All bikies are terrorists, and so are you
The dust has settled on the state’s ‘bikie laws’ now riding under the sun.
But one inconsistency between the media-phrased ‘bikie laws’ and the Crimes (Criminal Organisations Control) Act 2009 remains: the word ‘bikie’ doesn’t appear anywhere in the Act.
The ‘blanket legislation’ forbids association and communication between a ‘declared organisation’ that Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione and one Supreme Court Judge suspect of criminal activity.
Members face two to five years in jail, and have assets seized. In a Canadian model of the law, associations would have a fair hearing before a jury.
Laws to outlaw bikies, as such, would be inherently discriminatory. But a media witch hunt for two-wheelers followed by political rhetoric and anti-liberty legislation is part of a dangerous ‘tabloid-political complex’ that has emerged in Australian law-making.
Media headlines fuelled these laws, spurred on by politicians. Premier Nathan Rees told the NSW Parliament: “For all their rough appearance, bikies are also sophisticated criminals who launder their money through a variety of businesses.”
Not to be out-done, Opposition Leader Barry O’Farrell told the same grey-suit-wearing bunch: “I would have no problem if you put all the motorcycle gang members in two rooms and allowed them to shoot themselves to death.”
Bikies might say the same about politicians, but who would publish that?
Incidents involving bikie gangs come in all forms. Take 70-something Randall ‘Animal’ Nelson, the founding member of the Kings Cross Bikers, an association of about 20 charity workers. He wears a bunch of badges on his leather vest, including an Order of Australia Medal presented in 2004.
“I don’t care what politicians or cops think about me… There’s no way I’m taking my vest off or being told who I can’t talk to,” Nelson said.
He does ‘toy runs’ to children’s hospitals, unofficial outreach programs for the area’s homeless and drop-offs to the aged.
Reverend Bill Crews, of the Exodus Foundation, said, “The Kings Cross Bikers are just characters”, and Pastor Graham Long of Wayside Chapel said, “Animal’s one of the most docile, kind-hearted people you’ll ever meet.”
But the Attorney General and NSW Police have failed to guarantee their safety. And they can’t: the law applies to every individual in this state. Nobody is immune.
A spokesperson for the Attorney General said: “Just because someone’s involved in charity work doesn’t mean they’re not involved in criminal activity. They could be disguising themselves… It’s a matter for police to assess them.”
Kings Cross Commander, Superintendant Tony Crandell, would not discuss the Kings Cross Bikers specifically. “Any illegal or anti-social behaviour will not be tolerated and will be investigated to the full extent of the law,” he said.
NSW Police has formed Strike Force Raptor: a new team of 75 police officers set up by the Gangs Squad to crack down on gang violence. Former AFP Commissioner Mick Keelty calls all this “very appropriate” but as Nicholas Broadbent wrote in newmatilda.com, the laws are framed on anti-terrorism laws. What was once reserved for ‘terrorists’, is now a legislative benchmark for other laws.
Civil liberty groups point out that freedom of association in Australia is not protected by a bill of rights. What is now legislated is the right for the state to declare that we cannot associate.
Gang members have been arrested under old laws: over-legislation of anti-association laws is political compensation for a police force increasingly impotent against the ‘king pins’ of organised crime.
The entire population are now terrorists before state law: bikies are just obviously so.
