Australians know the truth. Motorcycle gangs are a real problem, and they need to be addressed. This is the reason Australia passed laws to target these gang members to control some of the crimes associated with them. The problem is the laws are targeting one group over others.
The Reality of These Gangs
The truth is these gangs attack all sorts of people. Membership seems to cross all possible backgrounds. While this is a shame since these kids could be doing something more productive with their lives, they end up doing this.
While not every member is a criminal, the chances are high that some of these young kids will commit some kind of crime. The Australian authorities should be trying to stop them, but they have made a grave error.
Unfairly Targeting a Minority
Australia’s Law Enforcement and Conduct Commission or LECC broke the embarrassing story. The law isn’t perfect, which is something Australians know well enough after hearing various news stories in the past like what happened with the CMC lawyers.
The LECC launched the review quietly, so folks didn’t know it was happening. This helped the investigators in several ways. For one, the police weren’t aware, so they continued to work as they would normally. The press didn’t know, so there was no scrutiny to produce results quickly.
After a while, the LECC was able to gather the data needed to expose how flawed these laws are towards the Aboriginal Australians. The law didn’t get these folks in trouble more often than other Australians, but some of these folks ended up in prison. The report concluded that about 40 percent of the gang members this law was applied to were indigenous.
What Was the Intended to Do?
The laws in question were introduced in 2012. These are sometimes referred to as consorting laws, and they were made popular and enacted by Barry O’Farrell. This politician wanted to respond to the dangers these gangs were posing to the people of Australia.
Barry O’Farrell had to respond swiftly to a couple of drive-by shootings that took place in Sydney. The laws were meant to address these types of criminals head-on by focusing on the biker gangs in Australia including Brothers 4 Life. Supposedly, the laws would give cops new tools to protect Australia from the tragedies these groups are known for.
On paper, these laws sound good and necessary. These folks need to face judgment and need to be stopped before more folks are hurt.
The law allowed police to punish any person who talked to a convicted criminal. This convicted person had to be in jail for at least three years. The person charged could go to jail for half a year or three years, especially if they were warned about talking to these folks.
Strangely, this law put more indigenous people in jail than any other race. Criminals come in all colours, so it was weird that one group was targeted more often.
On top of that, sometimes, these folks have friends or family members who got in trouble with the law. Forcing these folks to cut criminals from their lives is a little crazy, especially if the convicts served their time and were absent from their family’s lives.
The point of going to jail is to repay your debt to society. Once that debt is repaid, that person should be given a second chance, but this law robbed these folks of the opportunity of reconnecting with their old lives. Sure, supporters of the law could say these convicts might simply be trying to reconnect with their old gangs, but that can’t be the case all the time.
Some political groups are pressuring politicians to do something about these embarrassing findings. It’s no secret that indigenous folks are being overpoliced, but with this new evidence, maybe something can be done. A lot of people hope that something changes, and they are paying attention to what happens next.
