The bikie gangs are gathering

Press, 30 December 1976, Page 1

The bikie gangs are gathering

Eikie gangs are making their holiday treks, with police escorts. Three gangs were shadowed by the police in the South Island yesterday.

And Mongrel Mob members throughout the country are preparing to converge on Taumarunui next week. The gathering is to mark the anniversary of the death of a gang member during a confrontation with the police last January.

The police escorted two Christchurch gangs back, to the city from Blenheim yesterday. One patrol car followed several carloads of youths known as the Hampshire Street Mob, while another shadowed members of the Devil’s Henchmen motorcycle group.

Some members of the Hampshire Street Mob had been involved in a fracas at Picton early on Tuesday morning, according to the police.

The incident attracted widespread attention from the local news media, and it is believed that a tearooms in the mam street of Kaikoura closed down when the group arrived yesterday. The 300-kiiometre trip

was. a long one. for the police — both gangs made numerous stops on the way — but there were no incidents.

“They gave no trouble at all,” a police spokesman said last evening. . Ten motor-cyclists from the Mothers motor-cycle group in Palmerston North are travelling through the West Coast shadowed by a police car from their home city.

The 10, on seven motorcycles, travelled from Westport on Tuesday, and stayed in Hokitika overnight before continuing south towards Haast. The squad car has been trailing the motor-cyclists since just before Christmas when the group set out for a South Island tour.

Superintendent Bryan Dean, head of the Wanganui police district, said that at least 60 Mongrel Mob members from Hawke’s Bay alone were expected to congregate in Taumarunui next week, the Press Association reports. . “If that comes about we can reasonably expect that similar groups from other areas will attend the commemoration. We are expecting large numbers from these gangs to be there.

"At this stage we are uncertain of the numbers likely to attend. We do not anticipate any problems but it would be folly on our part to ignore their presences. “It remains to be seen whether the resources of this district will be sufficient — we could possibly obtain policemen from outside the area. This is normal procedure when we know something of this nature is coming up.

“The information we have is that there will be an influx of interested people, predominantly Maori, into Taumarunui for the anniversary of the boy’s death on January 4,” Mr Dean said. He described the Taumarunui Maori community as “fairly moderate and law-abiding’’ and said any trouble which occurred would likely be stirred up from outside rather than

by members of the com- i munity. Daniel Houpapa, a mem- j ber of the Taumarunui I Mongrel Mob, died after j the gang went to the local police station armed with iron bars, chains, kung fu stars and chairs after the arrest of one of their members.

Houpapa allegedly fired a shot in the air and two shots were fired towards a police dog handler before I he was shot.