“And that supports my point that some number of these guys, especially in the Cossack sub-club(s), with the low or no barrier to entry, appear to be non-criminal dupes.”
You don’t get “duped” into joining an outlaw gang. You’ve got to prospect to get in, it can take months or even years before they trust you, and they will make you commit crimes to prove yourself.
That is, unless the Cossacks were not operating like all the rest of the Outlaw gangs and were more like a “wannabe” operation. I suppose that is a possibility, but the Bandidos seemed to treat them as a threat so I doubt it.
That is because some here intentionally misrepresent non-criminal clubs as gangs to further an agenda. And quite frankly, I don’t really give a rat’s behind one way or the other, outside the fact I hate to see scores of people’s rights violated, and the human toll that extends far beyond.
On the date of the incident only the Bandidos were designated by DPS as a criminal gang. And that is still true, is it not?
As far as the Cossacks and their sub-clubs, it’s pretty clear some, like Clendennen (and I use him as an example simply because he is one of the few we know anything about), seem clueless, and uninvolved in any criminal aspect or intent.
And short of an email, text message or recorded phone call or other compelling evidencing individual “Clendennens” in this mess were knowing participants, I’m willing to not see their and their families’ lives utterly destroyed over a simple stupid decision to play dress up in a vest, and go have beers with their buddies on the weekends.
Some here seem to pass it off as collateral damage. Some seem to delight in the destruction.