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 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.
What say you about the bikers who were arrested not at Twin Peaks but near the Convention Center and gassing up at a truck stop? Three of them were initially given a lower bond so were able to pay out and go home. The DA got hyper and demanded Peterson revoke the lower bonds and up them to the blanket $1M. The guys turned themselves back in.
Considering the magnitude of the problems happening with the Meth gangs, Cartels, and border jumpers, Texas is pretty much on their own.
The Banditos and the Mongols in one place.
On the face of it and until I know different, I’m not second guessing the cops. They’ve got enough problems as it is.
How many guns were confiscated? 125+??
Good post
It's a short 2 hour drive from Waco (right next to Ft. Hood) to Brenham where Jade Helm is being staged. And Twin Peaks just happened to have occurred when the Legislature was voting on open carry.
Probably all they planted.
And your point is....?
I agree with Travis who called this the "most important story in the country".
I think you ought to change your screen name to ImJustAnotherDupe.
I am happy to say, however, that the TOTAL I've been able to find at this point of voices who buy the LEO spiel, number only 21. Twenty-one individuals so far, in posts covering the past few weeks on this topic, versus EASILY 60 individuals who are like skeeter, me, and don-o, who think this stinks. HAPPILY, it's about the same outside of FR, when you look at reader/consumer comments on posting forums of virtually every MSM (not "conservative," but regular-joe-type local and national) news site.
People who insist on thinking the majority of people (not just FReepers) are "conspiracy theorists" for processing the facts and concluding that the cops were WAY out of line and obviously lying, are ... suspect at best, traitors at worst, and ABSOLUtELY a small minority. A loud, determined, and organized one perhaps, but in real people, a decided minority.
Sorry ... forgot to ping you to my post 89 above RE your excellent post 33.
For example, I think the police should've cracked a few heads in Baltimore to get things under control. But I do NOT think it would've be copacetic for them to open fire on the rioters, as they apparently did in Waco.
Its pretty elementary. I don't understand why any thinking individual wouldn't feel the same.
How about 175 still jailed. No medication. Some not having eaten for 10 days (at that time).
The McLennan County Re-Education Camp
http://bikersofamerica.blogspot.com/2015/05/the-mclennan-county-re-education-camp.html
This has to come from the WH. Kill Whitey.
Yep -- but they are also dangerous because they have allowed themselves to be conditioned to look the other way at abuses of power such as this.
LOL!!!
IMO, you are using it WELL. Thank you for your many good posts and links on this. I think this is a far, far more profound and significant event in America than folks recognize. This is not just cops screwing up royally and trying to cover their butts, which would be bad enough.
THIS looks a lot to me like honing a template that demonizes a huge number of Americans (Harley riders who look like they could be outlaws but who come from all walks of life and lack criminal records), conditioning the MSM and the general public to consider cops "good guys" when they exercise tyranny over free peaceful law-abiding Americans.
The good news is that truly, it looks like the general public ain't buyin' it.
I am beginning to think there may have been some collusion between the WACO PD and the Banditos. How else do we explain 8 dead Cossacks vs. 1 dead Bandito? I would like to know how many Banditos are in jail and just how high up they are in the organization.
Was the meeting of criminals dominated two-to-one by out-of-state bikers who have arrest records in other states?
Or does an overwhelming majority of crime-committing bikers who engage in robbery, meth running, racketeering, and murder, have zero criminal records?
Or did the cops just arrest people with zero foundation other than that they ride motorcycles and were attending a pre-announced publicized meeting in a public restaurant?
This isn't rocket science. But it is a revealer of wheat from chaff, in terms of fellow patriots.
The Mongols and the Bandito’s? Try again.
This had nothing to do with the average joe. This was more like the Apalachin Meeting in the 1950’s.
“What say you about the bikers who were arrested not at Twin Peaks but near the Convention Center and gassing up at a truck stop?” etc...
I could not possibly have an informed opinion on these specific bikers, or the DA calling them back as it were for a higher bail, and in fact am only taking your word there are three such cases.
Action in Balitmore would have been about keeping the peace and protecting lives and property.
This thing in Waco I think was about intimidation, corruption, and power-grabbing.
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