The first is making the somewhat understandable mistake of believing all motorcyclists are being targeted.

Overlooked are the references to the specific gangs that police around the country say are responsible for organised crime.

To be fair, there is a valid concern that motorcyclists belonging to other clubs – or even motorcyclists generally – could come in for unwarranted attention.

A civil servant has been suspended after he was among 28 people including three Hells Angels who were charged in what police call a multi-million-dollar illegal offshore gambling enterprise

This is particularly the case with the recent ban on the wearing of insignia by the Bandidos, Outlaws, Devils Henchmen, Black Uhlans and Rebels. An unintended consequence of this law could be that police may wrongly assume a motorcyclist belongs to one of these gangs.

Still, the government and police have been clear their focus is on the gangs, not anyone on two wheels.

Not confused on this point are those in the second camp who argue the gangs are not gangs but clubs; and that like any organisation they’ve got their bad apples.

Police are said to be “profiling” members and “discriminating” against them by tarring all with the same brush.

Reports of gang “associates” being charged with this or that crime are derisively dismissed, implying the wannabe members somehow aren’t being influenced by those further up the line.

While those holding this view are willfully sticking their heads in the sand, they would surely be right to say outlaw motorcycle gangs – or clubs, as they prefer – are not entirely bad.

After all, the Nazis weren’t all bad either. No, seriously, they weren’t.

Oskar Schindler – of Schindler’s Ark / List fame – was a member of the Nazi Party. Yet he is remembered as a man who used his connections and his money to save 1200 Jewish workers from the gas chambers.

There were more like him; men who were literally card-carrying Nazis and who still did good deeds, often at great personal risk.

It’s an example that people generally don’t fit into neat little boxes marked “good” or “bad”, though the groups they choose to belong to certainly can.

Outlaw motorcycle gangs – along with other organised crime groups – are not comparable to the Nazis; that should go without saying. They are not trying to carve out a 1000-Year Reich or planning ethnic genocide on an unimaginable scale.

A police investigation into the Hells Angels prompted in part by suspicious fires now has gambling ring run by the bikers

The point, however, is a few good acts – such as raising funds for sick kids – or having members who are roundly seen as “good blokes” doesn’t change the reality.

These gangs have a culture that puts them at odds with the law and with society.

Ironically, they are less concerned about their reputations than those who have rushed to defend them.

Ironically, they are less concerned about their reputations than those who have rushed to defend them.

If they were then they would be expelling members convicted of serious crimes rather than standing by them.

They wouldn’t be fortifying club houses, or allowing their disagreements to descend into violence.

Even in the face of what might be considered by some as harassment, they would cooperate with police.

Rather than do any of the above, they have given us no reason to doubt what law enforcement agencies across the world have been saying for years.

And that police “propaganda” aside, the evidence has been there for all to see in our courts – and in the blood on our streets.

The Milperra Massacre – a clash between two gangs in Sydney that left six of their members dead along with an innocent 14-year-old girl – may have been 35 years ago, but it was not an isolated act.

Authorities dealt a staggering blow to Long Island’s murderous MS-13 gang busting 96 members and associates in the largest takedown of the notorious criminal group in New York state history

Ten years ago, on a Sunday afternoon, a brawl in the Sydney Airport saw an associate member of one gang beaten to death.

Spates of shootings, stabbings and so forth have erupted interstate from time to time, with outlaw motorcycle gangs at the centre of it all.

It would be naive to think the violence is all due to some petty rivalries, like those that might exist between supporters of different football teams.

It’s the organised criminal activities of these gangs – particularly in the trade of illicit drugs – that creates the turf wars.

Outlaw motorcycle gangs take a toll on our community, leaving many victims in their wake – from kids caught in the crossfire to those with drug addictions.

To argue otherwise is just ignorant.