BiKiE mAdNeSs!

The Gypsy Jokers are mad, bad, and dangerous to know. They’ve also lost the legal right to fortify their clubhouse.

Whatever happened to the saying “A Man’s Clubhouse is His Highly-Fortified Castle”?

In a rare instance of positive media coverage, the obituary of US citizen Betty Jane Millan, 83, of Yachats, Oregon reads “Betty raised her family in the Brooklyn neighborhood of SE Portland and taught her children to live life to the fullest. She loved to embroider and crochet and take care of her Chihuahuas, but she was just as happy to ride on the back of a Harley or play gin rummy with her neighbors the Gypsy Jokers. For her 75th birthday she got a tattoo of a hummingbird on her ankle.”

As well as providing rides for old ladies, bikies also provide poles. For dancing.

Pole dancing with pride
John Andersen
Townsville Builletin
July 29, 2008

WHEN the Mount Isa Rebels bikies cruised into Quamby and stopped at the pub they were horrified to discover that the locals were using an old, rusty Acro-prop – the type used to support houses while being raised or removed – as a pole for pole dancing. They told publican Terry Allman that they had a spare pole dancing pole – as you do – back in the Isa clubhouse and would be honoured if he would accept it as a replacement to the Acro-prop. True to their word they came good with the stainless steel pole and now, bolted between ceiling and bar top, it dominates the interior landscape of this rustic bush watering hole. Well lubricated drillers, jillaroos and ringers love to give it a go and the record so far is nine spins of the pole. Terry reckons pole dancing is the go and it’s why everyone around Quamby, about 50 km north of Cloncurry, is so fit and agile.

On the other hand…

Dead lawyer to be honoured over Melbourne shooting
AAP
August 14, 2008

ELEVEN people are being honoured with bravery awards following the fatal inner-city shooting in which Melbourne lawyer Brendan Keilar died. The Royal Humane Society of Australasia will issue the awards with Mr Keilar being honoured with the Posthumous Medal and Dutch backpacker Paul de Waard receiving the Silver Medal. Mr Keilar and Mr de Waard came to the aid of a woman they saw being dragged out of a taxi in central Melbourne and were then fired on by Hells Angel bikie Christopher Wayne Hudson, who has since pleaded guilty to murder. Mr De Waard, then 25, was blasted twice in the chest and stomach in the June 18, 2007, shooting and came close to death. Hudson also turned the gun on his then girlfriend 25-year-old model Kaera Douglas, who also suffered serious gunshot wounds. Mr Keilar, 43, a city lawyer and father of three, died in the street in the bloodbath that left stunned city workers watching in horror at the corner of Flinders Lane and William Street just after 8am. The Society’s honorary secretary Colin Bannister said the shooting was a callous act by a man who had spent the night drinking in nearby nightclubs. Other passers-by, alerted by the screams and gunfire, came to help as the gunman moved on…

Christian bikies in unholy brawl
The Brisbane Times
August 8, 2008

LOS ANGELES: Authorities have arrested eight members of a Christian bikie gang known as the Set Free Soldiers on charges of attempted murder in connection with a bar fight last week with members of the Hells Angels. The arrests were made during raids in southern California, authorities said. Three people are still being sought on arrest warrants. An Anaheim police spokesman, Sergeant Tim Schmidt, said the raids followed a clash between the Set Free Soldiers and Hells Angels at a Newport Beach bar…

Bikies arrested on drugs, weapons charges
Georgina Robinson
The Brisbane Times
July 23, 2008

Police have today arrested 12 outlaw motorcycle gang members on a range of drugs and weapons charges in the second phase of Operation Golf Cyclone. Two women and 10 men were nabbed on a total of 20 charges after police found drugs including cannabis and methylamphetamines, as well as weapons including two batons and a pellet paint gun. The arrests in the Redcliffe, Caboolture, Sunshine Coast, Maryborough, Gympie and Bundaberg districts bring to 24 the total number of gang members charged during the Operation. A police statement said officers from Task Force Hydra targeted places known to the Hells Angels, Rebels, Bandidos, Black Uhlans*, Outcasts and Finks groups…

Man charged over bikie-gang teen rape
Dan Oakes
The Age
July 23, 2008

Police have charged a man over the alleged gang rape of a teenager by motorcycle gang members at a Lakes Entrance motel in February last year. Steven Halamboulis, 43, of Reservoir, has been charged with two counts of rape and one of false imprisonment of the 19-year-old girl, who says she was raped at the motel by members of the Black Uhlans

More violence feared after pipe bombing on bikie in Lane Cove
Kara Lawrence
The Daily Telegraph
July 18, 2008

POLICE fear further violence on Sydney’s streets after an attempt to maim or kill a senior member of a new alleged criminal gang. The Daily Telegraph can reveal a 34-year-old man who helped form the pseudo-bikie gang Notorious was the target of a carbombing on Sydney’s North Shore on Tuesday. The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, used to be associated with the Nomads outlaw motorcycle gang’s Parramatta chapter, which disbanded early last year. Notorious was then formed by the man and several former Nomads members, but few of its dozens of members ride motorcycles. The gang is believed to have become the unofficial security “muscle” for a Kings Cross identity and its members have been arrested for drugs and linked to assaults… Police sources said there were fears of “trouble brewing”, with concerns that Notorious would clash with rivals the Comancheros, another outlaw motorcycle gang.

PS. ‘Beefy baldy’ quits bomb estate, Daniel Emerson, Sydney Morning Herald, July 21, 2008: “A “beefy, bald-headed” man who was the target of a pipe bomb and gun attack at Sydney’s Lane Cove North estate last week has moved out of the complex, according to his neighbour…”

Now the streets go to Hell, Stephen Gibbs, The Sydney Morning Herald, April 22, 2006 | War feared as bikies defect, Janet Fife-Yeomans, The Daily Telegraph, April 21, 2007

See also : Arthur Veno, The Brotherhoods: Inside the Outlaw Motorcycle Clubs, Allen and Unwin, 2002, reviewed by Lauren Barrow, University of Melbourne | One percenters in our midst, The Adelaide Review, 2004

About @ndy

I live in Melbourne, Australia. I like anarchy. I don't like nazis. I enjoy eating pizza and drinking beer. I barrack for the greatest football team on Earth: Collingwood Magpies. The 2024 premiership's a cakewalk for the good old Collingwood.
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One Response to BiKiE mAdNeSs!

  1. Lumpen says:

    There was a good article in The Monthly the issue before last about the State and the criminalisation of bikie gangs with an illuminating section on Chris Hudson’s dubious status as a Hell’s Angel. Hey, I read.

    You could find the article http://www.themonthly.com.au/tm/node/1013 if you were a subscriber.

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