In a piece of news completely unrelated to students, but thankfully tenuously connected to this week’s theme, Critic can un-exclusively report that the Wanganui gang patch ban has gone down in flames after the High Court ruled the ban was illegal. Justice Clifford found that the Wanganui Council had exceeded its power in creating the bylaw.
A special act of parliament allowed the council to control the wearing of gang patches in the Wanganui urban area. However, the act did not give the council the power to ban patches and Justice Clifford found that the bylaw exceeded the delegated mandate of control, and effectively operated such as to ban the wearing of patches.
The ruling is a significant setback for the council, and in particular for former Wanganui major Michael Laws. Laws was particularly invested in the issue, having led the fight to pass the bylaw. Upon the release of the ruling, Laws urged his fellow councillors to lobby police national headquarters to fund an appeal against the ruling.
However, the wisdom of an appeal is questionable. Kensington Swan, lawyers for the council, stated that costs to take the case to the Court of Appeal are estimated at a minimum of $30,000, and a hearing in the higher court would not be expected until at least October, the Dominion Post reported. By contrast a simple redrafting of the bylaw could see a new control on patches in force by September.
The legal challenge to the ban was initiated by Philip Schubert, a member of the Auckland chapter of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club. Duncan Webb, one of the lawyers acting for Schubert, told the Dominion Post, “to take away the right to wear insignia is to take away the right almost to be a member [of the Hells Angels], but certainly the right to identify yourself as a member in public. You're driven underground, you cannot speak".
The decision is particularly embarrassing for the council given the earlier trumpeting of the bylaw as a blow against the power and profile of such gangs in New Zealand. In effect, the ruling has only served to highlight the ability of these gangs to fund expensive legal action and win decisively, while showing the Wanganui Council to be guilty of sloppy drafting and exceeding their mandate.
Gangs bang laws.
