Posted on 08/19/2015 6:02:18 AM PDT by don-o
Yesterday in Waco, a judge named James Morgan, ruled that there was probable cause to arrest William and Morgan English, a nice, young couple from Brenham, Texas, for engaging in organized criminal activity. The charge carries a penalty of five to 99 years in prison.
The Englishes had attended a brunch sponsored by the Texas Confederation of Clubs and Independents on May 17 at the Twin Peaks restaurant. Multiple, informed sources said Judge Morgan did not appear to be drunk.
Morgan based his ruling on the testimony of a Texas Department of Public Safety Lieutenant named Steven Schwartz who indentified a riding group called “Distorted” as a “support club” for the Bandidos Motorcycle Club. Schwartz called the Bandidos a “criminal street gang.” William “Piddle” English belongs to Distorted which has five other members. Morgan English was wearing a vest that described her as a Distorted Old Lady who was “Property of Piddle.”
Forbidden Flair
As is the custom in much of Texas among motorcycle riders, members of Distorted and women associated with members wear a small tab on the front of their club vests that reads, “I Support The Fat Mexican.” The felonious phrase is a reference to the Bandidos logo: A cartoon of a man with a big belly who is wearing a serape and a very heroic sombrero with a revolver in his right hand and a machete in his left.
Shwartz testified both that he had never heard of the Distorted before that day and that he knew that the Distorted was there that day in a “show of support” for the Bandidos. He also testified that of the seven members of the Distorted only William English, who was convicted of driving while intoxicated, has a criminal past. He also testified that the support tab the club members wear proves the Distorted is “somewhat involved in criminal activity.”
Shwartz also testified that the Confederation of Clubs and Independents is front for the Bandidos and that the Bandidos is a “security threat group.”
“Bandidos historically use support groups to do their dirty work so that the Bandidos don’t look bad,” Schwartz testified under oath.
Back In June
Morgan English testified that she drove a car to the restaurant that day, that there was a gun in the car and that she did, in fact, support the Bandidos. She said she left the gun locked in the car after she parked. Under Texas law, it is legal to have a gun in your car when travelling. Her husband testified that he knew there were “some issues” between the Bandidos and members of the Cossacks Motorcycle Club.
William and Morgan English were briefly famous at the beginning of June after their attorney, Paul Looney, negotiated a bond reduction and the couple was released.
They made us all feel like animals, like they herded us,” Morgan English complained at the time.
Her husband said “This whole thing is a sham. I’m kind of upset that we had to pay to get out of jail when we did nothing wrong.”
Yeah, I don’t think I would compare those type of guys to outlaw clubs, even if some of the “riding clubs” might get rowdy and party, they don’t live by the same set of rules that the one percenters do. I’ve known one percenters, and they are very much criminals. They do not let people in who are not willing to prove themselves by committing some type of serious crime or another. In most clubs, a prospect has to assault anyone that a full member tells them to, for example, and if they refuse, they are out the door.
I’m not being funny. I do believe he’s confirmed that he lives there in his posts as well.
Thanks Jim, for your consideration. No problem for you, no problem for me. A word to the wise is sufficient, but I am at the age that if someone tries to actually attack me they do so at their own peril, one of us will not leave the scene breathing.
My “criminal” references have always been directed toward those at the Waco shootout that were arrested for participating in or conspiring in a rather significant 9 person murder event, or bikers who look the part to intimidate others, anything seen as wider was taken out of context.
As I have stated numerous times on similar threads, I have many law abiding friends who ride and like many other motorcycle riders, are definitely not criminal, but they are also not members of a criminal gang like the Bandidos and Cossacks that did partake in the Waco incident. Those patriot riders you mention are not gangs and were never any part of the discussions.
Your sense of criminal justice is bass-ackwards. In a free country, it’s innocent until proven guilty, not the other way around.
The police took 170+ people into custody, set million dollar bonds on each, and have yet to show evidence that those they arrested committed a crime. The record may yet show that of the nine dead, all were killed by police.
As a matter of public trust and accountability, the government in taking such extraordinary actions as it has in this matter has a responsibility to show enough evidence that a reasonable person could believe that the people in custody - each of the 170+ - actually committed crimes. It does not work the other way around where you assume everyone arrested committed a crime until and unless exonerated.
For the civil forfeiture cases, the state made more particular allegations than appear on the cookie-cutter warrants. In other words, the state showed more evidence in the civil forfeiture cases, and in those cases, the accusations are more than repetition of the statutory language.
For the rest of them, the accusations are in fact insufficient, except in Texas courts, where evidence that a crime was committed is not required to support a finding of probable cause.
