Posted on 06/03/2015 8:48:50 AM PDT by 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 Clendennens 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.
“I find it interesting that over 5 biker gangs were there but eight of the nine killed were from one gang only, the very gang rumored to have been unwilling to pay a narcotics trafficking territory fee.”
So you are saying the bikers killed were drug traffickers or part of a drug trafficking biker gang?
My take on this is that any idiot who assumes that everyone riding motorcycles and wearing denim or leather clothing covered in patches is a criminal has zero business in law enforcement, legal practice, or the judiciary.
Now, members of the public with ignorance or phobias of this sort are just annoying. When you get a hysterical over reach like this then there is a problem.
My take on this is that any idiot who assumes that everyone riding motorcycles and wearing denim or leather clothing covered in patches is a criminal has zero business in law enforcement, legal practice, or the judiciary.
Now, members of the public with ignorance or phobias of this sort are just annoying. When you get a hysterical over reach like this then there is a problem.
My take on this is that any idiot who assumes that everyone riding motorcycles and wearing denim or leather clothing covered in patches is a criminal has zero business in law enforcement, legal practice, or the judiciary.
Now, members of the public with ignorance or phobias of this sort are just annoying. When you get a hysterical over reach like this then there is a problem.
So .. if someone pulls out a weapon ... say a knife ... it's OK for the cops to shoot both of you ... is that what you are saying ?
As of right now, that is my guess as well.
Triple post. Not a record for my phone, but irritating.
These thoughts had crossed my mind...but others here would say that' over the top paranoid.
Still, who is guarding the guards?
“Why shouldn’t we accept the idea that people are innocent until proven guilty?”
Of course this is the case. The accused do not need to prove innocence, accuser must prove guilt in court.
But that is not relevant to the point I made concerning acceptance of claims.
I can no more accept the claim that all these arrested bikers are guilty than the claim that they are all innocent and being railroaded.
There is no way for me to know either is the case, nor for anyone else commenting on this issue here.
I like the way they label the military vehicles “Rescue”.
You are TOO kind. I have time on my hands these days, so I choose to use a great deal of it in this matter.
We all need to be encouraging each other to think deeply and soberly about what is happening before our eyes.
Trite it may be, but those who do not learn from the past are doomed to repeat it.
It's not only the NYT who has trolls in the basement.
Am I the only one around here (no, I'm not) that is sensing the Christian West of the world is being increasingly pressed from all sides, all at once?
Just how many types of subversion are there, anyway?
Even the same ol', same 'ol keeps taking slightly shape-shifted, fresher form.
It really hurts when some of the useful idiots (who are tearing at the Constitutional foundations) are empowered within government, included down to level of localized LE itself.
If good guys wear white hats, I'd go broke if I was to attempt to supply/sell those to who deserved to wear 'em?
I long for a simpler age that never truly was(?) I suppose...
Pretty much what im saying in a public.place in a threatening manner yes. That is the cop’s job. Should the cop hand them a questionnaire regarding their intentions?
Man, there are those on this forum that believe that it is ok. for the police to shoot whomever that please, for any reason and no reason. I do believe though that I could add with fear of being contradicted, so long as they are not one of those the police decide to shoot.
Both of you? That is a purely speculative assumption.
Perhaps the whole thing was a precursor to Jade Helm. Getting armed bikers out of the equation before the 'exercise' starts.
That’s what you said. The cops shot and arrested people whose only crime was being there. That’s not speculation.
Ultimate guilt or innocence is not what I (and many others) have been discussing. Of course, there IS speculation on what MAY have occurred and where ultimate guilt and innocence may fall. I do not do a lot of that myself.
However, there are several aspects of what we DO know that can be argued on the merits, related to due process of law, which many of us see as being trampled on.
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