Posted on 05/25/2015 5:20:45 PM PDT by windcliff
For more than two decades, thousands of African American motorcyclists have traveled across the nation to South Carolina, to attend the Atlantic Beach Memorial Day Bikefest. On the last weekend in May every year, the low hum of customized choppers with high-handle bars and the high-pitched revs of neon-painted street bikes have sounded out on Ocean Boulevard.
The 2015 Bikefest, however, was different. Ocean Boulevard, a two-lane commercial strip running parallel to the Atlantic Ocean, was partially closed. Hundreds of police officers enforced a one-way traffic pattern that clogged streets for miles and forced motorcyclists to idle in gridlock for hours. Much to the dismay of riders, pedestrians walked faster than bikes.
Outside the Sandy Beach Oceanfront Resort, Sean Robinson watched the stop-and-go traffic from the seat of his parked 2008 Harley Davidson, his arms crossed. For the sixth consecutive year, he had traveled five hours from Richmond, Virginia, to attend Bikefest, which is known to most attendees as “Black Bike Week”. He was upset with the way things had changed.
“I’ll never come again,” said Robinson, blasting Migos’ hit song Hannah Montana from the stereo of his bike. He said his group of friends spent more than $20,000 on lodging for a week-long stay, with little return.
“We’re spending a whole lot of money,” he said. “You can’t ride a Harley. You can’t move. It used to be open and you could go both ways, sideways, everything.”
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
Well, it wasn’t like Waco where the cops just unloaded on the bikers.
One has a tremendous amount of criminal activity associated with it, the other doesn’t. Stop calling it racism and ride with a better class of riders.
When we used to go to N Myrtle in the 80’s, the beach road stopped at Atlantic Beach and continued after AB. Vestiges of Jim Crow
We unwittingly reserved a condo for a week beginning the Friday of Memorial weekend in Myrtle Beach. We have never been there before, and were just told recently by the leasing agent that there was a “bike rally” to take place while we were there.
What a culture shock. Even the local blacks seemed to be ashamed of the activities.
The elevators in our building were shut down 4-5 times over the weekend due to fire alarms being set off, and of course the alarm itself was eventually ignored.
It was extremely loud everywhere, with music blasting from buildings, cars and motorcycles, in addition to all the yelling; no one can just speak to one another.
We stayed in our room on the balcony for the most part with a pair of binoculars and cold drinks.
Talking to the locals today, now that the area is getting back to normal, they want the tightened security to push these people elsewhere. There was law enforcement everywhere, only one death and one shooting. I guess last year there were 3-4 gunshot deaths, and no one saw nothin.
The governor (Nicki Haley) told the locals that she wants it to end, and the tightened security is one move. Locals tell me that the governor has threatened to shut off funding if it isn’t stopped. Not sure how much she can really do, but I get the impression that here in Myrtle Beach, no one will miss it.
They do not seem to put enough back in to the area to make it worth the trouble. One store clerk told me that a lot of them come and camp in gas station and store parking lots to avoid paying for hotel rooms. The hotel staff here said several of the rooms are trashed. Not surprised at all, sadlly.
All the condoms were sold out of the gift store, bought by the females. So there is that to be thankful for, at least.
Same thing happened to “Freaknick” in Atlanta. Nobody wants that kind of behaviour. It isn’t racist to demand a little respect and civility from visitors.
This is why YOU can not have nice things.
Another Atlantic Beach Bike fest has come and gone, and in it's aftermath Myrtle Beach residents are expressing their frustrations over the event, which has once again lived up to its reputation of being a weekend-long crime wave. WMBF News and other local, online media outlets are filled with reports this morning detailing several armed robberies, at least two shootings, numerous assaults, fights, domestic disturbances, drug sales in broad daylight on the streets, larcenies, and a laundry list of minor offenses ranging from public intoxication to urinating in public.
More than 1,000 crime reports were issued in the in the four-day period from Thursday to Sunday. In case you're wondering, that's more than ten-percent of the crime reports for the entire year. A larger police presence was promised this year, and it was delivered. No doubt things could have been worse, but the heavier law enforcement presence wasn't enough to prevent Myrtle Beach from being inundated with rampant criminal activity. However, most resident's complaints aren't with how the police handled the crime associated with the rally. They understand there is little police can do in the face of such a massive influx of people, many of whom have no respect for the law or the people who live here.
How many homicides in Sturgis?
That is funny!
A good summary, except you left out a few things:
Saturday morning and Sunday night we took long walks down the street and took in the event at close range. Indeed it was loud with people acting like fools and such, yet in fairness, people we talked to (almost 100% black) were nice to us...especially the ladies. A couple of the men acknowledged, if indirectly, that the bad element was present and tended to ruin things for others. They knew, and yet I can only imagine the response if WE had mentioned it.
You could argue that we had no business being out there Sunday night, but at no time did we feel unsafe. The attitude toward us was of a curious nature, with most just asking if we were enjoying our weekend and such. There were a few whites sprinkled here and there, but not many.
Any tourist town would be happy to have 400,000-500,000 people come in if they had some respect for themselves and for the town. Who wants that many feral thugs acting like animals having sex, dealing drugs, defecating and tearing up property wherever they want? From what I hear, if the residents do not leave town for this weekend they go and get what they need and have to lock themselves in their homes for the entire time. The NAACP went down there on Thurs. giving a presser saying they would be watching to make sure no one was discriminated against. What a joke. I feel sorry for MB. I can’t believe this doesn’t cost the town more than anyone makes. All you have to do is go on youtube to see what goes on and these people are proud of it. There’s also a FB page called Myrtle Beach Against Bikefest to get a first hand account of what the residents have to put up with.
In 2012 nine people died in traffic accidents over the course of the rally. Six people died in 2013.
"One week after a gathering of biker gangs in Texas that resulted in nine deaths and 170 arrests, thousands of motorcycle riders roared into the nation's capital Sunday to honor military veterans, prisoners of war and soldiers missing in action."
and ending up with
"Last Sunday, 170 people were arrested in connection with the shootout among rival bikers that left nine dead and 18 wounded and turned a Waco, Texas restaurant into a blood-soaked crime scene."
The article (TR's) said the media should 'stay classy' also mentioned heightened security at other sites throughout the country including South Carolina.
Like the 'man' said, it isn't what they report it is what they leave out of a story and what they don't report.
Trying to tie Waco and DC together (in any context -except Bikes were involved) is disrespectful and dishonest, plus trying to incite the 'people' with sensationalist reporting.
Like the letter to editor I submitted when someone said handguns should be confiscated to keep the 'killings' down, I cited that I have carried for many a year NEVER shooting anyone so taking my gun would be like cutting my 'tallywacker' off to help decrease rapes. (I have NEVER assaulted or raped anyone either)
I remember that. You had to go back up to 17.
Snip:
Going on her fourth sleepless night, Linda Griffin and her neighbors say attitudes are just getting worse, and she says confronting them is next to impossible.
"You know why are you doing this?! They just cuss you out, as to... you know, they have no respect, they have no respect for themselves! You don't use the bathroom in public!" Griffin said.
Not only has Griffin witnessed the Bermuda Sands overflow parking lot become a place where people sleep, she says they're also using it as a bathroom.
Others say they've seen drug sales out of people's trunks.
Lets see why did they do that? Is it because of the news about blacks and motorcyclists?
They can whine all the want, but this particular group of bikers have for years repeatedly wrecked havoc when they’ve shown up for these events.
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