AUSTRALIA - Debate Over Bikies In Oz Continues

OFF THE WIRE
agingrebel.com

There is finally some mainstream opposition to the Australian State of Queensland’s Hitlerian anti-bikie law, the Vicious Lawless Association Disestablishment Act of 2013. The law was written by a couple of politicians named Campbell Newman and Jarrod Bleijie. Newman is the Premier of Queensland. Bleijie (photo above) is his Attorney General. The VLAD Act became law without public debate.
But two days ago Gary Johns, a former politician who is now a professional opinionator, excoriated the VLAD Act in The Australian, a Sydney newspaper that is one of the Australian newspapers of record.

Johns Says

Johns guesses that “The theory seems to be that jailing bikies for a long time for the crimes they commit will stop the crimes for which bikies cannot be caught” and notes with particular contempt that imprisoned bikers will be compelled to wear “fluoro pink” uniforms.
Johns calls the VLAD Act “the mother of all scare campaigns. Scare campaigns are normally a diversion. Newman does not need a diversion; he has serious work in paying down Labor debt, including preparing government assets for sale and convincing a skeptical public of the benefit. There is plenty of bread; the government does not need to produce circuses.”
Like any rational person, Johns sees the injustice in automatically adding 15 years to the sentences of anyone accused of belonging to a motorcycle club and 25 years to the sentence of any club officer “even if the person is not sentenced to a period of imprisonment for the original offence.”
He argues that “Queensland Police data showed the three most common offences committed by the outlaw motorcycle gangs were breach of bail, unlicensed or disqualified driving, and low-level possession of dangerous drugs.” And, he concludes his brief essay by suggesting Newman, Bleijie and the rest of the Queensland “cabinet should dress in pink until they are rehabilitated.”
You can read Johns’ essay here.

Bleijie Bleats

In another op-ed piece in tomorrow’s Australian Bleijie says Johns’ “lack of intelligence regarding the threat posed by criminal motorcycle gangs borders on the astonishing. Their propensity for violence, intimidation and illegality are well-documented around the world.” Bleijie doesn’t bother to mention that all this criminal dangerousness is documented by morons, scoundrels and hacks with names like Julien Sher, Jay Dobyns and “Charles Falco.”
Most of Bleijie’s rantings reflect circular reasoning and his personal opinions betray an utter lack of actual life experience. He cites hyperbolic accusations made by groups like the Australian Crime Commission and he seems to actually believe that a thousand injustices are necessary to repay the injustice done to “people such as Kathy Devitt. She was shot in the leg, in the middle of the day, while shopping on the Gold Coast. She was allegedly collateral damage, caught in the cross-fire of escalating conflict between rival bikie gangs. Try telling her gangs are not a problem.”
The Kathy Devitt example is reminiscent of the tragedy of Cynthia Garcia in Arizona more than a decade ago. Garcia was murdered by a former Hells Angel and crank fiend named Mike Kramer who soon fled to Los Angeles. Kramer made a deal with the ATF which protected and paid Kramer to help the Bureau “get” other Angels.
Bleijie is a politician and he sounds like it. “The Newman government has taken the strong, necessary action that Queenslanders demanded and deserve,” he brags at one point. “We have brought in, with Labor Party support, a range of reforms that are hitting criminal gangs head on and from within. We deliberately and unapologetically made the legislation and penalties severe to send a message to the bikie gangs that their time in Queensland was over.”
You can read Bleijie’s essay here if you’re in the mood.