THE DAY BIKIES TOOK OVER A CITY
The roar of dozens of British motorcycles heralded an event that is still etched into the minds of police officers on duty in Palmerston North, New Zealand, on Easter Saturday 1972.
In his book of Manawatu police history Beyond the Call of Duty, the author Ray Carter wrote: “It would be without doubt the worst day Palmerston North has ever experienced.”
Back in 1972 Carter, although a police officer of seven years’ experience, was unprepared for the events that unfolded in front of him.
“I was totally overwhelmed by the mass of bikes and hardened-looking characters with their patches,” he told a reporter at the launch of his book in 2016.
Tension had been building for many months between the Mongrel Mob and bikers in the lower part of the North Island.
Over the previous few years an expansion of this mainly Maori youth street gang had seen it spread from the Hastings area all the way down to Wellington, New Zealand’s capital city.
In this time the outlaw-club culture in New Zealand had changed rapidly from the so-called ‘milkbar cowboys’ of the 60s to a more extreme, tougher version the news media called ‘bikies’.
What had started out as loose collections of motorcycle riders hanging out at corner stores and cafes on Friday nights had become a dedicated lifestyle choice.
The slicked-back, Brylcreem Fonz (from ) hairstyle and
