Biker Gangs: Are they good or bad ?

[Nintii]

Today I thought of the time I used to run errands for some of the girlfriends of the Hells Angels who used to live in my neighborhood and hang out at a club near by - I was around 13 to 14 yrs old at the time - you know like girly-type favor things ... and get paid in beers and rides.

Anyway, they used to look so hot in their leathers and colors, you know like "wild and free", every teen rebel girls dream ...

So I decided to google Bikers and related stuff ... well I was shocked to ONLY see negative reports about them.

The "rebels" are also called the 1% ters, because 99% are good (so they say) ... so where is the news of the 99% ... nowhere.

The Press of the world are like vacuum cleaners ... they suck :verymad:

 

Yes they were rough and most probably still are but the world they live in dictates a tough hide.

So now do we just throw them out and treat them like rejects ? ... I certainly hope not ... everyone deserves a second chance.

Many of these "notorious bikers" do good and raise funds for the needy as well ... where MR / MRS Reporter are those stories ?

 

So, seeing this is the Debates section, do you also see only the bad or do you think there is also the good or are you undecided ?

I came across plenty of stories of the Hells Angels, Gypsy Jokers (even here where I live), Mongols, Pagans etc. but that I'll leave well alone as that's not my angle here, I'm interested in your viewpoint.

 

 

The local chapter of the HA only a few k's from where I live ...

 

http://i1235.photobucket.com/albums/ff434/yuri-chick/ha-1.jpg

[Marxist ßastard]

TIL Hell's Angels has a South African chapter headquartered in Boksburg.

[Tidus44]

Do I ride a bike - yes. Am I a biker - no.

Don't ride much before June or after September, but I do like my ride. Other times of the year its snowmobile - which is pretty much the same ride - only freer (not stuck to roads).

 

Do I ride in a group - yes (member of bike and snowmobile clubs) but I'm not a gang member.

 

As for any good a biker gang does, well nothing like a bit of good PR because if someone is looking at that, they are not looking at the drugs, prostitution and whatnot they are really involved in. Nothing like delivering a teddy bear to some sick or poor kids to offset all the devastation and suffering you've been responsible for the rest of the year.

 

Not to say all groups of people riding bikes are bad, but the term "gang" suggests the darker side of banding together.

[Balagor]

There a bikers who love to run a bike, the free life, etc. I love that too. Then there´s HA. In DK they have dropped the bikes (only use it for weekends), otherwise the go in BMW´s. They have become a mafia like organisation here, controlling 99 % of the drug market. Part of it is our own fault, when we forbid som drugs some years ago. State had full control of all drug dealing, but this is now in the hands of HA, and competing gangs. The competition has lead to a great danger when they start kill each other off. If you sit in a cafe, and a gang member comes and sit down near you, you better finish you coffie, before his rivals show up and start shooting.

Gouvernment has been making suggestions for the past 3 years on how to forbid these gangs. Problem is, it would be unconstitutional, they would not disapear anyway if you forbid them, since you could only forbid their name and the character of their society. Then they would reestablish with a new name and a new purpose. They are simply a pest here. We can only hope that they would kill eachother off, without harming any innoncents.

[Deleted472477User]

I don't mind them. As long as they aren't hurting innocent people, I am pretty neutral about them.

[Korodic]

I say shut them down. They are a biker gang. We live in the most privileged areas of the world, with so many luxuries, yet people get together to deal drugs and beat down on others while people getting caught in the crossfire are the real victims. Hell, the kid in the room next to me thinks he's "thug." He's about as "street" and "thug" as Tickle Me Elmo. His mom is some type of Dean for a local college and he went to private school with the class size of 30. Why does this even have appeal? If you like riding bikes, join a club not a gang. If you want to feel apart of something, get more friends by getting a hobby that isn't drug running or whatever else the typical gangs might do.

 

You want to see real gang violence? Speak to a real mexican, what is going on down there is disgusting, and we, as America, are their main customers for drugs funding it. Massive grave sites... not a pretty thing.

 

So yes, any kind of gang is bad. It is a huge contribution to the reason you can't feel safe living near or in a city anymore.

