The past 10 to 15 years has seen quite significant changes in outlaw motorcycle gxxgs, a lot of traditional rules and regulations broken down," he said.
"What you have now are bikies forming alliances with groups, not only Middle Eastern crime gangs, but other groups never dealt with in the past."
But he says the new laws will not solve the current spate of shootings.
"What we seem to be looking for is a silver bullet law, we have introduced legislation, now we can go to lunch.
"The solution to the bikie is not all the new laws, the solution is the enforcement of existing laws in a long term investigation."
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-05-01/bikies-unite-to-oppose-crackdown/3983644?section=nsw
But it took what these traditional foes say is an extraordinary act of police provocation to get them to meet.
Starting on Friday morning, NSW Police launched a 72 hour blitz - raiding more than 1,000 homes, properties and businesses, all allegedly connected to members of bikie gxxgs.
And in a bid to return law and order, several states have now introduced legislation that would criminalise membership and association with bikie gxxgs.
At the meeting, the bikies were outspoken on the causes behind the violence, but united in their opposition to the laws.
"I am worried that anyone who rides a bike, happens to wear a leather jacket, you are going to be targets as being a gun-toting assassin," said one representative.
In Western Australia, the sentiment is the same. This week bikie groups united in Perth to protest against the proposed new laws.
"It is so good to see you have united on a common cause, a common issue, because this issue is bigger than all the other small issues," one member at the meeting said.
"If you don't stand up for yourselves, if you don't continue this fight, it'll just pass as another draconian piece of legislation."
But despite previous attempts to criminalise membership and association failing in the High Court, authorities are vowing the crackdown will continue.
NSW Police Minister Mick Gallacher said he was under no illusions that while the statute may be redrafted, the fight will be a fierce one.
"I've got no doubt they will try to challenge it, they've got lots of money, lots of bravado, but what they have now worked out is the New South Wales Police Force is supported by government and will continue to put pressure on," he said.
'War stage'
Whether the laws stand up to the challenge or not, former NSW assistant police commissioner Clive Small says Sydney is one step away from a full-scale gxxg war.
"I think we are and it could take only one incident to step it up," he said.
"We have seen a lot of drive-by shootings, and if it was the case, in one shooting, that a family or a child was killed or injured, it could throw you in to war stage."
Commissioner Small says the past decade has seen a deepening of links between bikie gxxgs and organised crime.
"The past 10 to 15 years has seen quite significant changes in outlaw motorcycle gxxgs, a lot of traditional rules and regulations broken down," he said.
"What you have now are bikies forming alliances with groups, not only Middle Eastern crime gangs, but other groups never dealt with in the past."
But he says the new laws will not solve the current spate of shootings.
"What we seem to be looking for is a silver bullet law, we have introduced legislation, now we can go to lunch.
"The solution to the bikie is not all the new laws, the solution is the enforcement of existing laws in a long term investigation."
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-05-01/bikies-unite-to-oppose-crackdown/3983644?section=nsw
