Starved Rock is popular destination for hikers and motorcyclist. The park sits between LaSalle and Ottawa, just a couple of hours away from Chicago and the suburbs. The terrain here is unique, and unlike most of the northern Illinois, which is flat. Click the header above for the full story which includes some nice pictures..........
LEGISLATION to ban criminal motorcycle gangs in South Australia should be tossed out of parliament, the state's two top legal groups say.
Breaking their silence on the bill, the Law Society and the Bar Association said it was a dangerous assault on civil liberties.
"This legislation goes too far," Law Society president Grant Feary and Bar Association president Dick Whitington QC say in a joint statement. "It should be withdrawn in its entirety."
They say the bill is an unwelcome repetition of the federal anti-terror laws, which undermine fair trials.
"We should not allow oppressive and repressive laws to become the norm," they say.
The Serious and Organised Crime Bill 2007 forms part of the Rann Government's self-described "war on bikies", using a 60-strong police taskforce to try to run outlaw bikie gangs out of the state. If passed, the law would deliver the state Attorney-General the power to proscribe bikie groups.
Police could then seek from magistrates control orders against individuals they suspect of being members, preventing them - under threat of a five-year jail sentence - from associating with other members.
The proposed legislation has been criticised by defence lawyers and members of community organisations.
In their statement yesterday, the legal bodies claim the bill is ripe for abuse by the Attorney-General, whose decision to ban an organisation - bikie gang or not - would not be open to appeal.
"The legislation undermines basic and fundamental civil and political rights of all groups and individuals," the statement says.
Accused people could not effectively oppose a control order because police evidence would remain secret - not presented in open court.
As such, innocent people would become vulnerable to "criminal intelligence" collected by police.
"There is no ability to challenge the truth or reliability of what may be unfounded and malicious allegations," the statement says.
With bipartisan support, the bill is likely to pass the state parliament in April.
The state's war on bikies has gathered pace since November, with 75 arrests or reports, including of 22 bikie gang members, and the confiscation of more than $120,000 in cash, cannabis, ecstasy tablets, amphetamines and 35 firearms.
Announcing a doubling in size of the Crime Gangs Taskforce to 60 officers, Attorney-General Michael Atkinson admitted that public servants - including government ministers - were at risk of retaliation from the gangs.
Mr Atkinson rejected the legal bodies' concerns, claiming lawyers and judges were out of step with the wider community. "Their objections aren't supported by the vast majority of South Australians," he said.
