Like ... My number 3 helmet having been bought from the States, with ONLY a DOT rating ! It's the best helmet I own, but I know it will give the local plod a hard-on, when I'm discovered wearing it !!
FUCK the laws ...
I'm over IT !!
Who wants to come with me ?
But there is a fair proportion of Club members, associates, family, friends, and interested riders that are....
For them...here is the 238 pg report handed down today.
http://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/documents/tableOffice/TabledPapers/2016/5516T432.pdf
No surprise Vlad-Gate is moving into the second day of media saturation now.......
.... still the debate rages as the 'new' measures and 'counter' measures get pitched at each other by the political combatants competing for the 'We're Tougher Award'.
Turns out the ink hasnt even dried on exactly 'what' the 'new' suite of Laws will entail....some parts of VLAD will get impaled, some will stay, and none of it may pass muster
in the House if the minor parties dont jump on board. Either way, the release of Wilsons report has filled up plenty of valuable media space, even tho not everyone
agrees with either side...
http://www.news.com.au/national/queensland/queensland-police-have-everything-the-need-to-beat-bikies-says-expert-despite-repeal-of-antigangs-law/news-story/0fd8f0e792ab4478481d7bee58265659
Just checked latest headline, re: recent shooting in Hunter region ... "Police Believe Victim - Member of Nomads OMCG." I guess Pauly, that he could have possibly STILL been a member of church choir ???
Some of the VLAD penalties are severe, but the Task Force criticism of them is more because they are mandatory. They found it was possible that a person charged under the Act for an offence they committed on their own may not have any admissable evidence on others to provide the authorities which would excuse them from the extra 15 or 25 years. And as the VLAD act is all about incentive to co-operate or else, it fell over in that circumstance. But you are correct, only certain offences committed by certain people are captured by the Act, which was the other reason repeal has been recommended. An aggravated offence has been recommended to replace it with a 15 year sentence for all offenders if they qualify under a new act.
The association component of these laws are also recommended for repeal because they have the effect of criminalising the non criminal. If three members, or associates, or participants in one of the Clubs walk, ride or drive along the street, meet in a cafe or at a sports event, or work together in a public place ...even if they are linked to different clubs, they face criminal association charges that has a presumption against bail and certain imprisonment as a sentence. Some Qlder's have been charged for this offence and a few in SA....although the court proceedings have been adjourned pending this recent Report. The taskforce believes, and rightly so, that having a conviction against your name and imprisonment for merely meeting a friend or two is ludicrous....especially when those same three can stand on the front lawn of a private house alongside another 100 friends and congregate all they want...totally legally !
As a follow on to just what being an 'associate' or 'participant' means I've lifted a page or so from the Task Force Report that covers the topic and also the role of perception....real or exaggerated
PERCEPTION
Public perceptions are a relevant unit of analysis, but only when they are informed and educated. Uninformed public opinion can do little but perpetuate the spread of misinformation and paint a false picture of the true landscape of crime in Queensland.
WHAT INFLUENCES COMMUNITY PERCEPTIONS?
The community draws on a number of sources to construct views and opinions about crime and punishment.
POLITICAL REPRESENTATIONS
Politicians need popular support. Without it they would never be elected. The notion of being tough on crime has fuelled political policy for decades. To be perceived as the opposite – soft on crime – is, as one eminent commentator has remarked, ‘political anathema’.31
The 2013 suite was accompanied by a number of statements from politicians about the presence of OMCG groups in Queensland and the threat they presented to public safety. Their involvement in criminal activity was, it was said, so entrenched and so serious that it warranted extreme measures.32
It is inconceivable that those statements did not have an impact on the way the ‘bikie threat’ was perceived by members of the public.
A report produced for the Council by Senior Criminologist Dr Karen Gelb, the role of the media in crime reporting was discussed in these terms:34
MEDIA PORTRAYALS
Widespread research confirms the integral role that print and electronic news media play in shaping public opinion on crime and justice issues. Their accessibility, popularity and ubiquity means that media outlets are the primary source of information for the large majority of citizens.
That research also shows that inaccuracies or misstatements in media reports and articles can create an artificial public perception of crime and the level of the threat it presents.33
‘Newspaper portrayals of crime stories do not provide a complete and accurate picture of the issue. Papers report selectively, choosing stories, and aspects of stories, with the aim of entertaining more than informing. They tend to focus on unusual, dramatic and violent crime stories, in the process painting a picture of crime for the community that overestimates the prevalence of crime in general and of violent crime in particular. Thus public concerns about crime typically reflect crime as depicted in the media, rather than trends in the actual crime rate.’
