Bandidos boss slams crackdown on bikies

By Noel Murphy
GEELONG-based Bandidos boss Kim Sloan has slammed new anti-biker laws as better suited to Hitler’s Nazi Germany than a free Australia.
The Bandidos’ national secretary said he feared that State Government was planning to let police have bikie clubs declared criminal bodies without proper recourse to a legal defence.
“This is something you’d expect from an Eastern Bloc state or in some Asia states, not in an Australian democracy,’’ Mr Sloan told the Independent.
“It’s pretty sad really. If they say our club’s a criminal organisation, will they stop me associating with my own son who’s a member?
“We have five fathers and sons at our club – are they going to tell us we can’t associate with each other?
“How far will they go next?’’
The proposed state laws, expected to be passed in coming weeks, would allow biker gangs to be formally outlawed in the Supreme Court. Members could be jailed, ordered to stop wearing patches, have motorcycles and club assets confiscated and their clubhouses destroyed.
Mr Sloan declared the changes “totalitarian’’ and “Draconian’’.
“Any individuals committing crimes already faced the full force of the law without police needing to attack clubs, he said.
“It’s almost like they think we’re above the law but surely if we were breaking the law they can already charge us. And if there was any crime wouldn’t this just push it underground?
“I just really don’t understand what they’re doing.
“It’s way over the top, like something in Iraq or Afghanistan. It’s ridiculous.’’
Attorney-General Robert Clark has said the Government was not prepared to let Victoria become a “criminal bikie gang haven”.
The proposed changes would smash gang culture under Victoria’s “anti-association’’ laws, he said.
The Finks and Hells Angels bikie clubs have successfully challenged similar interstate laws on constitutional and human rights grounds.