We must break the silence that surrounds bikie warfare
Published in Canberra Times, 23 April 2012
The antithesis of a cold call is a hot coffee. And this may be the best way to penetrate the wall of silence that has enabled the spate of drive-by shootings as Hells Angels and Nomads escalate their ”turf war”.
Frustration is mounting by police, politicians and the public as we wake up to news of more midnight shootings by cowardly criminals.
But a major change in the publicity for these shootings cannot go unnoticed, as it contrasts with the shootings peak a decade ago.
There has been a prevalence of Arabic names in the media reports about suspects and victims. There have also been anonymous claims by former bikies about ”older bikies leaving in droves” because of younger ”Middle Eastern criminals” infiltrating bikie gangs because of their connections with guns and money laundering, but no interest in motor bikes.
Despite all this, politicians and police have been wisely advised to focus on the criminal culture, not the ethnic culture this time around.
Rewind to October 2003, following drive-by murders in Greenacre in Sydney’s west, when the NSW premier at the time, Bob Carr, issued an ultimatum for deportation: ”Obey the law of Australia or ship out of Australia … that is what the average Australian thinks … we’re not going to see, step by step, our civilisation dragged back to medieval standards of revenge cycles. Simple as that.”
His police minister, John Watkins, amplified the dichotomy, saying ”these people are not part of our community. They’ve stepped outside civilised behaviour”. Their Hansonite leadership filtered down to the police culture, signalling a green light to perceive the crimes through race-tinted glasses, even though the perpetrators were Australian-born citizens.
With one fell swoop and broad brush, they alienated the local Middle Eastern communities who could have been part of the solution as partners, rather than the target of the crude cultural cop-out.
Fast forward to April 2012, and the current drive-by shootings have elicited more sober responses.
NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell announced a new strike force to deal with shootings between feuding gangs – no mention of race.
NSW Deputy Police Commissioner Nick Kaldas used the word culture appropriately to describe cowardly criminals: ”It’s really a criminal culture, it’s a culture where instead of having it out with someone, do this thing almost behind their back, because they can’t cope with doing it face to face.”
NSW Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione maintained the correct context: ”These attacks are targeted.
This is criminal on criminal.”
This is definitely a step in the right direction where our leaders have stayed focused and endeavoured to keep the community on side, at least in words. As O’Farrell concluded: ”What we need to do is support and recognise the progress that police have made. Since the start of this year, 74 arrests state-wide in relation to firearm offences, 147 weapons seized and 21,500 rounds of ammunition.”
However, to support the police, it needs more than words and avoiding provocative language. It needs action and engagement, relationships and trust with community ”elders” and those in the social network on the ground, not in cyberspace. Such fostered links could become the best informers who share the police mission to flush out the criminal elements.
Community engagement does not mean issuing one-way directives such as ”call Crime Stoppers”, ”dob in a terrorist”, ”be alert but not alarmed” or distributing multilingual brochures. It means regular two-way dialogue and confidence-building, even over a hot drink. It means that these social networks can be activated in a crisis. Policing becomes warm conversations rather than cold calls to suspicious strangers.
The current spate of shootings is also different to the 2002 peak in that media publicity had forced the culprits to go underground. This time, the media appears to be inadvertently aiding and abetting by amplifying their message of revenge and bravado. Ironically, the unabated shootings may have forced possible informants rather than criminals to go underground, in fear of being added to the hit list.
With the current shootings, there is diffusion of responsibility among local witnesses, fearful to risk reprisal to their family when so many other neighbours should have heard the same thing.
Informants may be aware of the bikie gangsters who evidently use tattoo shops as a front to launder money, which could lead to an urgent review of licensing of tattoo shops.
While the newly formed Strike Force Kinnarra will target the shootings linked to outlawed motorcycle gang conflict, NSW Police’s state crime commander, Acting Assistant Commissioner Mal Lanyon, said police were again facing a ”wall of silence” in their efforts to investigate the shootings: ”There are members of the community who have information about these shootings and the people involved …”
But police and politicians were repeatedly warned about this wall of silence 10 years ago when racist language and crude descriptors such as ”Middle Eastern appearance” were the bricks building this wall.
The circuit breaker to break the cycle of revenge shootings is surely building trust by engaging with these communities, and converting the new cooperative language into new cooperative action. It is never too late.