Mildred: (Peggy Malay) “Hey Johnny, what are you rebelling against?”
Johnny: (Marlin Brando) “Whadda you got?”
The Wild One (1953)
It’s every city or town’s nightmare, probably has been since Marlon Brando’s striking movie The Wild One was released in 1953: a biker gang comes to town and all of a sudden a lot of things change–an increase in drug dealing, money laundering and turf wars.
Almost 17 years ago, police in Nova Scotia’s capital of Halifax shut down the notorious gang called the Hells Angels. Things have been fairly smooth since.
Now, the RCMP are expressing concern that outlaw biker gangs “want to get a foothold” in Halifax and its environs.
“We want to ensure that they do not,” RCMP Insp. Robert Doyle told a Monday meeting of the city’s Police Board of Commissioners in making a request for funding to hire six new officers.
Calling the bikers’ growth “prolific,” Doyle says at least four biker gangs are currently trying to establish a bigger presence.
“A number of years ago, through the efforts of policing, they were shut down in the area. What’s happened here in recent years is they’ve slowly come back into the area to the point now where they’ve got clubhouses set up here,” Doyle told the meeting.
Last fall, two Hells Angels members–one from Nova Scotia, the other from Ontario–were charged after drugs, firearms and cash was found in the gang’s clubhouse in Musquodoboit Harbour, about 45 km east of downtown Halifax.
That followed the arrests in Halifax of several members of the Gatekeepers Outlaw Motorcycle Gang, who were charged with uttering threats and criminal harassment.
Doyle says the additional officers are also needed to deal with the upcoming legalization of marijuana, an increase in mental health calls and cybercrime investigations.
The Police Board of Commissioners has ordered a staff report on the request.
Total cost of six new officers: about $878,000.
With files from Canadian Press, CBC
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