(emphasis added)
The QPS and the Queensland Crime Commission published an information paper titled Project Krystal, which was a strategic assessment of organised crime in Queensland.
Project Krystal discussed the way in which organised crime is defined, and noted a preoccupation with presuming OMCGs are the biggest organised crime players.
The report commented that media headlines and the emphasis placed on certain organised crime groups, in particular OMCGs, ‘nurture[s] the perception of the domination of a crime market by particular groups’ – a perception which may not be wholly supported by reliable and accurate information.35
Most Taskforce members accept that there is a commonly held view amongst Queenslanders that OMCGs play a significant and disproportionate role in criminal activity across the state. They are, as a result, perceived by some to be the biggest threat to community safety.
In the face of the statistical evidence, however, a number of Taskforce members have a strong concern that those views are exaggerated or disproportionate.
The law enforcement and legislative approach to criminal organisation offending which underpins the 2013 suite has, it follows, placed considerable focus on an objectively small part of the criminal community with, in proportion, a relatively small number of charges and a very small number of convictions. On any view of all the statistics, OMCGs account for a very small proportion of the overall reported crime in Queensland – definitively, less than 1%.
Statistics appearing in some media outlets from time to time have conveyed a dramatically different picture.42 It has been widely reported, for example, that the ‘demonstrated results of the bikie crackdown’ was evident in ‘the arrest of 2,573 offenders’.43
QPS has clarified these figures in a way which significantly mutes their impact.
The number 2,573 was in fact the number of arrests made where the person arrested was identified as a participant in an OMCG, not the number of individual offenders who had been arrested – nor, necessarily, members of OMCGs.
The figure also contains inherent variables. It is not impossible, for example, that one person has been arrested on multiple separate occasions over the course of the 27-month period since the laws commenced, and they are being counted multiple times.44 Conversely, if a person is been arrested on one occasion that led to multiple charges, they are only counted once. Further, for the purpose of those 2,573 arrests the definition of ‘participant’ in an OMCG is, as the QPS also confirms, very broad: it includes confirmed members, associates of members, disassociated members, ex-members, and even unconfirmed members and associates.45
Effectively, the partners or acquaintances of a person who was once an OMCG member but resigned from the club some years ago could still be counted in that number.
The figure also masks the fact that many of the charges were for minor, simple offences not regarded as signifying serious criminal, or organised, criminal activity. Statistics in the Byrne Report showed about half were simple.46
RECOMMENDATION 1 (Chapter Four)
The Queensland Government should establish an independent statistical research body to collect and publish regular analysis of Queensland crime data, and, once established, that body should prioritise the collection and analysis of data relevant to organised crime in Queensland. (unanimous recommendation)
What a difference a day makes...The Courier Mails normally attacking stance on any change to VLAD laws seems to have taken a sharp left turn after the release of the Task Force Review. Stories that back bikers rights have been scarce indeed over the past few years but lo and behold they've surprisingly let some run now......and even on free links !!
http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/queensland-government/cairns-mp-rob-pyne-backs-bikies-right-to-associate-and-wear-colours/news-story/f12d26f6f1fb628fbf4d89b58b65d871
Below even the ex Conveyancer General Bleijie gets a touch up about his undeniable hypocrisy opposing the original 'bikie laws' as 'removing the fundamental rights and freedoms of the people of Queensland'........and we all know what he did next. How anybody bases their own opinions on the diarrhea that spews out of the mouths of these nuff nuffs has me beat !
Unfortunately the story below was not a 'free' link so its been opened already for all........
POWER DRUNK POLLIES RUSHED LAWS. The Courier Mail 8/4/16
Opinion: Hastily conceived and arrogantly presented VLAD laws should go
IT’S a big call but I doubt there has ever been so much sanctimonious codswallop and hysteria served up to the Queensland public as there has been over the so-called anti-bikie laws.
It is an unpalatable stew of fear and contestable statistics, garnished with lashings of political hypocrisy and humbug and served up on a generous helping of contempt for the rule of law and civil liberties.
What was a worthy effort to curb criminal bikie gangs became a legal lash of hastily conceived and arrogantly presented laws that were discriminatory, vindictive, arguably ineffectual and constitutionally fragile.
What should have been the subject of rational debate in a state with a sorry history of authoritarian abuse descended into personal and professional denigration.
What was meant to strengthen the law eventually weakened it by fostering a culture of disdain for our legal process and a widespread belief that the public and the judiciary were fundamentally at odds.
Where to begin? November 25, 2009, seems a good time.
That was the evening Jarrod Bleijie, putative attorney-general and now Opposition police spokesman, delivered in parliament a speech that should haunt him to this day.
