NLD | Interview: The Dutch – Enabling Act

Brutus: My real name is irrelevant for rockerportal.de, but its users know me under the name Brutus. I am a Dutch native and became a member of an MC there – the regulars at rockerportal.de as well as the participants in the „Rocker Talk“ know which one. Now I am living in Germany and have also transferred to a German charter.

Brutus: As early as in 2000 the Dutch authorities under the leadership of former state attorney later minister of justice, Fred Teeven, started to dismantle the MC scene. They started with several investigations and in 2004, the authorities tried to declare the Hells Angels a criminal organization – an attempt that failed due to unauthorized eavesdropping on mobile phones, leaked out lies and falsifications by law enforcement and the authorities.
Afterwards, the Hells Angels in particular were put under pressure to make sure that the round table – the so-called „Council of Eight“ doesn’t anymore have a saying in who is wearing what on their backs and thus destroyed the entire balance in the scene.
The consequence was that the Council of Eight fell apart, new clubs were established without any rules or order, and arrangements between clubs for example regarding prospect periods were deliberately disregarded.
As a result, the entire thing started to grow like a cancer because no-one was in control anymore. Clubs like Satudarah (which grew from 40 members to 300 or more, including a flood of supporter clubs such as Saudarah) as well as spin-offs like No Surrender (around 400 members) and Trailer Trash Travellers (100 members) as well as the Bandidos MC which was created by former No Surrender members.

Many much smaller clubs were also created without anyone knowing who they are. Nowadays, the established MCs are regularly running into new clubs and street gangs wearing three-piece patches – organizations such as the Black Jackets and United Tribuns are now represented there. This created exactly the trouble the authorities wanted – particularly as nowadays there are a lot of people „around“ who don’t have a clue about the scene and don’t care much about riding either.

Another benefit to the authorities was the increase of offenses made by Bikers or „Biker-like“ offenders: 2000 Bikers or Bikerlike’s (estimated members of clubs in 2014) make of course more trouble than 300 ( estimated members in 2007 )of this kind of people.
With the new and quickly growing clubs, the „quality“ of many members is also lacking. Among them are many petty criminals and street gang members who wouldn’t have had a chance to join any serious MCs in the Netherlands are inspired by TV shows such as „Sons of Anarchy“ to run around wearing cuts because they look cool. These people have now found „homes“ with clubs such as the Black Jackets, Mongols, United Tribuns, Satudarah, and No Surrender – often even without a probationary period. This leads to the deterioration of the entire image of the formerly stable scene in the Netherlands. All of this has one goal: to undermine and disintegrate the entire scene, particularly the large MCs and manipulate the public image which in turn leads to a ban of all other MCs.

Brutus: No, because despite numerous attempts of the authorities to fuel the fire (going back several years already!) the current atmosphere is a general unrest. You can look up the entire story – until last week, nobody has as much as been slapped in the face (just look at the alleged shoot-out between the Bandidos and the Red Devils in the Dug-out Cafe). You won’t find any proof of violence between the clubs – at least nothing that points to a biker war. Occasional arguments like with the Dug-out don’t necessarily have to be club business, it could also be personal.

The clubs have met on various occasions and a number of events last year and until now, the fights the authorities so desperately hoped for haven’t happened.

For example, at the 2014 St. Joepmarkt in Sittard and on various Harley events such as in Hoorn 3 weeks ago, the press wrote about „huge tension“ between the clubs. – Nothing but lies by the press. The normal citizens are made feeling insecure by posting a large police force and if everything stays calm, this is celebrated as a successful operation – but we have the same type of propaganda here in Germany.

Yes, very much – as mentioned above. Although most of the former council is still working together fairly well (all clubs back then except Satudarah). But no-one can influence what’s currently going on – and at the moment, nobody wants to, either. Everyone fights for themselves. All for the state – just as they intended.

Brutus: They want to push through a draft that makes it possible to ban MCs. And that’s very current since two days ago, as a new draft was submitted with the goal to make it possible to ban MCs in the Netherlands! The lawyer of Satudarah has already made a corresponding statement. You can find its content in the press.

Even clubs that have never been involved in criminal activities are affected by this. Even former war heroes such as the Veterans MC are being harassed and humiliated, having to strip down to their underpants at police controls and being arrested if they don’t have their IDs with them. They aren’t even allowed to wear their cuts at their own parades.
EVERYONE who is riding around with their colors on and sighted by the police is being stripped down to the butthole – without any apparent reason. And now, some start to demand: „This is all much too expensive, we have to ban the clubs as a whole!“ – And that’s just the intended goal: Dismantling the entire MC scene!

Brutus: Well – it depends on your point of view. If the conscious decision to live differently, have a different opinion, be visible by wearing a cut or making controversial statements or just be a bit less mainstream or taking care of business on your own in certain situations means that according to your point of view, that person is „guilty“… Then yes. But this would also mean that those who were imprisoned in the former GDR were imprisoned because of their own fault.
Is this legitimate? No! This doesn’t have anything to do with the right of free speech and the right to choose one’s own beliefs and lifestyle. But people who think differently have been persecuted forever – history simply repeats itself. I don’t believe there is more criminality in the biker scene in the Netherlands than in the rest of the Dutch society. The large majority has normal jobs – just like here in Germany. If it were any different, they’d all be in jail by now!
But the government wants to change that, too: In the Netherlands, MC members are no longer allowed to hold public service jobs , employers of MC members are forced to fire these people, and work permits for legal businesses (such as security services or the gastronomy) are revoked or not given in the first place. This means that at some point, bikers no longer have the chance to do a normal job. It’s not hard to figure out the consequences.Speaking of the members of certain other groups which I don’t want to refer to as bikers: things have sped up dramatically in the last 2 years.
As a result, established clubs such as the HAMC, Veterans, Animals, Rogues etc. also have to bleed…

Brutus: The BMC has been here for just one year – but they have been pursuing this strategy for 15 years. The BMC was created as desired by the authorities so they can now extinguish the entire scene.
Nobody will be spared. And you can see that already: Bans of cuts on Harley events now apply to ALL clubs – even those who have never been noted for their criminal activities.

Brutus: Nothing is impossible – it would be in the joint interest of all clubs. And it would be an absolute nightmare for the authorities. But I think the Netherlands are still far from that – just like here in Germany. I could imagine talks like this should start in countries where they are already assembled around one table – just like Denmark, for example.

Brutus: The answer to this question applies to both Germany and the Netherlands: Just stay put and don’t carve each others skull in! There’s no need to celebrate Christmas together either. But they should stop to provoke each other by constantly establishing new chapters like in the Netherlands, Austria, and England. They should act like men and stick to their word and not get caught up in irrelevant, minor disagreements.

This could also destroy the fragile peace in other countries – which helps no-one. We all have a very powerful common enemy: the government!
And that should be our first concern.

Brutus: Stop believing what the lying press tells them and stop running after the authorities just like sheep in the slaughterhouse. Make up your own mind!
Society has to be aware that simply removing people who think differently is not beneficial for the variety of opinions and aspects of society as a whole.
This „color of people“ – the variety of different opinions and cultures and its tolerance has made the Netherlands what it is – and also made this country very popular.
Ultimately, the MC scene is also nothing but an alliance of individualists. Let’s not destroy this – or have it destroyed!