4 Reasons that Waco Biker Gang Shootout Reflects Badly on Police

Reason ^ | June 2, 2015 | Brian Doherty

[don-o]

What was initially reported as a motorcycle gang shootout that killed nine and wounded 18 to which police heroically responded last month in Waco, TX, at the Twin Peaks restaurant seems a bit more complicated, and bit worse for the cops, than that as further details have been revealed.

This week one of the people arrested at the scene, Matthew Clendennen, filed a lawsuit directly against the officers involved in the incident (Manuel Chavez by name, the others as John and Jane Does) as well as the city.

From that suit filing, in which Mr. Clendennen presents himself as a man with no criminal record, former fireman, small business owner on whom employees depend, and father of three who also depend on his ability to earn income, not to rot in jail. He insists he committed no crime and had no intention of committing any crime when he was arrested while in the Twin Peaks restaurant in the aftermath of the shooting event, and that:

Despite the fact that...Clendennen committed no criminal acts he was arrested at Twin Peaks on or about May 17, 2015 without probable cause and his motorcycle was illegally seized....On or about May 18, 2015, Chavez, aided by [unnamed other police officers], presented a criminal complaint (the “criminal complaint”) against...Clendennen to Justice of the Peace Walter H. "Pete" Peterson (Peterson)....The criminal complaint alleges that Plaintiff Matthew Alan Clendennen committed the capital offense of engaging in organized criminal activity and is attached hereto as Attachment A.

It is believed that Peterson was chosen by Chavez, Does 1-10 and Does 11-20 because he is a former Texas Department of Public Safety Trooper with no formal legal training......the identical criminal complaint used in Plaintiff Matthew Alan Clendennen’s case was used to justify the arrest of more than 100 other individuals and only the names were changed in the various criminal complaints.

The complaint alleges absolutely no individualize probable cause to establish that Plaintiff Matthew Alan Clendennen engaged in organized criminal activity. Moreover, Chavez...failed to inform Peterson that Plaintiff Matthew Alan Clendennen was not a member of the Cossacks nor the Bandidos and that he did not participate in any of the violence occurring at Twin Peaks but instead hid from the violence.

Clendennen is claiming that 170 people on the scene were just rounded up and arrested, in many cases had their motorcycles stolen by police, and were given a uniform $1 million dollar bond with no particular individual reason to believe they had committed any crime at all. He's actually trying to hit not just the city government, but the specific officers who arrested him, with liability for violating his rights. He claims to be at risk of losing both any custody of two of his children and his landscaping business while in jail.

According to this local NBC report, it will be months before those arrested at Twin Peaks get a probable cause hearing. But this week the insanely high bond was reduced for many of them, and some of them started getting out.

There are at least four reasons to wonder if the police account and actions about the motorcycle gang shootout that they allege to have pacified are above reproach:

1) As Clendennen's lawsuit notes, there is insufficient reason to believe that all the 170 arrested even committed any actual crime.

2) The police originally claimed that all those they arrested were members of the two "criminal gangs" most implicated in the deaths, the Bandidos and Cossacks; Associated Press found that not only were they not all members of those specific gangs, but whatever the criminality of the gangs, 115 of the arrested had no criminal records in Texas at least.

3) The police originally claimed over 1,000 weapons were confiscated on site, a number then downgraded to 318; but having a weapon on one's person is neither evidence of having committed nor having planned to commit a crime, but certainly can when announced to the press make some nervous people think, wow, glad the police started opening fire on that crowd!

4) Despite police reports that the fighting and shooting began inside the restaurant and spilled out, closed-circuit footage of the restaurant seen by AP and reports from the restaurateurs to the AP indicate the shooting began outside, which is where the police already were.

The police were already surrounding the restaurant in force, ready for action. Exactly how and why they began firing on the bikers and what happened before then should not necessarily be trusted merely from their mouths. They still have not officially announced how many of the dead or wounded were shot by police themselves.

