Gangs will subvert patch ban, wear ‘substitutes’ instead ‒ expert

Wednesday, 20 November 2024

Gang insignia will be banned in New Zealand from Thursday, but a gang expert warns it will only make the groups harder to police.

A gang expert is “quite certain” gangs will resort to wearing substitute patches when the nationwide ban on insignia takes effect this week, and warns the law will only drive the groups further underground and make them harder to police.

From Thursday, any display of gang insignia in public is prohibited in New Zealand. This includes any “sign, symbol or representation commonly displayed to denote membership of, or an affiliation with, a gang”.

Assistant Police Commissioner Paul Basham says gang may test the ‘threshold’ of gang insignia.

Police have been on a public relations drive in the lead-up, warning they will take a hardline approach from November 21. “The Government has been really clear about the purpose of the legislation,” Assistant Police Commissioner Paul Basham said. “To reduce fear and intimidation…Officers are required to enforce the law, and that’s what we’re going to do.”

However, he acknowledged gang members may test the threshold for “insignia” by wearing other clothing to denote membership.

Gang expert Dr Jarrod Gilbert says patches were a good way for police, and the public, to identify gang members.

“There’s been some conversation occurring amongst the gang communities about how they'll respond,” Basham said.

White has long been synonymous with the Killer Beez gang. Members wore unmarked white vests for a time to display their affiliation.

When police met gang leaders to discuss the new law the insignia threshold and what constituted a public place were common questions, he said. Bans in some Australian states had seen similar behaviour: “They’ve seen the gangs adapt…I know the West Australian police indicated recently they were looking at some of those aspects.”

Mongrel Mob member Brett Beamsley was charged under Whanganui’s gang patch ban in 2009 for wearing a beanie with a bulldog on it. The charge was dropped.

Sociologist and gang expert Dr Jarrod Gilbert said similar subversion here was likely. “I feel quite certain we will see substitution. This may mean greater use of tattoos (not covered under the new law) which would obviously be very negative.” When patches were banned in prisons, Gilbert said, facial tattoos “skyrocketed”. “The consequence was arguably more significant than the problem it attempted to solve. I just wonder what we’re going to see here. Obviously you hope for the best.”

Gilbert wasn’t aware of any particular clothing item, like a sports jersey, that denoted a certain affiliation.

“It’s going to be contextual,” he said. “If I was wearing a football jersey that’s not denoting membership.” Some shorthands were widely known, though. The number ‘88’ was synonymous with the Head Hunters (H is the eighth letter of the alphabet) and 81 for the Hells Angels. ‘Support 81’ merchandise was widely available, and would be covered by the ban. Gilbert said Killer Beez members took to wearing distinctive white vests for a time. “[The vests] were completely blank, but clearly denoting membership of that group.”

Beamsley argued the bulldog on his beanie was actually the mascot of the University of Georgia (right), not the Mongrel Mob.

There is some case law of sorts on patch bans in New Zealand already. When public gang insignia was outlawed in Whanganui in 2009, Mongrel Mob member Brett Beamsley was one of the first people arrested. But the charge was dropped after Beamsley argued the bulldog on his beanie ‒ a Mongrel Mob symbol ‒ was actually the logo of Georgia University in the US. At the time, Beamsley had Mongrel Mob insignia ‒ three Ms ‒ tattooed (and exempt) on his face.

“I am concerned that the decision will be used to bait us,” Central district commander Superintendent Russell Gibson said after the prosecution ended. “Which is the very behaviour that the legislation was brought in to curb. It is for that reason I want to make it very clear to all gang members and associates in Wanganui that if a similar situation arises it is highly likely we will proceed with a prosecution and allow that prosecution to be tested in a court of law.”

Basham said police were seeking more advice on how to deal with a similar situation now.

“At the moment our legal advice is [that] wearing coloured clothing doesn’t trigger the legislation…We will keep a close eye on some of the Australian courts’ approach to these sorts of developments and where appropriate we will look to test that law.

“In terms of policing of the insignia piece, in Australia it’s been successful in reducing the intimidation.”

Gilbert is sceptical of such successes. “There’s a chance it might make people feel better but if it’s not going to have tangible outcomes on crime you've got to wonder if it’s worth breaching the Bill of Rights…It certainly will make policing more difficult and it will drive the gangs underground.”

“They won’t disappear. We just won’t see them.”