Wanganui's Hells Angels to fight Over the top gang patch ban

Wanganui's Hells Angels motorcycle gang and its lawyer are taking on Wanganui District Council over its ban on gang patches.

Hells Angels will argue it is not a gang but a motorcycle club and a ban on its patch would breach the Bill of Rights, before a council subcommittee on Friday, the Dominion Post reported.

Parliament passed the bill in May, giving the council the power to pass the bylaw banning gang patches in public places. The legislation was drafted by the council and only applies to Wanganui.

Hells Angels members at the gang's fortified Wanganui headquarters would not comment but Christchurch lawyer Steven Rollo said he had been hired to fight the bylaw.

He would not rule out court action.

His submission said the Hells Angels were not a gang and did not exist for criminal purposes.

"It has a reputation which it does not entirely deserve and which is founded on the exploits of individuals that tend to be exaggerated."

In submissions to the council, bikie Shane Bullock said Hells Angels was not a gang "but a motorcycle club and patch not worn to intimidate but show membership of a club with common interest brotherhood and motorcycling".

Wanganui Mayor Michael Laws said Friday's committee would see what proof that gang had that it was not a criminal organisation.

Council for Civil Liberties spokesman Michael Bott said freedom of expression, including the right to wear anything, should apply to everyone.

Hells Angels could potentially argue its case in the Supreme Court because the bylaw was inconsistent with the Bill of Rights, he said.

Whanganui MP Chester Borrows, who sponsored the anti-gang patch bill, said he was confident it was legally sound.

NZPA

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Nonprofits & Activism

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• Hells angels
• crimes

[VicVegas100]

@whitepridenz look man i use to run with the skinheads in wellington and we never did shit like this we let our fist do the talking. we certainly didnt hate on the maoris we had a few maori mates youve adopted all that american kkk bullshit we just didnt want asian gangs and shit fucking our country up. but look man im past all that shit im a man now you need a better way of getting your point across without all the hate and racism

[eruweraranj0r]

@VicVegas100 People don't know that Bob Marley and Peter Tosh were some of the original skinheads. They think that Skinhead is a term for a racist mong, they'll be wrong. Skinhead is pretty much the opposite of the tag they've been given by the media. Skinheads are anti-fascists, anti-racists. They are the ones fighting the racists at every rally. Neo-Nazi are just fucking idiots with small dicks. They infiltrated the punk/skinhead movement because they liked and wanted to use the skinhead style

[evanderfan]

@alanbstard4 No worries.

[alanbstard4]

@evanderfan sorry I mistook you for the Maori

[evanderfan]

@alanbstard4 I,m not hiding behind anything muppet i'm saying it how it is Superfucktheusa is a racist Maori facist.

[alanbstard4]

@whitepridenz yes and strangely enough, it's only whitey that gets labelled a race supremicist. Seems to me racial supremacy comes from the darker races

[alanbstard4]

@stephen3343 civil rights my arse. When did they care about civil rights when they attacked their last victim

[alanbstard4]

@tehamua that's what all the clubs are

[alanbstard4]

@nanoclinch just make them criminal and illegal groups as they are trying to do in Oz

[alanbstard4]

@VicVegas100 the kkk don't want black gangs either. Believe me, the KKK is far more civilized than black and spic gangs in America

[alanbstard4]

@evanderfan don't hide behind racism allegations

[alanbstard4]

@SuperFucktheusa actually " Google " list of Jewish child molesters' List a mile long with names, positions court convictions etc