Posted on 09/07/2015 2:37:39 PM PDT by Elderberry
This is the 114th day of the Twin Peaks Massacre coverup. It is worth noting for two lamentable reasons.
First, the degree to which government officials have been uncooperative, obstructive and evasive about the Massacre is prima facie evidence that there is an official coverup. There was no probable cause to believe that most of the 177, or 182, or so, people arrested that day were guilty of “engaging in organized criminal activity.” There is probable cause to believe that police murdered at least six men and may have attempted to murder 20 more.
The second reason to note the ongoing coverup is the apparent disappearance of what just a few years ago was being called “the investigative impulse” in American journalism. The investigative impulse began, according to Jon Marshall of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, “in the 1600s, when Enlightenment philosophers taught that ‘people have a right to question their leaders.’”
To its inerasable shame, the Waco Tribune-Herald has not noticed the coverup. To its credit, the Houston Chronicle has. “Any time a prosecutor’s office or a politician does not want people talking about something, one should raise a red flag and insist we talk about it,” a law professor named Patrick Metze told the Chronicle this morning. “They may say it is to protect the investigation, but they are protecting themselves from whatever it is that they don’t want us to see or know about.” You can read the entire Chronicle piece here.
Based on information supplied by various sources who believe their lives, careers and pensions are in actual danger and who have spoken with The Aging Rebel under conditions of either “off the record” or “deep background,” this page will continue to report that the Twin Peaks Massacre was the result of a contrived and avoidable confrontation between members of the Cossacks Motorcycle Club and the Bandidos Motorcycle Club. The Aging Rebel believes that the confrontation was engineered by and anticipated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; the Texas Department of Public Safety and a Waco area law enforcement agency that was not the Waco Police Department. The Aging Rebel also believes that these police agencies, and possibly the Waco Police Department, began physically preparing for an armed confrontation to include the use of deadly force in the Twin Peaks restaurant parking lot at or before dawn on May 17. And finally, this page believes the Massacre was captured in its entirety by at least 44 video cameras. Investigating This Mess
The Associated Press defines information gained “off the record” as information that “cannot be used for publication.” The same news agency and most publications define “deep background” as information that “can be used but without attribution. The source does not want to be identified in any way, even on condition of anonymity.” Generally, information gained off the record can only be used after being substantiated by additional independent sources. Off the record information tells reporters where to llok and what to look for.
Off the record information about federal police actions is often substantiated by filing Freedom of Information Act requests with, for example, the Disclosure Division of the ATF. The information requests involving bikers are almost routinely denied on the grounds of either what the FOIA Act calls “Exemption Seven” or one of three “Exclusions.”
The exempt information is defined as, “Certain types of information compiled for law enforcement purposes.” The three exclusions are: One, “Subject of a criminal investigation or proceeding is unaware of the existence of records concerning the pending investigation or proceeding and disclosure of such records would interfere with the investigation or proceeding;” two, “Informant records maintained by a criminal law enforcement agency and the individual’s status as an informant is not known; and three, “Existence of FBI foreign intelligence, counterintelligence or international terrorism records are classified fact.”
Exclusion three is one reason why motorcycle clubs are frequently described as “transnational gangs.”
Taken together, the exemption and exclusions explain why “gang investigations” are always classified as “ongoing” even when the newest information in those investigations is more than a decade old.
After a FOIA request is denied, large news gathering organizations and some private law firms have the means to bring suit in federal court to discover exempt and excluded information. The Aging Rebel does not have the resources to pursue such lawsuits at this time. This page is aware that many of its conclusions about what happened in Waco on May 17 are unsubstantiated sand have been described as “speculative.” As one 23-year-old reporter recently put it, “A blog favorable to motorcycle clubs citing an undisclosed source…is not credible.”
Credible or not, the authorities in Texas have been blatantly manipulating public opinion since the day of the Massacre and the Department of Justice has, as yet, not chosen to intervene. One plausible explanation for that inaction is that the Department of Justice has been involved since sometime before May 1.
The Aging Rebel stands by its coverage of the Waco Twin Peaks Massacre and will continue to pursue the story.
Your head is humming and it won’t go, in case you don’t know, The piper’s calling you to join him,
Reckon that’s worth a new thread?
“And you parse “traffic infractions” as not including DUI.”
