"Stop ... the bikie cancer" demands Nick Guthrie of Ivanhoe (HS Letters Nov 2). He urges action before "it all becomes too late". He warns the situation here is kin to the drug violence in Mexico.
Doesn't say much for our police or our current laws.
Let's put it in perspective. The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) tells us that over a million Australians hold a licence to ride a motorcycle or scooter. Police have estimated that there are 7000 members of what they call "outlaw motorcycle gangs" in this country.
Do the math. The so-called outlaws are less than half of one percent of the Australian motorcycle & scooter community and then not all club members are criminals.
Enforce the current laws. Lock the crims up whether they are on a bike or in a car. But don't introduce police-state laws based on prejudice and hysteria, not fact.
It's not just in Queensland that riders and civil liberties groups are angry about anti-bike laws. Australia is a free country. We want it to stay that way for all Australians.
Damien Codognotto Independent Riders' Group Melbourne
The Baxter Tavern (hotel) is on the Mornington Peninsular in Victoria.
Motorbike colours and logos are banned.
326,000 Victorians are licenced to ride motorcycles & scooters. Then there's the interstate and international tourers.
Riders come from both genders, all walks of life and all age groups.
From all accounts, even a bike funeral party was told to leave their
jackets and hats outside the Baxter Tavern this week. These people
are welcomed at pubs and RSLs all over the Peninsula.
If the Baxter Tavern did this to people wearing religeous garb,
footy colours, military uniforms or whatever, there would be an
outcry.
This pub's dress code plainly discriminates against an entire segment
of our society because of their choice of transport and dress.
Businesses like the Baxter Tavern put signs up inviting the public in
to spend their money. www.baxtertavern.com.au says. "Our public bar is the place to enjoy a quick meal and a drink or two with your mates."
And of the Bistro.
"Come in and enjoy the great atmosphere with our open fireplaces, sensational food and friendly staff and service 7 days a week."
Nothing there about motorcycle & scooter riders being banned.
You don't get the ugly truth till you arrive and see the sign on the door.
I bet the people at the Baxter Tavern don't mind bikies when they are
driving CFA trucks to protect them against fires, when they are
getting out of an ambulance to save a life or when they are setting up
their mortgage at a bank.
If riders are as clean, neat and well-behaved as other patrons, I
don't believe the Baxter Tavern has the right to ban people
with this type of dress code. It is obvious discrimination. Even
if it is within the letter of the law, this is morally wrong.
Damien Codognotto OAM
Spokesman
Independent Riders' Group
This Queensland legislative crackdown on bikies is very dangerous to our democracy. If you want Australia to remain a free country these police-state laws Queensland is pushing have to be stopped. They have to be stopped in the media, in the courts and at the ballot box.
Don't think this can't happen to me, I'm not a Queenslander. It can. It is. Other states and territories have anti-motorcycle laws they haven't used yet or haven't voted on yet.
If you want to be allowed to ride your motorcycle or without having to report to your local police every time you feel like a ride with a couple of mates, get involved now. Be at a protest ride on Sunday, December 1, 2013. And encourage others to be there, even if they don't ride. Numbers of voters have a direct effect on MPs.
Damien Codognotto OAM Spokesman Independent Riders' Group Melbourne
A SENIOR figure in the Fitzgerald inquiry says the premier's likening of his bikie crackdown to the historic corruption probe is ironic.
Gary Crooke is a former Queensland integrity commissioner and was senior counsel assisting the Fitzgerald inquiry into corruption in the state in the 1980s.
He says Premier Campbell Newman's claim on Thursday that his crackdown on bikies and sex offenders is in the same vein as Tony Fitzgerald's war against corruption is ironic.
He says the premier's new laws targeting bikie gangs and sex offenders introduce unheard of, draconian penalties.
"It is an irony because what the Fitzgerald inquiry had to grapple with was a government that was just heedless of any fundamental rights," he told ABC radio.
"If it wanted to do things it would push ahead no matter what."
Mr Newman told parliament Queensland was facing a similar situation today with criminal gangs, as it was in the 1980s with corruption.
"We have a similar situation today. Not in government, not in public administration, but with criminal gang activity within our state," he told parliament.
"We are going to fight back. That's what this is all about."
Attorney-General Jarrod Bleijie said Queenslanders would one day applaud Mr Newman for being courageous, just like Mr Fitzgerald.
"They will be saying in 25 years that this premier, this government has the guts and the determination to rid this state of criminal gangs once and for all," he told parliament.
Queensland Police want recreational motorcycle riders to give them a call before heading out on the roads, to avoid law-abiding citizens being “harassed” by police.
The proposal was discussed at a private meeting between Queensland Police Minister Jack Dempsey, senior police and rider groups including the Australian Motorcycle Council, which represents recreational riders and outlaw motorcycle clubs.
Authorities and the council spent more than an hour thrashing out issues surrounding the government's tough new bikie laws at Parliament House on Thursday.
Outlaw clubs – such as the Hells Angels and the Bandidos – were not invited.
On Friday, Opposition police spokesman Bill Byrne received 10,000 signatures on a petition from casual motorcyclists complaining about harassment by police cracking down on outlaw motorcycle cycle gangs.
AMC spokeswoman Eva Cripps said there had been a “huge escalation” of recreational riders being pulled over and unnecessarily searched by police in the last three weeks
Police say they know who the [outlaw club] members are, yet they find it difficult to identify them because they don't wear their colours any more. The only option is to pull over all riders,” she said.
Ms Cripps said the council was fundamentally against the idea of riders needing to inform police before heading out in groups, but said fed-up clubs were likely to support the scheme.
“The clubs will let the police know what they're doing to stop the harassment... We're quite concerned about the fact that people riding a legal form of transport have to report into police to stop themselves being harassed,” she said.
Mr Dempsey said the meeting between authorities and the AMC was productive.
He said the finer points of the notification scheme were yet to be worked out, but flagged the possibility of clubs being able to use the internet to register rides with police.
“I think there is going to be a greater interaction and greater understanding of legal motorcycle groups and associate clubs in the future,” Mr Dempsey said.
“These aren't the people that we are targeting. We are targeting the criminal gangs and thugs, and we make no apologies. We're going hard, we're going fast, and we're going to go further than ever before in relation to getting rid of these parasites on the streets of Queensland.”
Deputy Queensland Police Commissioner Brett Pointing, the head of the state-wide Operation Resolve, said most officers had a “limited knowledge” of legitimate motorcycle groups.
“One of the strategies gang members have used is to de-identify themselves straight away and that's meant we've had to undertake many interceptions throughout Queensland,” he said.
