Not really, we don't want trouble from bikie gangs..
(we could do an embroided patch, but then we'd all be lining up at Hoffys place to get em sowed on)
Whatever it takes: Rebels - Ulysses riders remove patches
BY DAVID MCLENNAN
POLICE REPORTER
11/03/2005 12:00:00 AM
A Canberra-based outlaw motorcycle club
has warned that it will do ''whatever it takes''
to enforce its demands that members of a
visiting social motorcycle group for veteran
riders do not wear badging that offends them.
Ulysses Club members visiting Canberra
for their annual general meeting this week
have told of being confronted, intimidated,
and threatened to be bashed and their bikes
destroyed by members of the Rebels Motorcycle
Club if they did not remove the cloth
patches, known as ''rockers''.
In a bid to avoid violent incidents, Ulysses'
national committee has instructed its 5000
members attending the Canberra rally to
remove the rockers from their riding apparel.
Rockers generally give a rider's name or
nickname, and where they come from.
Canberra Rebels president Martin Stefancic
confirmed yesterday that he did not want
to see other motorcycle clubs wearing
rockers and pretending to be part of an
outlaw club.
''They can't be both a social club and an
outlaw club,'' he said.
''... No outlaw club likes people
pretending to be anything. Outlaw clubs
aren't about pretending.''
When asked if Rebels had threatened
Ulysses members with violence, he said
''Whatever - that's what they say.''
''Whatever it takes mate. If you want to
play the game you want to be in shape to play
it, don't you.''
There have been several incidents in which
Ulysses members claim to have been
threatened with violence unless they
removed the rockers from their clothing. In
one incident a 60-year-old female member
was allegedly forced on to a roadside and
made to remove strips from her jacket,
otherwise she would be bashed and her bike
destroyed.
ACT's acting Chief Police Officer, Steve
Lancaster, said that police would investigate
any reported threat of violence. However,
Ulysses members said that they were reluctant
to officially alert police for fear of
reprisals.
''Police have spoken to both the Ulysses
and Rebels motorcycle groups, both of whom
are aware of our expectations the law will be
upheld, and where needs be, it will be
enforced,'' he said.
''Police are proactively patrolling the Ulysses
gathering as well as other areas of
Canberra to ensure a continuing trouble-free
event.''
In motorcycle gang culture, the wearing of
''colours'' or rockers by non-outlaw club
members is regarded as an insult and not
tolerated.
Members of outlaw motorcycle gangs have
to ''earn'' their colours and rockers. Colours
refer to the club's emblem and name
typically worn on the back of a motorcyclist's
jacket.
Ulysses national president Rick Bedford,
who said that the wearing of rockers had
been a simmering issue for 20 years, had
urged all members to remove the offending
badging.
Ulysses executives had met with Rebels
leaders on Wednesday and agreed to ban
wearing rockers near the club's trademark
old man ''Growing Old Disgracefully''
emblem.
The club did not want to antagonise the
Rebels and respected them and their
traditions.
''We understand where they are coming
from. That is their lifestyle choice,'' he said.
''... To get their colour patches they have
to be accepted as a prospect and over a year
or a couple of years they are assessed by all
the members as to whether they are appropriate
and in order to earn their colours they
have to complete a number of tasks.''