PINK - Trademark of the macho

EXCLUSIVE:

by Harley Jamieson

Pretty in pink – dealing with bikies in Queensland

In late September in the most public outbreak of bikie violence on Queensland’s Gold Coast, a violent brawl broke out in a Broadbeach restaurant. It was all caught on CCTV and broadcast later to an understandably apprehensive public.

It was the last straw for the Newman Government and they sprang into action. Previously bikie violence was very largely inter-gang warfare and, to be frank, nobody much cared if they assaulted and shot each other so long as they didn’t put members of the public at risk.

A flurry of announcements from the Government followed. A special police taskforce was set up to target the gangs and all sorts of hairy chested pronouncements made. Leading the charge was Attorney-General Jarrod Bleijie who has become something of a poster boy for law and order.

He introduced the beautifully named Vicious Lawless Association Disestablishment (VLAD) Bill and it was rushed through Parliament, Yes, young Jarrod is now a latter-day Vlad the Impaler – and like the first Vlad, Jarrod is determined to restore law and order.  

Under his legislation, twenty-six bikie gangs have been declared criminal organisations and their members are barred from their clubhouses, from gathering in groups of three or more, face the prospect of extra jail time on conviction of serious offences, are automatically refused bail and not allowed to work in tattoo parlours.

They should be grateful that they will not actually be impaled. We have come some little way since the 15^th century fortunately. 

The Police Commissioner Ian Stewart chimed in telling coppers that they should quit if they didn’t want to be part of the bikie crackdown. “If people aren’t prepared to do that, to step up when the going gets tough, then they really do need to consider another career,” he said.

For that bit of advice, he got a backhander from the Police Union who said officers didn’t need that sort of lecture one bit. To be fair, Queensland Police have a long history of doing their political masters bidding and sinking the boot – both metaphorically and actually - when absolutely necessary to protect civilisation.

The Government’s moves attracted the predictable opposition – from the Labor Opposition which tried to be critical out of habit but didn’t want to go too far and appear as sissy whimps, from the Australian Motorcycle Council which has launched a “fighting fund” to stage court challenges and from lawyers.

The Queensland Law Society tut-tutted that the VLAD legislation “applies to a much broader section of the community, beyond bikie gangs.”

“The principles of the VLAD Bill are so broadly drawn they can apply to any association or business, or anyone out in public with three people or more,” said President Annette Bradfield.

It was the sort of legal purity statement that does the legal profession no public good at all – as if the coppers are going to raid and arrest the Baptist Ladies Knitting Guild for having in their possession needles which they openly share. 

As the Government’s campaign really hit its stride Attorney-General Bleijie bravely confirmed that he has his family had been threatened by bikies saying with a stiff upper lip, “There have been threats made. That’s as far as I am going.”

Then in came the Police and Community Safety Minister Jack Dempsey – himself a former copper.

He announced that he had asked the Corrective Services Department to investigate changing the colour of prison uniforms, possibly to fluoro pink.

“We will start with members and associates of criminal gangs and will look at rolling it out to other inmates over time,” he said.

He got full marks from Premier Newman himself who observed about bikies, “They are bullies – they like to wear scary-looking gear, leather jackets, they have the tattoos, they have the colours. We know that telling them to wear pink is going to be embarrassing for them.” 

We can all imagine, of course, some flabby middle-aged prison inmate who is doing time for fraud sneering at a bikie who is pretty in pink and saying something like, “What a sissy you are, you big girl’s blouse.”

From what I’ve seen of bikies, you could dress them in bras and suspender belts – the full drag in fact - and they would still look and be bloody frightening. And since the Government is planning to reopen Woodford Jail just for bikies, presumably they would be all in pink – so hardly much embarrassment.

Minister Dempsey has asked Corrective Services “to investigate the Arizona model to see if it would have any benefit in Queensland.”

The “Arizona model” is the brainchild of Sheriff Joe Arpaio who, reputedly, is America’s toughest sheriff. We know that because his own book is entitled “Sheriff Joe Arpaio, America’s Toughest Sheriff.” He has been elected five times since 1992 and, whatever else he is, he doesn’t suffer from any painful shyness.

It was he who introduced pink underwear for inmates of Maricopa County Jail and he followed that up with introducing pink handcuffs. His other innovative penal reforms include having prisoners live in canvas tents and work in 40 degree summer heat in chain gangs. And he is an equal opportunity law enforcer – women are treated the same way and it doesn’t faze him one bit that most of these inmates are actually still enjoying the presumption of innocence and are awaiting trial.

