THE nasty days of police consorting squads and selective law making have been revived by the patently alarmist and self serving campaign against bikie gangs by the Queensland Government.
And the there is a risk the Victorian and possibly the NSW governments will follow in mindless fashion.
The Queensland Parliament early this morning passed three bills which would classify 26 bikie gangs as "criminal organisations", restricts the rights of their members to "assemble", and provide for a special bikie jail - what one critic has called "a clubhouse" - for convicted members.
This is what Queensland Police Minister Jack Dempsey told his state's Parliament: "People need to know when they go to bed at night and the darkness of the evening comes over, that they can sleep safely in their beds."
What utter tosh.
This is the sort of bogeyman story you tell to scare kids who don't know better. It's not a rational explanation of laws which could prove dangerous to anyone, whether bikie gang member or not, whether in broad daylight or when the darkness of the evening comes over.
There can be no defence of gangs of criminals and many bikies are up to their RayBans in law breaking. Make no mistake, gang members are by-and-large thugs and grubs. They are trained to be and these gangs contribute significantly to spreading the misery of drugs.
They are frauds who go on bike runs to collect toys for orphaned children at Christmas having spent the remainder of the year creating orphans. And they bully and threaten any who cross them while fortunately kicking the tripe out of each other on occasion. They are vile.
But there is nothing they do which is not already covered by existing law. They are not inventing new crimes; they are committing the old ones.
And some perspective has to be applied. Blogger Shane Granger has pointed out there are more Tasmanian registered organ donors - 53,142 - than members of bikie gangs - 6000. More members of the Labor Party (43,923) and Liberal Party (estimated 50,000), and probably more from these two parties in jail or about to enter.
Of those 6000 bikies, a small number would live in or even transit Queensland. But they get their own jail and their own laws. And the danger is these laws will be applied to others who wouldn't know a bikie from a brickie.
It's not just that a fresh outbreak of four-wheels-good/two-wheels-bad that is in prospect. This low-grade phenomenon occurs when all motorbike riders are bracketed with the oafish law-breakers who also happen to ride motorbikes. (Actually, some of the heaviest bikie crims haven't thrown a leg over a machine for ages.)
There are more than 700,000 Australians licenced to ride motorbikes and scooters. Bikies make up about 0.85 per cent of them. Yet all motorcycle riders could at some time be equated with the tiny minority.
Of greater concern is the fact the Queensland Government has fabricated an extra layer of law with little consultation and unabashed emphasis on the political appeal of a good-old law-and-order campaign.
Annette Bradfield, president of the Queensland Law Society told the Guardian it was all "quite frightening".
"It sets a very bad precedent to start special laws for special groups of people. How are you going to tell the good bikies from the bad bikies exactly?" said Ms Bradfield.
Follow Mal on Twitter: @Farrm51
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