A story appeared in Adelaide's Sunday Mail newspaper last week. There's a link
below. The article read in part.

ROADSIDE CAMERAS TO TRACK BIKIES

"Special roadside cameras would track bikies on the streets under a crackdown on
outlaw motorcycle gangs being pushed by the Federal Government. .......

The Federal Labor Party said yesterday it supported the camera strategy.
..............

Other hard-line measures supported by the Federal Government include:

OUTLAWING bikie gang membership.

BANNING bikies wearing club colours or patches.

RESTRICTING the number of bikies who can gather at one time to eliminate bikie
runs.

MONITORING specific members 24 hours a day, seven days a week."

This is more than over regulation. This is targeting people who ride because
they ride. Who decides the definition for a gang/club? Who decides what is a
"bikie run"? Who decides what club colours or patches should be banned? There
are laws in place against criminal activity. By all means enforce these laws,
prosecute offenders (whether in a Ferrari, on a Harley or a Malvern Star) and
punish the guilty.

If these proposals were aimed at a racial, ethnic or religious group there would
be an outcry.

Police from various forces have been pushing for electronic front ID for
motorcycles & scooters since the 1990s. In Melbourne's Sunday Herald Sun on
April 14, 2002, Assistant Commissioner Bob Hastings was pushing front ID for
motorcycles & scooters under the guise of enforcing speed laws for road safety
purposes. He said.

"With the absence of front identification for motorbikes, there were also
concerns about being able to track people who used their motorbikes in crimes
..."

In 2006 Crikey.com published an article on Toy Runs from an anonymous policeman.
The story would have been taken seriously by many non-riders. It said that Toy
Runs were fronts for drug-dealing bikers.

At the end of the 1990s police in Melbourne began breaking the Toy Run into
sub-columns and banned any real form of marshalling. This was deliberate. The
excuse was to reduce traffic problems during the couple of hours on a Sunday
morning that Toy Runs were conducted. Of course they shut down whole
neighborhoods for days for bicycle events and billycart races.

Breaking Toy Runs up did three things:

1.

It turned an orderly column into dangerous chaos. Riders got lost. Others got
faster to catch friends in the group ahead. If you have four sub-columns you
need four times the number of escorts who know what to do and three more lead
vehicles that know the route. The Victoria Police did not supply the required
resources.
2.

It put people off attending. Numbers fell. The ride got riskier. The Salvos got
fewer donations for needy kids.
3.

It killed the spectacle. The grand parade of motorcycles, scooters, sidecars
and trikes through the heart of a capital city, a tourist attraction in its'
own right, was lost.


There are no well-organised, big rides in Melbourne anymore. Next month should
be the biggest Melbourne Toy Run ever. It's the 30th Anniversary event. It
should be a major road safety promotion and a great resource for the Salvos.
It's been regulated to near death.

Some riders see articles like the one in the Sunday Herald Sun (2002), on
Crikey.com (2006) and this week in Adelaide's Sunday Mail as antibike propaganda
aimed at dividing the motorcycle community like authorities have broken up our
Toy Runs.

According to the Australian Motorcycle Council (AMC) 1.3 million Australians are
licensed to ride motorcycles and scooters. According to the anonymous cop on
Crikey.com there are 3500 gang members. So, if I got the numbers right, .003% of
a community doing the wrong thing justifies striping the whole community's civil
rights and persecuting individuals at the whim of anonymous officers like the
one on Crikey.com?

If you apply the same over-zealous methods to say, the mafia in Australia, then
there should be a major crackdown on places like Lygon Street in Melbourne.
Italian restaurants should be closed and Italian cars fitted with tracking
devices. Maybe home detention bracelets for those suspected of cooking with
olive oil.

This move sets dangerous precedents and is something Australians should be
deeply ashamed of.

Damien Codognotto OAM
MRA Life Member.
Ulysses Club 21208.
Melbourne.
0419 846 855.


To: ulysses@yahoogroups <mailto:ulysses@yahoogroups.com> .com
Sent: Monday, November 05, 2007 8:05 PM
Subject: Re: [ulysses] BE AFRAID - BIG BROTHER WANTS TO WATCH.





Ahhh Australia.. over regulated again.. I am far from a patch rider... but where
will it stop... banning a bunch of mates from a ride ????... as the saying
goes.." when injustice becomes law..resistance becomes duty", I am not an
antidisestablishmentarian........ but I will stuffed if I can be told who & when
to ride with & with how many mates..! I might run for parliement next election..
"the bikers rights party"..
Rob

----- Original Message -----
From: UNCLE <mailto:uncle.d@...> DAMIEN
To: ulysses@yahoogroups <mailto:ulysses@yahoogroups.com> .com ; aus_vfr list
<mailto:vfrlist@...>
Cc: NEWS - MOTORCYCLE TRADER GUY ALLEN <mailto:allmoto@...> ; NEWS
- CYCLETORQUE <mailto:editor@...> ; NEWS - HEAVY
<mailto:info@...> DUTY - BRUMBY ; NEWS - OZBIKE - STEVE
<mailto:ozbikemag@...> ; WEBMASTER - HANGMORE MC -
<mailto:webmaster@...> ; WEBMASTER - MICK HONE -
<mailto:TL-ZZW3027R8297606382Sn@...> MARTIN EWART ; WEBMASTER -
ULYSSES - MELB. <mailto:webmaster@...> ; WEBMASTER - ULYSSES -
YARRA <mailto:webmaster@...> RANGES
Sent: Monday, November 05, 2007 12:56 PM
Subject: [ulysses] BE AFRAID - BIG BROTHER WANTS TO WATCH.

This has to be read to be believed.

http://www.news.
<http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,22697791-910,00.html>
com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,22697791-910,00.html

Damien Codognotto OAM

Melbourne.

0419 846 855.

_._,_.___

.

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2/stime=1194168490/nc1=4767086/nc2=3848501/nc3=4725794>






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