[Eleven Bravo 6 319thID]

The autopsies and ballistics tests have to be completed by now.
The cops know who shot who. The fact that nothing has been reported is cause for skepticism of anything the cops/authorities have to say.

[don-o]

It also wants us to accept prima facie statements made concerning innocence which is what is otherwise objected to if the argument is prima facie acceptance of guilt.

Probable cause - Piffle - Right?

No general warrant - Piffle - Right?

No excessive bail - Piffle - Right?

Presumption of innocence - Piffle - Right?

Freedom to assemble and associate - Piffle - Right?

[sport]

I would say that all of them were killed by the police. For two, actually three reasons: 1. No video of the incident has been released and the police always video their operations, from multiple angles when possible.2. No transcripts of 911 or any police radio traffic has been released. 3. The arrest of every witness and probably some who did not witness anything. The amount of bail they knew or believed that the arestees could not meet. And last but not least, they are being held incommunicado.

[justlurking]

I posted this from an article earlier:

http://radiolegendary.com/2015/06/mystery-lady-lawyer-breaks-legal-logjam-in-bond-reduction-hassle/

[Attorney] Looney revealed that his clients, a couple named English, William and his Morgan, were arrested as they arrived late at the Twin Peaks meeting following their ride from Brenham. A disturbance broke out, and hearing gunfire, they took cover. They were looking forward to a day of fun with fellow motorcycle enthusiasts when they unwittingly ran afoul of the law, local police, deputies and federal officers hell bent on rounding up “thugs.”

English is a Marine veteran of two tours of duty in Iraq. A nine-year veteran worker at Valmont, he and 160 fellow employees were recently laid off. His severance pay has been terminated because he hasn’t been able to check in since his arrest, according to his attorney.

Looney recalled that English said, “I heard two pops that sounded like small caliber gunfire, “Following that, I heard several bursts of assault weapon shots. I recognized the sound because I carried one of those weapons for six years as a marine. That’s all the gunfire I heard. Then the police started screaming ‘Get down!’”

I don't know if this source is reliable, or if the witness's statement was recounted correctly. But, it's an interesting account that might explain what actually happened.

[Robert Teesdale]

Anyone who doesn’t have questions about this incident isn’t really interested in the truth of what happened.

Most people aren't. Enough people are. Some of those have impact, some don't.

Humans are a crowd spectating species. That's what bread and circuses are about. We're headed more towards a global war footing, and it's permeating throughout the world. Look at a picture of the cops today. This is Oakland:




Here's somewhere in Texas:





Damn, they got it going in Yakima, Washington!





I look at the above picture and I gotta almost make a junior high scream of sarcasm, "Wolverines!" They look like East German troops in the 80's.

They look like they are hunting for Rambo. Wait, what...

Oh my God, they are so safe in Berkeley, CA. Look at these operators:




Let's talk about real war for a moment. Look at the above picture, think about the process of shooting select-fire weapons (unavailable to civilians) into a crowd of citizens lawfully assembling at a longstanding event with no history of violence. Prepositioned SWAT teams on rooftops and secreted through other business properties waiting for a Go order on their earpieces.

Someone made judgment call and green lit a mass firing exchange that wounded nearly 30 people and killed nine.

THIS document is what I look to as the law of the land:





It is meant to be understood by the common man. There is a sincere question facing all who have taken an oath to it and are weighing the balance of adherence to it.

What's your pivot point? When do you, oathsworn, make determination of individual conscience of action?

Or pick sides, if you want to be blunt about it.

I think some folks are going to. Going to eventually be some pressure on that.

[Robert Teesdale]

Post of the day. Ain’t sunlight great.

[sport]

I bet the autopsies were completed within the first 72 hours of the incident. I think that now they are trying to get their stories straight. Why, I don't know because they have the best one and that is, as the jackboot lickers so eloquently phrase it: "They were nothing but biker trash and deserved what they got!": "Thank the police for keeping us safe."“ Those of us that do not feel that way do not have the power to do anything about it. So why should they worry?