“Your sense of criminal justice is bass-ackwards. In a free country, it’s innocent until proven guilty, not the other way around.”
Nonsense. Where did I insist they were all guilty?
“The police took 170+ people into custody, set million dollar bonds on each, and have yet to show evidence that those they arrested committed a crime.”
More nonsense. The police showed enough evidence to satisfy judges that the arrests were legitimate, and they don’t have to show any more than that before the trials. Funny that nobody gets upset with those facts in all the other millions and millions of criminal cases in America, just this particular one.
“The record may yet show that of the nine dead, all were killed by police.”
Not very likely, since even the bikers themselves say that bikers started the killings.
“As a matter of public trust and accountability, the government in taking such extraordinary actions as it has in this matter has a responsibility to show enough evidence that a reasonable person could believe that the people in custody - each of the 170+ - actually committed crimes.”
They have the same responsibilities they do in every other criminal case, and so far, I’ve seen no evidence that they haven’t fulfilled them.
“It does not work the other way around where you assume everyone arrested committed a crime until and unless exonerated.”
I don’t assume that, however it is obvious SOME of them must have committed very heinous crimes that day, because the dead bodies they left behind testify to that. That also makes the position of many around here, who assume that NONE committed a crime, absolutely ludicrous.
You think I am that guy?
Oh man, you are way off base. I hate fishing and I wouldn’t be caught dead in a fanny pack.
“Her husband testified that he knew there were “some issues” between the Bandidos and members of the Cossacks Motorcycle Club. “
LOL!
And they still went!
“LOL! And they still went!”
Correction:
They were ‘instructed’ to be their.
There is a Fed agenda behind this. It will eventually come out. The goobers in Waco Police are just pawns, pretty dumb ones if you ask me.
But you did not ask me. hee hee hee
Has a single murder charge been filed?
Not publicly yet.
“They were ‘instructed’ to be there.”
The club the English couple belonged to (maybe the use of the past tense is hopeful on my part), allow(ed) women to be members, not merely ride with the demeaning “property of” patch.
So as a member, she had to ride also, where ordered, to bolster the numbers of the Bandido affiliates.
It was not a husband deciding to bring his wife to what might be a fight, but the wife as a member of a Bandido support club, also being obliged to ride . . . where-ever, when-ever, just following orders!
So if a murder charge isn’t filed, I must believe a murder didn’t happen?
Article: “They made us all feel like animals, like they herded us,” Morgan English complained at the time.”
I guess she felt right at home ... after all her patch reads “Property of Piddle”.
"Julie Perkins, a full patch member, left her ol’ lady at home not feeling well and joined several of her club brothers, while Morgan English decided to attend the meeting at the last minute with her husband." amyirenewhite
“after all her patch reads “Property of Piddle”.”
BUT she was a member of this club; most clubs, women wear the “Property of” patch but are not acknowledged members of the club, as I have seen.
WHY does that degraded status of women within clubs NOT offend freedom loving bikers? Should I ping Finny?? I guess in fairness I have to.
Finny WHY does not the degraded status of women in the biker clubs offend you? It is not government which is putting these women down into an inferior status; it is apparently of their own “free will” withing the “society” of the bikers, that such misogyny is accepted. SAD IMHO.
If I am wrong, please KINDLY inform me. I do not invite you to this conversation in order to be flamed; only to gain more insight.
“WHY does that degraded status of women within clubs NOT offend freedom loving bikers?”
The ONLY freedom a ‘man’ has left when he joins a MC is to degrade his ol’ lady when he want to.
“degrade his ol’ lady”
When I was looking early on for the Obituaries of those killed, I came across the term “PBOL” i.e. Proud Bandido Old Lady.
That term sickened me.
I have the utmost respect for my husband and for my father. Neither of whom would have allowed their wives or daughters to wear a “Property OF” badge!
Real men do not need such fake homage; a woman with any self respect would not willingly wear a “property of” patch! This is indeed a sickening aspect of the biker club culture, I mean such clubs which allow much less REQUIRE it!
How much different is that, than the cultures which degrade women such as requiring them to wear black clothing, or allowing them to be raped, etc.?
There is quite simply something quite WRONG with the criminal biker culture. The clarity is shining like a bright light.
With autopsies, ballistic tests, multiple video sources, cell phone analysis, finger printing from guns; you would think that at least one person would be charged with murder?
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Innocent Americans Punished By Civil Asset Forfeiture Laws
http://www.americancowboychronicles.com/2015/08/innocent-americans-punished-by-civil.html
Innocent assumed guilty until proven innocent? Not in our legal traditions. But none the less exists.
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