BIKIE WARS WE WON’T GIVE THEM FREE RIDE
Cops vow to put brakes on Glitter Strip threats
MOVE over Bandidos – the Villains have arrived.
Five years on from the infamous Broadbeach bikie brawl, the Gold Coast faces a new threat – and police a new challenge – from emerging gangs such as the Villains.
While it’s unlikely Queensland’s tough bikie laws will allow a repeat of the September 2013 Broadbeach brawl – when a terrifying “lynch mob” of Bandidos stormed a busy dining strip hunting a gang rival and later laid siege to Southport police station – cops say the new wave of gangs are trying to establish a beachhead on the Glitter Strip.
One of Queensland’s top anti-gang cops, Detective Superintendent Roger Lowe, revealed the latest threat in an exclusive interview with the Gold Coast Bulletin to mark the fifth anniversary of the brawl which ushered in Australia’s harshest bikie laws.
He says while outlaw motorcycle gang membership has plummeted in Queensland since 2013, gangs like the Villains are seeking to muscle in on traditional bikie turf.
Despite having been driven underground, established gangs such as the Bandidos, Hells Angels and Rebels remain highly active, police say. But they have vowed to smash “new” and “old” gangs, using the Palaszczuk Government’s “strong” anti-gang laws which replaced the Newman government’s controversial VLAD legislation in 2016.
Supt Lowe said Queensland’s bikie landscape had altered significantly since the Broadbeach brawl, with a “genuine reduction” in gang membership. Recent figures put the number of “patched”’ bikies across the state at about 700, down from 1158 in 2013.
“We’re seeing an increase in disassociation (from gangs) and a decrease in membership,” said Supt Lowe, who heads the Organised Crime Gangs Group.
He said the latest anti-gang laws, which prohibit bikies from flaunting gang colours and paraphernalia in public and consorting with criminals, have been instrumental in reducing gang membership.
Bikies could no longer legally parade gang apparel as a show of force and intimidation – and those who did were being charged. Under the LNP, bikies were banned from wearing their colours only in licensed venues.
“We no longer see – within the community, licensed premises, on motorbikes and in cars – those persons wearing their colours,” Supt Lowe said.
“No longer can these individuals parade their membership to intimidate the public.
“There’s a lot of meaning behind some of the patches they wear that signal to other members that they’re prone to violence. Disturbingly, a number of patches signal violence or denigration towards women. You can get a patch for gang-raping a woman.”
More than 30 bikies had been charged for wearing gang paraphernalia in public since the Serious and Organised Crime Legislation Amendment Bill came into force in late 2016. None of those were wearing actual colours – only paraphernalia such as rings and T-shirts.
Supt Lowe said six people had been charged under consorting laws, which carry up to three years’ jail, while about 800 consorting warning notices had been issued – more than 200 on the Gold Coast alone.
Under the legislation, people associating with “recognised offenders” have to be officially warned before they