[Nintii]

Yes, I do understand the concerns you all have, violence and drugs are many times like brother and sister ... and no one wants to live in a fear filled environment but that's why we

have law enforcement ... to deal with those situations.

I also understand that if you are not used to living in a neighborhood where "bikers" and related groups hang out, then you don't have the street smarts or that "settled in feeling" to

be around them and it's pretty scary.

Thing is I lived in that type of environment for a long time and so don't see the issue's - fear related - that many might see or feel.

Fear attracts, and if you go through that type of environment it shows that you're vexed and they will pick up on it.

 

I do not condone drug-trafficking or violence in any form either.

I think Australia has some "bikie" laws ... check out this quote from a NSW report from "Down Under";

 

 

"DOUBTS have been raised about whether the state's new anti-bikie gang legislation would survive a High Court challenge.

 

The Premier, Barry O'Farrell, admitted yesterday the only way to ensure state bikie laws would not be challenged was through national action.

 

''Outlaw motorcycle gangs are cashed up because of their illegal activities,'' he said. ''They will mount further challenges to any state that legislates.

 

''The best way to guarantee that legislation can't be challenged by the High Court is to have national legislation.''

 

As signalled by the Herald last month, the NSW Attorney-General, Greg Smith, said yesterday he would introduce legislation to repair a section of the anti-bikie gang law introduced by the Rees government in 2009.

 

He said the laws would enable police to apply to an eligible Supreme Court judge to have a gang declared a criminal organisation and to have control orders imposed which prohibit members from associating with each other.

 

"Importantly, judges will now be required to give reasons for declaring a criminal organisation, which will address a key issue in the High Court decision which struck down NSW bikie laws last year," Mr Smith said.

 

The president of the NSW Law Society, Justin Dowd, said unless the amended legislation overcame all the hurdles referred to in last year's judgment ''there must remain some doubt about the validity of that legislation''.

 

The barrister who led the challenge against the NSW laws said the changes did not seem to address all issues. Mark Robinson, SC, said the High Court had quashed the legislation after identifying one defect, but had not needed to rule on several other issues. He said the main issue appeared to be if the process involving Supreme Court judges ''does not look like a Supreme Court, or takes away from its authority or … its integrity''.

 

He said the legislation stopped people who were not involved in criminal activities from talking to each other. ''I can't see it's constitutionally authorised.''

 

A law lecturer at the University of NSW, Nicola McGarrity, said it was likely the legislation ''would pass constitutional muster'' after amendments to require judges to give reasons for declaring a criminal organisation were made.

 

 

End quote.

 

It seems that they won't go quietly but I suppose that the people anywhere in the world will have the final say if they support the politicians who stand for what they stand for.

Edited March 2, 2012 by Nintii

[dunmermaiden]

Here in NZ gangs like Black Power and Mongrel mob feud and do drive by shootings and if one even dresses their 5 year old ( or younger/ older lol ) in the rival gangs colours you better believe these meneces of society bash the kid up and their mum and dad. Tourists that don't know the colours get bashed too. It's disgusting.

 

So no, I say don't let them have gangs we lock them up and throw away the keys. As for these gangs, tryed living close by? I have and it's a real horror on the weeknight nights when one is in bed trying to sleep and one hears them partying and bashing up some helpless man or woman on their way home and well one never ever calls the police, the gangs find out one dobbed them in and they have no problem murdering one for it.

 

I get so sick to death of the gangs, everyone with half a brain knows they traffic in drugs and organised crime, need to squash them like bugs and rid them.

[JimboUK]

If people are breaking the law then deal with the law breakers, anything else is collective punishment and cannot be right. Freedom of association is a basic right, its one of the first things tyranical regimes crack down on. Governments are very good at creating or worsening problems and then coming up with solutions that give them more power.

[Vagrant0]

On the surface, they exemplify what freedom means...

 

Once you did deeper however you find that many of them operate in dealing drugs, selling illegal firearms, operating in the flesh trade, are blatant racists, or worse. Hells Angels may have entered into the world of mass marketing, but most of their chapters are still based around illegal activities. They have a South Africa chapter because of the very high racial tensions that still exist in that region. I suspect their Australia also has various standings about white supremacy and actively recruits due to the tensions there as well.