Speaking against the then Labor government’s Criminal Organisation Bill, he delivered a stirring call to arms, decrying the Bill as removing the “fundamental rights and freedoms of the people of Queensland’’.
One of his objections to the Bill was that not once did it mention bikies or motorcycle gangs, a focus that was to have almost obsessive ramifications when the Liberal National Party came to government.
“This Bill encroaches on … personal freedoms and liberties,’’ he cried. “A government that tries to remove these freedoms and liberties is a government that is to be feared.’’
The then government was just as righteous in defence of its law. But, come the time, come the man.
A little under four years later, on October 15, 2013, Bleijie was the attorney-general introducing a swag of laws so urgent they bypassed the committee process and became commonly known as the bikie laws.
As an exercise in the arrogance of parliamentary numbers, the speed with which the bills were rammed through the House was probably unrivalled since Joh Bjelke-Petersen pushed through his street march legislation in a little under eight hours in 1977.
The so-called debate was a shameful indictment of the dangers of a massively unbalanced parliament.
The laws are well known, if not entirely understood, in Queensland and have been consistently criticised.
Caught by its determination to be just as tough on bikies (and pinned down by its own legislative legacy) the tiny Labor Opposition blustered but was forced to support the laws, even though now Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk believed they were “problematic’’ and the rushed approach could lead to failure.
In the run up to last year’s election, Labor pledged to scrap the worst aspects of the laws, possibly comforted by the belief that it was unlikely to have to deliver on its promises.
The flush of victory was tempered by the realities of minority government (and the need to win the support of independent Peter Wellington), so the policy evolved into a promise of a review of the laws.
Accidentally or otherwise, that was the sort of sober and considered examination that should have been part of the legislative process in 2013.
Former Judge Alan Wilson came up with 60 recommendations, including the scrapping of existing laws and replacing them with legislation more likely to survive a High Court challenge.
That would seem to me to be a fundamental fix of laws that were drafted in haste and passed in indecent haste.
The proposed shifting of the criminal focus from organisations to individuals is an equally fundamental return to the principles of our justice system.
Sadly, Wilson’s report has been overshadowed by raw politics and shrill and puerile claims of “soft on crime”, predictable law and order drum-beating and the shameful castigation of civil libertarians.
It has been the signal for a return to ridiculous and counter-productive accusations against honest, concerned and well-qualified individuals.
However, protection against criminal elements and preserving our civil liberties need not be mutually exclusive.
The police have their job to do and understandably are focused on the former with a probably lesser regard for the latter.
The government’s job is to strike a balance between the two equally important considerations.
The best that can be said for the previous government’s laws was that they were well intentioned.
With some calm thought and bipartisanship to match mutual declarations of determination to stand against crime we could easily turn those good intentions into good law.
The political realities of a finely tuned parliament could be just what is needed to achieve that.
Oops looks like the above 'free link' Courier Mail story was only free once...... here it is already opened...
Cairns MP Rob Pyne backs bikies’ right to associate and wear colours
April 8, 2016 8:23am
Jason TinThe Courier-Mail
CROSSBENCHER Rob Pyne believes bikies should be allowed to freely associate, use clubhouses and wear their colours in public if they don’t have convictions and aren’t “conducting criminal activity”.
Mr Pyne has also likened the banning of wearing colours to the outlawing of “wearing a koala suit in public”.
The Cairns MP, who quit the Labor Party to sit on the crossbench earlier this year, said he understood there was “a lot of community concern around law and order issues”.
“But my personal view is that people should be free to associate and we should have equality before the law,” he said.
“I don’t think there should be one law for motorcycle riders associating … like criminal motorcyclists, that’s distinct from criminal chartered accountants, if that makes sense”
The outspoken MP said he realised his views would likely be “politically unpopular” but said it was important to speak up for civil liberties, saying “people fought and died for those protections and liberties”.
Asked whether confessed members of outlaw criminal motorcycle gangs, without convictions, should be allowed to gather at pubs and cafes while wearing colours, Mr Pyne said: “Yes, look if they have no criminal records and they’re not conducting criminal activity, I think they should be allowed to.”
Mr Pyne said there were already laws that covered various criminal acts, but was adamant that while police needed to act if there was criminal activity, he was “not a big fan of laws that prevent people from associating”.
MP Rob Pyne says “people should be free to associate and we should have equality before the law”.
“I don’t think there should be a law regarding people wearing motorcycle colours in public any more than there should be a law about wearing a koala suit in public,” he said.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk may well need Mr Pyne’s vote to help pass her Government’s new anti-bikie laws later this year, with Katter’s Australian Party MPs and Billy Gordon yet to take a position.
