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Academic
reveals causes of bikie warfare - 9th August 1999
- PM
(Credit:
Australian Broadcasting Authority)
Reporter: Mark Willacy
COMPERE:
Let's go now to the suggestions that Australia's
biker gangs are on the verge of all out warfare.
Just like recent behaviour by companies, the unions
and the professional footballers, it seems it's
all about amalgamation with a hopeful business
plan well and truly behind it. A trusted academic,
who's the eyes and ears of bikie behaviour outside
their own secret world, tells PM that there will
be more incidents in the turf wars, as about 35
of the clubs are rolled back into just six. In
Victoria over the past 24 hours members of the
Bandido Group have been targeted with bomb attacks.
These follow the torture and murder of a Comanchero
and the firebombing of the gang club house in
Sydney.
In
Adelaide, too, there've been arson and bashing
incidents over the past couple of weeks. So serious
is the game becoming that the Victoria Police
Service has set up a special task force to deal
with it. But the National Crime Authority is holding
back for the time being, saying at this stage
it's maintaining a watching brief as State police
services deal with the action. Mark Willacy in
Melbourne:
MARK
WILLACY: Before he was murdered and dumped on
his estranged wife's driveway, Peter Ledger suffered
hours of torture. The body of the 44-year-old
Comanchero's member was found last Wednesday with
several broken limbs consistent, police say, with
a severe bashing with a blunt object.
A
day later a Sydney club house belonging to the
Rebels' Motorcycle Gang was burnt down in what
investigators believe was an attempt to implicate
the rival club. The Rebels have also suffered
losses in Adelaide. Last month the club's headquarters
was bombed. Now, it seems, the trouble has spread
to Victoria.
KAREN
EASTWOOD: We just heard one almighty loud bank.
That was it. The whole house shook - the windows,
everything. Just, the whole car was just totally
gutted. Unbelievable.
MARK
WILLACY: Geelong resident, Karen Eastwood, who
awoke about 4 o'clock this morning to the sound
of her neighbour's car exploding. Inside her neighbour's
house were five people who police say are associated
with the Bandidos Motorcycle Gang. Just 24 hours
before, another bomb had exploded outside the
Bandido's Geelong club house.
Victoria
Police today announced the establishment of a
special task force to investigate the two blasts.
The head of the organised Crime Squad, Inspector
Andrew Allen.
ANDREW
ALLEN: Well obviously the last thing we want to
see is some form of retribution by different people.
The concern is that whilst there may be internal
problems within a motorcycle club, as they would
term it, other people can get involved. We've
seen that historically and we don't want to see
that again.
MARK
WILLACY: But according to Australia's leading
expert on bikie gangs, the violence is all part
of a dramatic shift in power between the different
clubs. Professor Arthur Veno is the Director of
Monash University's Centre for Police and Justice
Studies, and he's been researching and surveying
gangs and their members for 16 years.
ARTHUR
VENO: The main reason is that there's an amalgamation
in process, which has been going on for about
four years now, and it's ... the reduction of
the number of large formal outlaw motorcycle clubs
from around 35 to 6, and the battles that are
occurring are occurring around control of space
and, you know, who's the dominant sort of groups
based upon ... and also a survival of the patches,
as it were, the colourful patches the outlaw motorcycle
clubs wear.
MARK
WILLACY: Gang researcher, Arthur Veno. However,
a former member of an outlawed gang who's now
a director of Geelong's Harley Owner's Club, Gavin
Rowe, told ABC radio today that fears of all out
warfare are totally unfounded.
GAVIN
ROWE: You know, we've got quite a large number
of different clubs around Australia but I would
say all in all most of them, when you get to know
these guys, they're no different to anyone else.
But as far as who was involved in it or who actually
did it, I haven't got a clue.
MARK
WILLACY: The Bandidos are just one gang trying
to assert their dominance in this war of attrition.
The other big players include the Coffin Cheaters
and the Comancheros. But Monash University's Arthur
Veno says it's the rebels which have the largest
Australian presence.
ARTHUR
VENO: There's no doubt that the Rebels are numerically
the largest club and are winning the battle, as
it were, for the numbers.
MARK
WILLACY: So, how long do you think it will take
to sort out these amalgamations, and how much
more violence do you think we'll see before it
is sorted out?
ARTHUR
VENO: 2001 should be when it all settles down.
That was predicted a number of years ago as the
amount of time it would take for this to actually
settle down. I'd say there's ... it's a real cause
for concern because it's a sort of a crescendo
right at the moment and I would suspect over the
next two years we'll probably see a bit of a presence
in the violence in those particular clubs while
they sort this matter out.
JOHN
HIGHFIELD: Professor Arthur Veno is Director of
Monash University's Centre for Police and Justice
Studies in Melbourne. He's also a well known researcher
of what goes on inside the motorcycle gangs there.
He was speaking with Mark Willacy.
Links:
Media
websites
Australian
Broadcasting Corporation
The
Sydney Morning Herald
Websites
Brothers
at War (movie website)
Bandidoes
MC Australia - The History of The Bandidoes
Bike
Tour websites
Australian
Harley Tours and Motorcycle Rentals
Eastcoast
Motorcycle Tours
Articles
Bikie
massacre movie planned, by Karl Quinn - 23rd June
2002
Bandidoes
MC Australia - The History of The Bandidoes
Profiles
ABC
Gary
Young
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