‘Everyone is coming against us’
The head of one of New Zealand’s largest gang chapters has offered an olive branch to his arch nemesis: Black Power. The reason? Concern at an invasion of Australian biker gangs. Florence Kerr reports.
As he drags his finger across the wooden table, it reveals nothing. No dust, no crumbs. Nothing.
He tells a story of why it’s important to do the little things right, even if others cannot see it.
‘‘My mother was polishing her china one day and I said to her: ‘Mum, why are you dusting those ones? No-one can see them – they’re on the bottom shelf.’
‘‘My mother turned to me as she was polishing one of the cups and said: ‘I will know, son. I will know’.’’
Sonny Fatu has ordered his life like his mother’s china cabinet. Every area is regularly checked for dust, flaws and breaks.
And so Fatu is looking to fix the largest crack, the one that has separated the country’s two largest gangs for 50 years. The result could be the biggest gang shake-up in New Zealand history.
The reason: the influx of Australian motorcycle gangs.
Revered in the gang world, Fatu is the president of Mongrel Mob Waikato, which boasts 11 branches across the country and overseas. Now he wants to make Black Power an ally.
At a recent gang hui he made a bold proposal for the traditional rivals to collaborate against international gangs.
Black Power hasn’t agreed – but they are talking.
Black Power life member Denis O’Reilly says the gangs have matured. They’ve got together in the past but this is a different kind of partnership never before proposed.
He says his main objective was to open communication lines with Mongrel Mob Waikato leadership so that when things occur they can talk directly.
The two discussing big issues is not new, he says – he has been involved in a number of initiatives bringing the gangs together in the past.
‘‘The demography of the gang is now similar to the demography of Ma¯ ori society in general, so when we were all young and butting heads we were all 18 or 19 and now you’ve got 66-year-old grandfathers with degrees. We are in a space where constructive conversations can take place.’’
In the early 2000s, O’Reilly was involved in bringing the opposing gangs together in Hawke’s Bay for workshops.
‘‘We had the O¯ ta¯ tara Accord where we took 30 Black Power fathers and their sons and 30 Mongrel Mob fathers and their sons and we sat with police on O¯ ta¯ tara – an old whare – under the Nga¯ ti Kahungunu flag. It was every Mongrel Mob chapter and every Black Power chapter in the Hawke’s Bay.
‘‘More interestingly was the technique that we used. We got people reading pretty deep philosophical literature from Plato – real thinkers – right through to Martin Luther King to Claudia Orange.
‘‘Although these guys may not be highly educated, they are highly intelligent. The accord came to the conclusion that whenever anything negative was going the leadership would ring each other and we would sort it out, because often these things could trigger off after a silly little dispute that then goes on Facebook.
‘‘If you think of young Kastro’s death, had there been an intervention earlier on that would never have happened.’’
And it was the death of Mongrel Mob member Kevin Ratana (Kastro) in Whanganui in August that brought the two warring factions together this time. The leaders say they are done with the violence.
At a meeting initiated by Mongrel Mob Waikato in Hamilton in September, Black Power – including O’Reilly, and prominent leaders Eugene Ryder and Sarge McKinnon – met with the Mob to discuss Ratana’s killing and to formulate a way forward.
It was there that the Mob, led by Fatu, discussed the influx of Australian gangs and its effects. Fatu argues the time for change is now, as international gangs attempt a modern-day land grab.
Tougher laws introduced in Australia in November 2014 gave authorities more power to revoke residency visas and deport troublesome bikies.
One result has been expats deported back to New Zealand – including patched members of outlaw motorcycle gangs, such as the Rebels Comancheros and Banditos.
Those deportations concern Fatu, who has more than 50 years’ hands-on experience in the gang world.
‘‘New Zealand will witness organised crime and gang violence on a level they have never seen before. Worst case scenario – a lot of trouble. A lot.’’
Police Association president Chris Cahill says the gang landscape is changing and not for the better.
Deported bikie gang members came with money and contacts. ‘‘They have reach right up through Asia and Europe and across America,’’ he says. ‘‘It’s just adding to the problems New Zealand has that we now become part of that international gang network . . . we aren’t immune.
‘‘They’re better financed to start with, they’re more organised and they’ve learnt to combat police methods previously – so yes, that does increase the risk.’’
But Cahill says Fatu’s dream of seeing New Zealand’s two biggest gangs come together to fight insurgents is not the answer. ‘‘Two wrongs don’t make a right.’’
The police have beefed up numbers in their organised crime units, committing 700 new police officers to combat the bikie gang invasion, he says. That creates a competition. ‘‘One’s grown to combat the risk of the other. It is a big concern and that’s why the police getting these extra resources is good, but the trouble for the longer term is that [we] can’t just tackle the offending. What we need to look at is what’s attracting these people to the gangs in the first place.’’
And it’s not just the outsiders. The long-established New Zealand gangs remained a criminal problem. Ethnic gangs are modelled around family ties and community groups, but Cahill says that doesn’t mean they are good for those groups.