I only mentioned DUI one time. In that post I said that per Florida law the first two convictions were not felonies.
The first two are misdemeanors.
If you must, I will continue.
Traffic infractions are both civil and criminal. Criminal offenses can send you to jail.
A misdemeanor up to one year.
A felony for as long as stated in the state statues.
You can’t be sent to jail for a civil infraction.
I have no basis to either defend or counter your numbers but I have no problem with your reasoning.
“The warrant, issued by 19th State District Judge Ralph Strother, is for a bullet in the arm of James Kenneth “Spaz” Anderson, 53, of Henderson, Texas, a member of the Bandidos who was killed Sept. 3 when his motorcycle struck one or more deer on a highway in northwestern Nebraska”
I would guess he was not familiar with Nebraska deer.
I worked in NW Nebraska for two years and you had to take care not to hit all the dead deer on the roads.
Here’s another one. He said that 258 Bandidos were arrested in Operation Hog Trap. And he has stated this repeatedly. Here it is:
Million dollar bonds have been used in Waco before.
When hundreds of gangster hold a gun fight at a public plaza I start losing any sympathy over them having to spend a few days in jail.
They went to their bail hearings and most got their bonds reduced. I think all but one got out and that one had other warrants outstanding.
Two Hundred and Fifty Eight Bandidos got arrested in Operation Hog Trap.
Bandidos have gone down for murder.
About time someone holds the line and teaches them a lesson.
585 posted on 9/9/2015, 4:58:18 PM by TexasGator
I wouldn’t call it a lie exactly. Probably just mistaken? Misinformed? I don’t know. I called him on it and he doesn’t have anything to say about it. Maybe he’s just one of those folks that cannot admit to being wrong. Or maybe he wasn’t “wrong” exactly, but just using a false premise to make his point. Would you call that lying? That’s a strong word. Never used it in this forum. As far as I remember.....and I could be wrong. But I don’t think so.
How many criminals did lawmen catch at Waco?
That is yet to be determined in the courts. However, it is pretty clear that despite plenty of scrutiny the court in Waco determined there was probable cause for the arrests. It is yet to be determined if the charges result in convictions.
What is clear is that people were killed by some kind of event that (my opinion here) turned into a juvenile world wrestling federation royal rumble event complete with weapons over territory or real/imagined slights. It is further clear to me that the public was endangered by what appears to me (probably - as in probable cause) to be criminal activity.
The bully routine, name calling, and Lord of the Flies behavior these threads devolve into are pointless. It is also pointless to debate with folks who manufacture conspiracy theories and suggest the cops were deployed to start the fight and massacre the bikers. Seriously? I am accused of not seeing the probable cause (despite the courts seeing it) that existed for the arrests, but a few seem to think the cops set the whole thing up? What is more likely?
All of the argument based on limited information is a pointless exercise because the courts have to sort this out - ultimately by a jury of their peers. It is likely there were some naive’ well-meaning non-criminal bikers in attendance who got swept up having nothing to do with the fight beyond being there in seeming support to the Bandido’s dictating who can ride public roads and who can’t (personally I think that is criminal by itself). As I originally stated on this thread - I don’t see any of them as completely innocent because I am pretty sure the other clubs present (that were arrested) were paying the Bandido’s money so they could ride without interference. You accused me earlier of supporting tyranny because I disagree with you, yet you fail to see the basic tyranny in one club paying another to ride on public roads and wear what they want?
I think everyone deserves their own day in court regardless of what either of us think or believe. I also think each of us has the right to our own opinions. If you don’t (as I think you stated earlier) want to share a foxhole with me I am fine with that.
” deer that had wandered into the roadway”
Deer don’t wander into the roadway in Nebraska.
They think they own the roadway.
Separately, I just ran into a recent editorial at Waco Trib ... EDITORIAL: Texas DPS report says gang problem increasingly complicated in state - WacoTrib.com - Wednesday, September 9, 2015. The editorial is okay, it bemoans gang activity in general. I did get a chuckle out of the opening ...
A newly released Texas Department of Public Safety report on criminal gang activity hardly excuses the baffling due-process train wreck involving 177 individuals arrested after a deadly May 17 biker melee in Waco ...Emphasis is mine, not the editorial's.
Why do you not understand that “Criminal” does not just
include felonies? Why is that so hard to understand? Why
is straight talk foreign to you? Are you maybe Chinese
or something and the English language is maybe your second,
or possibly 3rd language?
