Gordon Freedom Fighters

Gordon Freedom Fighters (GFF) was an infamous local gang that caused a lot of trouble on the North Shore, Northern Beaches, and Ryde area back in the late 1990s and early 2000’s. This gang was notorious enough to be named in a Parliamentary committee:

☀"I am not sure exactly what you mean. The use of the term `triads' is a common enough term and it is used around the world. There are those types of gangs. If you talk about Asian gangs, you might have Big Circle, or Singh—one of those type of gangs. People will often take on their own name. Equally, if you go to Punchbowl, you will have a group called the Telopea Street Boys, who are relevant to one particular group. Within other areas of Sydney, you will find a group who called themselves the Gordon Freedom Fighters, because they have taken up their suburb name. Putting that aside, if we are talking about crime, if there is a general description that is valuable then it should be used."

☀https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id:committees/commrep/5867/0016

During the 90's at the peak of Sydney's gang scene, established gangs from Western Sydney attempted to to claim Gordon as a frontier for selling drugs on the Upper North Shore and surrounding areas for the following reasons:

1. Supply: Gordon is surrounded by quiet, bushy, affluent residential areas which is ideal for grow houses (cultivation of cannabis), and was easily accessible from the west via Ryde Road, and easy to access both the Northern Beaches, Lower Central Coast, and City. Furthermore, relative to the surrounding suburbs, Gordon had a higher share of ethnic youth (Persians & Asians) who were easier to recruit as members, since most felt ostracised in the local white majority schools and sought belonging.

2. Demand: Gordon is in the middle of Hornsby and Chatswood, at a transportation artery. with a bus interchange, with plenty of foot traffic from the abundance of shops and fast food joints (and alleys/car parks ideal for drug deals) This meant Gordon was full of potential customers who were the ideal type: teenagers, who had plenty of cash to spend on drugs but easily manipulated into paying more for some shitty weed (most private school kids aren't street smart). This holds true to today, and Gordon remains the main are in the Upper North Shore for drug transactions.

Not long after, local youth (mainly boys from Killara, St Ives and Turramurra High Schools aged 16-20) banded up to compete against these “invaders”, and formed a gang (hence the name Freedom Fighters) to make quick cash in their own suburb. Although not as large-scale or organised as gangs in the west, the GFF were able to engage in low level drug dealing (gram rather than bulk sales) to local youths without interference from other gangs. As the gang grew in size and scope and expanded to other areas, it began to use younger boys as runners (aged 13-16) who took advantage of Gordon's extensive transportation connections out to Macquarie, Northern Beaches, Hornsby. Many of these runners were robbed in Hornsby and Macquarie sparking a series of fights and a break-away faction forming after one of the main member's loyalties were questioned (as he lived in Waitara/Hornsby).

During the day GFF members were notorious for loitering in front of Gordon Maccas and Gordon Station intimidating/picking fights with passer-by's or looking for potential customers, or robbing kids at knifepoint in nearby alleyways. At night, members would congregate at the local park to do drugs or drink up, while some of the older members would go to local pubs to start fights.

  '''Contrary to popular belief, most of the founding members of GFF were not from affluent backgrounds, and attended local public schools (some lived in housing commissions in the East side of the station), but private school students from affluent families later joined en-masse when either pocket money or street cred were lacking - hence the stereotype of private school wannabe gangsters which influenced the reputation of GFF from harmful to harmless. Spawning memes such as Juice Brothers Crew '''

☀http://www.geocities.ws/juicebrotherscrew/juice.htm

'''Gordon being the slightly more affordable and ethnically diverse suburb in the Upper North Shore, many successful ethnic families originating from Western Sydney longing to live in the North Shore would move into Gordon for better business opportunities and public education, yet unfortunately bringing the gang culture and connections into the suburb. GFF was able to find success as many core members were connected to cousins and friends already deeply involved in Sydney's drug market. Ironically, this meant Western Sydney maintained significant indirect influence in the North Shore's drug market.'''

Gordon Station and its adjacent car park became a major hub for drug dealing on the Upper North Shore, and GFF rapidly took over the local market and sought to expand to other neighbouring areas, mainly Hornsby and Northern Beaches, and encountered rivals, notably the HB Crew (No. 10 in the article)https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/lawless-thugs-copy-meyham-from-america/news-story/efb952787fac58e18aad21e82cb7c7af?sv=9a5a1681e9141842dedf227b9c0802c1,

and gangs in the Northern Beaches (which peaked during the 90s, especially in Dee Why due to the influx of public housing), which GFF notably attacked

https://www.crikey.com.au/2005/12/19/trouble-at-the-beach-its-not-only-cronulla/

Fights were not uncommon with rivals encroaching on each others territories. - This is why so many "lads" congregated around Gordon Station to stop any rivals from entering.

However, GFF were not able to gain any significant territory outside of the Upper North Shore as other areas were under strong control by more established and organised groups.

Hornsby Shire was controlled by youth gangs loyal to bikie gangs (Rebels) based in the Central Coast who used Hornsby as a pit stop when bringing drugs/firearms/members into Sydney.

Northern Beaches was also under steady control of bikies due to the long history of public housing and local demand for heroin/meth.

City of Ryde was strongly controlled by Armenian mafia, who also controlled a large portion of the Cocaine market in Sydney.

Lower North Shore was controlled by various Chinese triad organisations - notably Big Circle, Singwa, Yee Tong, 14K and its associated sub-triad youth gangs which began to exert dominance in the Upper North Shore market (now Triad controls the majority of drug supply in areas which GFF used to control). Furthermore, many of the Asian members joined either triads or their youth sub-sets after fighting with white members of the GFF over supposed racism.

During the mid 2000's, gang activity in Gordon began to decline as many members moved out of the area or lifestyle and became tradies, but the few that remained either became incarcerated, drug addicted or joined more established gangs. There was a breakaway cell called the Little Brothers Crew (LBC), which was created by some of the younger GFF members, but this didn't last for that long as they formed a coalition with other small North Shore crews around 2006 to form the KB (Killara Boys) who pursued similar activities as the GFF and LBC, just under a different brand.

Since the 2010’s, the local council got rid of most loitering spots, cleaned up most graffiti and local police actively tried to put a stop on juvenile delinquency through increased patrols, yet this culture is still very much alive here with crimes still not uncommon, which is not surprising because kids look up to these figures and the cycle repeats. Gordon still remains a major spot to score drugs, with many dealers coming in an out of the suburb for transactions.

Recently, 4 were charged for kidnapping and assaulting a teenager in Gordon and demanding ransom due to unpaid drug debts.

https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/newslocal/north-shore/four-people-charged-over-alleged-kidnap-assault-on-teenager-in-gordon/news-story/49aa4e969a6924db6734ca87399beb8f