‘‘They still make money selling drugs, doing standover tactics and bringing pain into those communities, but the fact they’re talking about getting together shows how competitive those markets are getting, and that creates a real risk of gang violence. And unfortunately the public and police officers are caught in the middle of that.
‘‘It’s just a case of patch protection, it’s not really trying to stand up for their community, it’s really just protecting their patch so they can do their unlawful activities without that competition.’’
Aware of police hostility, Fatu agrees it’s about patch protection – but denies greater Mongrel Mob and Black Power ties would be about the drug trade.
He believes the Government may even look at introducing a non-association law, and not just to combat the Australian interlopers.
‘‘So I know with our Government, perhaps, that they will probably adapt some of these laws that they have going on in Australia to try and combat these gangs that are coming over with these international networks.
‘‘The politicians would need a reason to adopt these laws and [there would be no better excuse] than the Black Power and Mongrel Mob going to war.
‘‘If we continue to put each other in prisons – us and the Blacks, putting each other in the urupa, graveyards – land will be freed up and this is what [foreign gangs] need to establish.’’
A spokesperson for Justice
Minister Andrew Little said no legislative change is currently planned in relation to character requirements for migrants or to institute a new deportation regime.
There have been unsuccessful attempts by the Australian bikie gangs to set up in Fatu’s patch.
‘‘Believe you me, the vultures have been circling,’’ he says.
‘‘We do have some that give it a go, and it’s always,’’ he shrugs and says with a smile that doesn’t reach his eyes, ‘‘Good luck . . .’’
He believes if the Mongrel Mob and Black Power don’t reach a pact, brazen public killings such as in Australia could be on the cards for New Zealand.
‘‘When there is dysfunction – whether it be a dysfunctional family, a dysfunctional workplace, even a dysfunctional gang – there is no order. There is no direction, there are no codes.
‘‘It’s hard to keep a tidy house.’’
And the patches that the Mob and Black Power once ruled have not always been neatly divided.
Fatu is honest about that. At the meeting between the two gangs – initially organised to discuss a way forward for the Whanganui community after Ratana’s death – the conversation turned to the bigger picture and a willingness on the Mob’s part to work together.
Opening those discussion was senior Waikato Mongrel Mob member Mark Griffith, whose family were targeted in a gang shooting in July that resulted in the death of his daughter’s partner, Robert Nelson, 23. Police are yet to make an arrest.
Griffith told gang leaders it was time the fighting stopped.
‘‘Do we still continue bumping heads as we always have,’’ Griffith asked.
‘‘Or do we try and find the common ground, the common area? That common area shouldn’t be the urupa where we visit our brotherhood.
‘‘Let’s be honest about it – society love that to be the place because it makes it easier for them to legislate . . . Where does that lead – Waikeria, Springhill, Mt Eden, Wiri, the camps down in Turangi?’’
O’Reilly spoke at the meeting and described the changing conversation as significant.
‘‘I don’t think there’s a word, metaphor, idea, simile that I didn’t agree with – that’s a big picture,’’ he says. ‘‘It’s clear that we are of a similar mind.
‘‘There is no doubt you have woken up a few brain cells there . . . and that there is a longer conversation and a bigger picture and a mutually satisfying future for us all.’’
Renowned Black Power president Sarge McKinnon felt the ko¯ rero was timely.
A Black Power member for more than 40 years, McKinnon says his job has been to lead war parties, usually against the Mongrel Mob.
‘‘I no longer see the Mongrel Mob as my enemy. I see you fullas as my brothers,’’ McKinnon says. ‘‘We are the two biggest organisations in this country who represent every iwi, every hapu¯ , from the top of the North Island to the bottom of the South Island, no-one else has ever been able to do that – only us.
‘‘That’s one of our greatest assets for going forward in the world, in this country.
‘‘Everyone is coming against us. Everyone that is not Black Power or Mongrel Mob, we have to consider to be against us.’’
Fatu says while he was optimistic before the meeting, he knows further hui are needed. Forty years of anger cannot be undone in one or two meetings.
But he plans to see the process through to the end.
He felt recent interactions with Black Power indicated the time was right to start the bigger-picture talk. From the reaction, he was right.
‘‘I knew there would be a time that a healing process will come,’’ he says. ‘‘Because living in pain and misery for the long term – well, you know where that’s going to take you.’’
The police aren’t buying it. Cahill says the meeting’s true focus was about kicking out the competition.
New Zealand gangs are just as bad as their Australian counterparts, he says.
‘‘Unfortunately, history shows gangs have talked about trying to work with the community. History does show that action hasn’t happened in a consistent way.
‘‘Until they prove that to me, they don’t warrant trust, as far as that goes.’’
Fatu says the police need to try a new tack. ‘‘They have to talk to us – we are the second line of defence here. They can only do so much.
‘‘It’s like I said, you have to change the way you view things. If you always see it the way you’ve done it, you will always get what you always got. So change your sense of focus. You will not get effective results if you don’t expect them.’’
As he examines his finger for dust from his table top, he finds nothing. ‘‘It’s the little things,’’ Fatu says. ‘‘They matter the most.’’
‘‘It’s really just protecting their patch so they can do their unlawful activities without that competition.’’
Police Association president Chris Cahill