[Robert Teesdale]

Oh, and for those who support militarization of police and the execution of citizens as intimidation and coercion...





Hush. I think we're really past talking about it.

[Robert Teesdale]

Y'know, we really no longer have the moral culture the Founders put on us for preservation of what they built at existential and terrible risk.

What happens now when things crash is really up for grabs for anyone interested in intervening.

Wait until the Islamic State issues passports.

[Triple]

ooooh latin...you must be right!

[Parley Baer]

“I’ve got some new information that may new or not put together by the media.

I will try and post later.”

Maybe in a new thread so it will be closer to the top. Yes, a lot of questions need to be answered.

I think the police under reacted in Baltimore because of the mayor and in Waco it appears that they over reacted. Maybe because of the information the AFT was feeding them.

[ImJustAnotherOkie]

Doesn’t really matter who shot who. If the biker’s pulled out weapons, that’s all she wrote.

[Triple]

Free speech is one of the factors many consider for their “go” decision, but even with that as the measure - it is hard to decide when.

I would say these elimination of opposing thoughts happens in stages. (as do the other measures (gun confiscation, travel restrictions, targeted tax practices, targeted property seizures, EPA confiscations)

Stage 1 - Posters paid to influence/derail debate and discovery and marginalize people with certain facts or opinions. (We are without a doubt already at stage 1.)

Stage 2 - Technical/physical obstruction of dissemination of information and debate. (According to Sheryl Atkinson - beginning rollout.)

Stage 3 - Elimination of key nodes of information dissemination. (Hard to say, but there is some evidence that this has happened. Brietbart, Who died in that burned mercedes?, What about that couple that was prosecuted over TWA 800.)

Stage 4 - Overt malicious prosecution and conspicuous disappearances

Now, which one is your “go” stage again? My point is that is is really hard to come to the point that you raise the bonnie blue and push “all-in.” Perhaps personal encounters are the only universal trigger. Just look at the Jews in the 1930s- 1940s. They were not dumb, but too many peacefully entered the boxcars and camps - “Work will set them free.”

Never again, but exactly where is the line?

[Mr. K]

I am going to go out on a limb and guess ALL the dead were shot by cops

This thing has stunk from day 1

[Svartalfiar]

I don't know if this source is reliable, or if the witness's statement was recounted correctly. But, it's an interesting account that might explain what actually happened.

His account ties in to what I think happened based on several accounts.

Bandidos set up Cossacks. Fight starts in parking lot, Bandidos dude shoots one or two Cossacks. Cops then open the floodgates.

[BlueDragon]

Anyone who doesn’t have questions about this incident isn’t really interested in the truth of what happened.

Absolutely.

And thank you don-o, for the sanity you have been bringing to this subject matter, since the incident. Forgive me if you will for having not lent open support to your own comments previously.

If memory serves, everything you've had to say about it --- is entirely within realm of what needed to be said, yourself doing so with decency & restraint, not going things too far.

But that was not enough for a few individuals around here...like one who's initials could be t-g.

I know and see better now who is worthy of respect -- and who has here (at FR) earned nothing less than utter contempt.

[WayneS]

Is Waco PD an extension of a drug trafficking entity..?

Maybe we'll call that Question #5.

[arthurus]

Actors.

[don-o]

Maybe because of the information the AFT was feeding them.

I think that is a real possibility. Recall in Swanton's pressers, he stated that, in the immediate aftermath, more bikers were en route to exact retribution. Of course, none materialized. What was the source of that "heads up"?

He was overjoyed with the local, state and federal support that he had. Wonder how he feels now, being left to hold the bag?

[WayneS]

It also wants us to accept prima facie statements made concerning innocence which is what is otherwise objected to if the argument is prima facie acceptance of guilt.

Why shouldn't we accept the idea that people are innocent until proven guilty?

Why does doing so appear to bother you so much?