Or possibly you are maybe a crack head or meth head or maybe
have an addiction to opiates. There is help available.
Seek it.
If they knew of the bullet, why didn’t they ask for a warrant earlier?
“Why do you not understand that “Criminal” does not just
include felonies?”
Did you not read the 683 you posted to or are you just trying to jerk me around.
But keep it up. Dudes here have been jerking me around for four months. Your just another in a long line.
Come on you target for faraway laughter, come on you stranger, you legend, you martyr, and shine!
As for police actions, by their own self-defense, they claim to have known a fight was brewing, and it comes out that the police set up pole cameras at Twin Peaks, preparing for Sunday, May 17th.
Why not stand around the parking lot, instead of away? Maybe direct traffic. Heck, if they had probable cause of conspiracy (which they claim to have), why not arrest at least a few of the troublemakers before they have a chance to start a fight?
Somewhat misleading?
This happened in Texas. Most, if not all involved were from Texas. You are, at least I am, innocent before proven guilty. What in the world kind of report would you think of as meaningful? Maybe research Interpol?
AP is not being deceitful here. It’s pretty straightforward. What part of “Do not have criminal convictions in Texas” don’t you understand?
As I have asked, and not been answered, If you have other information then post it. Otherwise, I’ll trust the AP research. Can you do the same? And if not, why not?
You’ve come up with all kind of percentages. Where did they come from? Pull them out of your ass? Yea. I thought so.
Do you believe Brent Strother’s statement that his men were sitting in their cars when the first shots were fired?
No, I was trying to wrap my head around the fact that you said “traffic infractions are not criminal.”
Then when I showed you that DUI was indeed a traffic infraction then you wanted to act like “Well sure, traffic infractions are indeed criminal”
That is all.
“Why not stand around the parking lot, instead of away? “
One of the Cossacks had observed the numerous cops and observed that the cops ‘had them covered’.
I don’t remember if he was referring to the cops having the Cossacks backs covered or if he was referring to the cops having the Bandidos ‘covered’.
What ever, he thought there was less worry. Perhaps that is why the Cossacks were so bold and took the fight to the Bandidos never thinking that the Bandidos would pull out the fire arms being ‘covered’ by the police.
No. I don't believe a word of his remarks without independent evidence. He's Baghdad Bob to me. Maybe they were in their cars, maybe they were standing next to them, who knows where they were. But we do know they weren't "mingling" with the people they claim to know had conspired to rumble that morning.
I would speculate that as few as ONE strategic arrest, say arrest some Cossack before the Bandidos show up, would have prevented the firefight. And if they want to be even handed, arrest two, one Cossack, and one Bandido. For what? some may ask. For the same thing they arrested them for after the fight, gang conspiracy.
If the cops stood in the middle of them when they did nothing they would be accused of harassment. If they stand back (like they apparently did) and the criminal stupidity begins they are accused of being incompetent. Seems like a damned if you do and damned if you don’t situation to me. If the cops were there because they feared trouble was brewing it was probably a good thing because trouble did happen and I believe more trouble was prevented. If the cops were wrong to be there because these are not violent folks in a potentially violent situation than your argument is defeated by the behavior that occurred. You can’t have it both ways.
We will see what happens after adjudication. As I said before, there was clearly probable cause according to the standards of the Waco court and the reviews since by the courts. My personal opinion remains - if these folks did not belong to a “club” that (my opinion) pays another known criminal club for the right to use public roads and wear what they want there would not be a problem. I believe the Bandido’s are criminals - period.
Those arrested will get their day in court as they should. I really can’t bring myself to feel sorry for them - let’s not forget what happened. I have not seen anything that makes me believe that the cops grabbed up innocent citizens eating in the restaurant despite all the stories to the contrary.
Maybe I am wrong, but we all have an opinion and this place revolves around our opinions. I know that we will never see all the evidence the jury does at trial and I have confidence that the good folks of Texas will get it right for them. I don’t blame the citizens of Waco for being ticked off about this event either - this was a very public setting with families and innocent by-standers placed in danger by the stupidity of a few bikers and the support for such stupidity by many more. That’s just the way I see it.
Again, if you disagree that is okay by me and I respect your right to have the opinions you state well.
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