A man from Northern Ireland has founded a paramilitary vigilante gang in Australia.
Gary Hall, who claims to have been connected with the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) while living in Northern Ireland, has founded the Alice Springs Volunteer Force (AVF) to combat crime in the desert town.
The AVF is modelled on the UVF, the Belfast Telegraph reports, and Hall says he founded the group to combat crime in the town of 30,000 – which he has largely blamed on the Aboriginal population.
Alice Springs is an isolated town, in the heart of the desert, with a 20% Aboriginal population. It has high levels of unemployment and a lack of funding for youth activities.
Hall began the group by advertising on the closed Alice Springs Facebook page, asking those with “firearms experience” and a military background to join his group, Vice reports. Hall is currently the only publicly known member of the group and identifies himself as the group spokesman.
The AVF are armed, Hall told NT News. “I’m only the spokesman for them and I’m sure that giving away their technical capabilities wouldn’t be something they’d like to see published.
“But I can confirm they are armed,” Mr Hall said.
Some responses to the group’s postings on the social media site have been overtly racist, and this has worried some locals that they will incite racial hatred.
"We're not a bunch of redneck Klu Klux Klannies," Hall said.
"This is an organized group, the definition of vigilante. A paramilitary is a military organization. So it helps to have someone who has had military training. Someone with discipline who can follow orders."
The group will use brutal punishments if they feel it is necessary, with tarring and feathering at the low end of the scale, according to Hall.
“The organisation will carry out punishment beatings and shootings if needs be, and by that I mean kneecappings,” Hall told Sunday Life.
“That is obviously a last resort, the AVF would prefer to limit itself to tarring and feathering but is prepared to take things further if necessary.”
The AVF now consists of “just under 20” members, Hall claims, with an aim of enlisting 100. The AVF is under close watch by police in Alice Springs, who are concerned it could incite racial hatred.
Hall is originally from Bangor, County Down and moved to Australia seven years ago, moving to Alice Springs six years ago.
He recently appeared in court accused of harassing and stalking a woman, and admits that his activities in the AVF mean his ex-partner will no longer allow him see his son.
When identifying the source of crime in Alice Springs, Hall – who denies being a racist – points to the Aboriginal population.
“There are basically two communities where I live — the whites and the Aborigines who are stuck in the 1700s.”
“They harass women,” he said.
“They (Aborigines) have carried out rapes, burglaries, assaults.
“It’s got to the stage now that we, the public, are having to do something about it and that’s why the AVF has been set up.”
The image of his group as racist, Hall claims, is a result of media coverage.
“It is true that the media over here have tried to portray the AVF and myself as racist. But the fact is that race plays no part in who the organisation targets.”
He insists there would be no need for the AVF if the police in the town were more capable of combating crime.
“There is no police accountability over here.
“When you watch a movie and see a big fat sheriff eating a doughnut that is just how the police are in Alice Springs.”
Alice Springs has a large Irish population, with 10% of all residents claiming Irish heritage. Hall claims he is concerned with how coverage of the AVF will go down with the Irish community in the town.
“Be fair to me when you write this because I drink in an Irish bar and don’t want the people down there thinking I’m some sort of mad loyalist. I’m doing this stuff with the AVF for the right reasons and to better the community.”
