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Wife of biker inmate: Some arrested in Texas are innocent
AP ^ | May 20, 2015 | Emily Schmall

Posted on 05/20/2015 10:10:09 AM PDT by bgill

Bullets ricocheted around the parking lot of Twin Peaks, the Waco restaurant where a motorcycle gang shootout left nine dead, just minutes after Theron Rhoten pulled in on his vintage Harley chopper for a regional motorcycle club meeting, according to Rhoten’s wife. Katie Rhoten told The Associated Press that her husband ran for cover and was later arrested, along with antique motorcycle enthusiast friends and other “nonviolent, noncriminal people.” Authorities swept up around 170 bikers who had descended on the restaurant for what one club member described as a gathering to discuss laws protecting motorcycle riders.... McLennan County Sheriff Parnell McNamara and Waco police Sgt. W. Patrick Swanton declined to comment Tuesday on allegations that innocent bikers were arrested.

(Excerpt) Read more at kxan.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: Texas
KEYWORDS: copcycle; motorcyclegangs; shooting; waco
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To: piytar
Something doesn’t smell right.

Nothing is right and nothing is wrong, they tell U.S.

41 posted on 05/20/2015 10:46:25 AM PDT by no-to-illegals (Do what is Right ... Take This Freepathon Over the Top!!!)
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To: bgill

I think it stands to reason that at least SOME of the 170 people swept up by the police following the incident are innocent of wrongdoing; especially considering that the event was a scheduled, regional Confederation of Clubs meeting, and most groups that participate in COC are NOT outlaw biker gangs.


42 posted on 05/20/2015 10:47:49 AM PDT by WayneS (Barack Obama makes Neville Chamberlin look like George Patton.)
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professionals ... handle two million bikes ... okay? Up d.c. way?


43 posted on 05/20/2015 10:48:14 AM PDT by no-to-illegals (Do what is Right ... Take This Freepathon Over the Top!!!)
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To: Sherman Logan

Where have you heard them whining?


44 posted on 05/20/2015 10:48:37 AM PDT by ansel12
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To: treetopsandroofs

Here’s the one that ticked me off the most from yesterday:

“As a Texan, these police are doing and acting just as I expect, and just as I want. And just as they’ve done throughout history, here in this state.”

This was from one satisfied freeper, and there were others who chose to believe exactly what they read.


45 posted on 05/20/2015 10:49:14 AM PDT by treetopsandroofs (Had FDR been GOP, there would have been no World Wars, just "The Great War" and "Roosevelt's Wars".)
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To: Salamander

Maybe I just saw a list of who they arrested. It’s really, really weird to me that groups of non criminals would choose to associate with criminal organizations, and this whole situation is one of the obvious issues with doing that. The good news is that the judge probably will have a list of which clubs to let go.


46 posted on 05/20/2015 10:49:16 AM PDT by thorvaldr
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To: WayneS

you truly believe your tag-line?


47 posted on 05/20/2015 10:49:25 AM PDT by no-to-illegals (Do what is Right ... Take This Freepathon Over the Top!!!)
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To: bgill; wardaddy

48 posted on 05/20/2015 10:50:21 AM PDT by Travis McGee (www.EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com)
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To: thorvaldr

One Sunday Morning Says It All ... Jesus is in Your Soul ... May It BE!


49 posted on 05/20/2015 10:51:00 AM PDT by no-to-illegals (Do what is Right ... Take This Freepathon Over the Top!!!)
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To: Starstruck

The vast majority of those “100 weapons” seem to be pocket knives, pipes, and chains. We are likely seeing “weapons inflation” here. It appears that most of the dead were shot at the entrance of the restaurant. In the article referenced below, it gives the number of weapons found both as 1,000 and 50. I suspect that the 1,000 is a typo, where they meant 100. I hope that we will eventually know what happened.

“Three of the dead were found in the parking lot just outside of the restaurant, four were found in front of the building and one had been dragged behind a neighboring restaurant, Swanton said.”

http://www.kwtx.com/home/headlines/Waco-Shooting-Near-Twin-Peaks-In-Waco-304043711.html


50 posted on 05/20/2015 10:52:07 AM PDT by marktwain
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To: Travis McGee

May We Speak With The City of Gold and God ...


51 posted on 05/20/2015 10:52:20 AM PDT by no-to-illegals (Do what is Right ... Take This Freepathon Over the Top!!!)
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To: manc

No point in commenting on anything AP.