This intrepid officer’s service to law and order in the USA includes his investigation into President Obama’s birth certificate – and he is certain that it is a forgery. Gosh, I wish I could see the Briefing Paper Minister Dempsey gets from his Department.

And another really bright idea from the Sheriff for a cash-strapped Government – he now sells customised pink boxers emblazoned with the Maricopa County Sheriff’s logo and “Go Joe”.

Back in 1941, when German General Erwin Rommel had a largely Australian garrison surrounded in Tobruk, the British traitor dubbed Lord Haw Haw broadcast from Berlin that they were the “poor desert rats of Tobruk” 

The Aussies proudly claimed that for themselves and to this day the last survivors are still proud to call themselves the Rats of Tobruk. 

I suspect that any self-respecting bikies who didn’t get to wear pink, if that ever happens, would be the ones who were embarrassed – imagine the shame of knowing that the Government and prison authorities don’t think they are bad enough!

Comments

[Brian_R_Allen]

1.

.... A Photo-Shopped document of which Buraq Hussayn Obama’s Gang has posted a web-page picture and which is claimed by them to be of his birth certificate (and which his experts -- of the very highest order among such -- have presented powerful evidence to suggest with a large degree of certainty) is a forgery ....

Perhaps if Mr Jamieson had actually checked any of the Sheriff Joe stuff and read the voluminous evidence pointing to the "birth certificate" being a forgery, instead of having cut and paste his second-handed snide remarks, he'd have afforded Sheriff Arpaio the dignity that gentleman, whose impeccable service to God, Constitution and Country and - especially - to Rule of Law, spans more than 60 years, has well and Truly earned.

Brian Richard Allen

[John of Northlakes]

2.

Jeez Brian, settle down mate. Who in Australia could care about some old argument in America about Obama's birth certificate. That stuff belongs on the blog sites of the Tea Party.
The point of the article was about the fate of bikies under the new laws of the Boy Wonder, Jarrod Bleije & his sidekicks Newman & Dempsey. I don't think many Queenslanders will lose sleep over a bunch of bikies wearing pink in jail. No matter what they are wearing they are a scary bunch of blokes.
I am concerned however that the LNP government feels it necessary to make special laws to control a sector of the population. There is plenty of scope in the Criminal Code to take care of criminal law enforcement. Of even greater concern is the strident criticism today by Premier Newman and the Courier Mail of Queensland Magistrates, Judges & Lawyers. These politicians & newspaper editors need to read up on the principal of the separation of powers. Such interference in the judicial system by the Premier & his Ministers is very dangerous for democracy.
So just settle down Brian, have a cup of tea, a bex & a good lie down & get in touch with the Tea Party to express your concerns about an argument unique to America.

[John Mc]

3.

I'm happy to see bikies prosecuted for crimes, but is a political vendetta worth sacrificing every pillar of justice, due process and fairness that the law should afford us all? All of these men were much wiser than Campbell Newman and his first lieutenant Jackboot Jarrod:

In matters of truth and justice, there is no difference between large and small problems, for issues concerning the treatment of people are all the same. -Albert Einstein

Equality before the law in a true democracy is a matter of right. It cannot be a matter of charity or of favor or of grace or of discretion. - U.S. Supreme Court Justice Wiley Rutledge

To withhold the equal protection of the laws, is to undermine the entire structure and threaten it with collapse.... To deny law or justice to any person is, in actual effect, to outlaw them by stripping them of their only protection. It is for such reasons that freedom and equality of justice are essential to a democracy and that denial of justice is the short cut to anarchy. - Reginald Heber Smith, 1919

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. - Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

[Jim Witt]

4.

Well stated by both Johns above. Criminal laws already exist, extra laws just for bikies are not required. Over here in the west, our state government looks as it will have to return lots of money and property confiscated from criminals as it was not established to be profits of crime and is not within the constitution to take it away. I have also heard through the biker grapevine (I am a rider of over 40 years experience and a member of a non-outlaw club) that many other non-outlaw bikers are being harassed in OLD by the police since this crap all started. These new laws have to many holes in them that allow to much power to people of political persuasion and law enforcement, and can be turned on any group out of favour at a moments notice. Our nation and states do not need such laws, and I suspect the high court will find many of them unconstitutional as well.