52 posted on 05/20/2015 10:52:29 AM PDT by stephenjohnbanker (My Batting Average( 1,000) (GOPe is that easy to read))
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To: al baby

“I think it was an ambush by the Police looks like they set them up to be hit”

Begins to look like that to me too. All four supposedly killed by police gunfire were hit in the head and neck. The cops were definitely determined to kill anyone that they shot, and you don’t get that kind of deadly accuracy without a very good rifle. What will be interesting is if any of the other decedents were shot by anyone other than the cops. And you have to believe that they weren’t stupid enough not to see the cops if the cops were just there to keep order. I hate to think it, but it is looking more that the cops were “housecleaning.” The question is, if that’s true, will they once again get away with it.


53 posted on 05/20/2015 10:52:44 AM PDT by vette6387
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To: bgill

Yeah, and I’m sure that so many of the people in Baltimore were simply walking by those protests and just got caught up in the mayhem. Actually, they were all walking home from church.


54 posted on 05/20/2015 10:54:12 AM PDT by thefactor (yes, as a matter of fact, i DID only read the excerpt)
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To: Travis McGee

...or both.


55 posted on 05/20/2015 10:54:32 AM PDT by WayneS (Barack Obama makes Neville Chamberlin look like George Patton.)
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To: no-to-illegals

Note that no such free fire zone is postulated at the border which features real criminal gangs using real automatic weapons to commit real serious felonies on a scale unheard of in American history.

I simply can’t remember when the BP shot up a gang of smugglers with a body count like this. They aren’t even issued real guns anymore - all they have are bean bags.

Apparently it’s OK to do that Citizens of the United States, though.

This will all end up being Waco 2. People can say “they’re all criminals!” but the circumstances aren’t going to justify mowing people down in a parking lot. This will be in court for the next decade, and it ain’t gonna be fun for Waco, it’s police department, courts or population.


56 posted on 05/20/2015 10:55:17 AM PDT by Regulator
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To: bgill

The criminal 1% gangs, are only too happy to have the peaceful biker clubs to associate and give them cover.

Members of the general public don’t have the information or interest, to make fine distinctions, for who does and does not have a particular patch.

I assume the bad guys here, were the Banditos, known criminal gang, and the uninvited Cossacks, known criminal gang, affiliated with the Hells Angels, and not invited to the confab at the sports bar.

Maybe additional criminal elements desiring association with Banditos and/or Cossacks.

Then supposedly, in addition to the known criminal gangs, there are biker clubs, non-violent, in attendance.

And articles like this are pleas for the public to recognize the distinctions. I get that.

But why do non-violent bike club members, even associate with known criminal bike gangs?

When the non-violent folks get caught in the crossfire, or swept up in mass arrests, I have a fairly small reservoir of empathy for them.

IMO the non-criminal clubs, are being used as “respectability” cover, for drug dealers and murderers.

I just finished a series on Netflix about the infiltration, and use of RICO against the NY mafia, by Giuliani, when he was a federal prosecutor. FBI agent Joe Pistone was undercover (aka Donnie Brasco).

Law enforcement wanted to take down the five family leaders. It worked, although some were assassinated or committed suicide.

RICO was the legal mechanism. Everybody involved can be charged with more serious crimes, by association with a criminal network.

Technically speaking, anybody attending last weekend, that knew the nature of the Banditos, might catch a murder charge, since the cops killed some bad guys.

I believe many of the “good guys” like the vicarious thrill of associating with known criminal “bad guys.”


57 posted on 05/20/2015 10:56:30 AM PDT by truth_seeker
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To: al baby

I don’t know if it was planned, but if a few people in a crowd are fighting each other and draw weapons, you don’t open fire on the whole crowd.


58 posted on 05/20/2015 10:56:38 AM PDT by Hugin ("Do yourself a favor--first thing, get a firearm!")
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To: Travis McGee; All

Notice that the bald guy with his back to us, has both a knife and a chain.

I guess those count as two weapons confiscated by the police.


59 posted on 05/20/2015 10:56:49 AM PDT by marktwain
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To: V_TWIN

He was never charged with any crime.

The University cleared him of her accusations.

He sexually used and abused an emotionally disturbed girl. It wasn’t illegal, but it was immoral.

You sow what you reap.

Next he will be complaining a prostitute gave him VD.

He chose to be a part of this insane and dark world of his own volition.

He continues in this cycle of vanity with his lawsuit.

He can’t walk away, repent and change his ways but is as tied to it as the mattress girl.


60 posted on 05/20/2015 10:56:54 AM PDT by ifinnegan
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