Posted on 05/20/2015 8:25:55 AM PDT by Responsibility2nd
The firefight in Waco between rival outlaw motorcycle gangs is raising questions about perceptions and portrayals of crime in America.
Washington — The prevailing images of protests in Baltimore and Ferguson, Missouri, over police killings of black men were of police in riot gear, handcuffed protesters, tear gas and mass arrests. The main images of a fatal gun battle between armed bikers and police in Waco, Texas, also showed mass arrests — carried out by nonchalant-looking officers sitting around calm bikers on cell phones.
The firefight in Waco is raising questions about perceptions and portrayals of crime in America, considering the vehement reaction that the earlier protests got from police, politicians and some members of the public.
Media critics, columnists and civil rights activists are complaining that there appears to be little societal concern about the gunplay at a restaurant in Texas, whereas politicians — including President Barack Obama — described violent looters in Baltimore as "thugs," and the media devoted hours of television and radio airtime to dissecting social ills that affect the black community.
~snip~
There were no deaths during the Baltimore and Ferguson protests, yet people immediately stereotyped all of the protesters as criminals, said Nicole Lee, a human rights lawyer who worked with protesters in both cities.
"Nine people were killed in Waco, and yet you have not heard the level of disgust and dismay as you did over fires burning in Ferguson and in Baltimore," Lee said. "One of the things the protesters always said was that while many of them disagreed with the property destruction, that you can rebuild property. But you can't bring back people, and yet you're not hearing an equal amount of disgust from the media and from people over what happened in Waco."
(Excerpt) Read more at csmonitor.com ...
Not quite the same:
When was the last time you saw every TV outlet in the country running aerial scenes of police arresting - peacefully - a couple hundred urban thugs because the thugs shot a couple of their own??
NOTE TO MEDIA: No infants asleep in their homes were killed or wounded in the making of this shoot out.
Sorry. I should have said my reaction.
Here’s how it’s ‘different’.
White people are NOT taking to the streets and looting because some cops dared to arrest white outlaw bikers.
White people don’t think every two bit thin-skinned hothead who happens to be ‘white’ is us. If these guys had resisted arrest we would understand that force might be necessary. ‘
I mean come on - they were acting like criminals... ‘Criminal’ trumps race.... We hire cops... to deal with criminals... Also George Soror won’t be sending in his tax-dodging minions to gin up hatred and violence because this type of citizen violence doesn’t gin up the vote for democrats.
That’s the difference.
No, I actually don’t think the surrounding businesses (other than the Twin Peaks itself, which likely won’t even reopen) will be financially affected in the long run. Local patrons will just think “cool! this is where there was that biker gunfight!” This is Texas, remember.
On the other hand, if it had been a massacre involving women and children or any other multitude of innoncents, the whole area would be under a distinct pall that would affect business.
Most bikers are fine... I have a good friend - a retired police chief - who’s a biker. And a friend from years ago - an investment banker... and biker.
Curious how “honor” comes up. Makes me wonder how many of these biker dude guys are VETS? All? None? The VETS, if any, ought to be able to shoot straight anyway?
Heck, I know a lot of good bikers myself.
But I’m in Texas, and these are “Bandidos” we’re talking about. A whole different ballgame. They are bad news all around. Scum of the earth... meth-peddlers with Nazi tattoos. No better than Bloods and Crips.
Not even.
These bikers were all from out of town. Waco will remain a nice small city with Baylor University at the heart of all things.
I have no use for “Bandidos” either - and you’re right... not
much difference between Crips and Bloods and Bandidos...
No kidding!!! Honor and (gang)biker together? NOT
All they are made up of is little boys that never moved off bullying on the playground..most are psycopaths. I say that knowing quite a few, not just conjecture.
“Waco will remain a nice small city with Baylor University at the heart of all things.”
Paris has the Louvre, NYC has the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Amsterdam has the Van Gogh Museum, but unlike Waco, they don’t have the Dr. Pepper Museum.
Mrs. R2 and I are actually vacationing in Waco next month. We have RV reservations at Midway Park. We plan on touring the DP museum as well as the Texas Rangers museum.
Memorial weekend in Myrtle Beach is when Bike Fest takes place AKA ‘black bike week’. Evidently the past five years there have been really horrible for business owners and residents with all of Obama’s emboldening of thugs. They can’t shut it down because of the NAACP and their lawsuits. After last years shootings and everything else, the police chief who is a black lady and the town have come up with some game plans to try and make it survivable for MB residents who are basically trapped in their homes if they don’t leave town for this period of hell. I’ve been following their local news and reading comments. You would not believe how many blacks are throwing this Waco event out there like there is some kind of comparison. Everyone should say a prayer for that town because they are about to be descended upon. I never stay there because I prefer the more non commercialized and quieter beach towns. I do like to go on day trips shopping there. Hope it’s still there after this weekend.
Cameron Park Zoo is a treat, too.
You cannot even honor God with a capital G, how can you understand any other honor?
Bet the town of Waco will end up eating a big big settlement... but the PD will be all excused. Not exonerated, not even forgiven... excused.
“If you studied the history of where the word “thug” came from, it was an Eastern religious cult that delighted in double crossing victims.”
It comes from Thugee, which was a religion in India that believed it was their god given right and duty to murder people and steal their stuff. The god was Kali, and they are believed to have murdered over a million people before they were wiped out by the British Empire.
We could learn a bit about handling religions that believe it is their duty to murder people from the British response. They did not release know Thugs back to the general population, as we have done with those held in Gitmo.
“Murder and steal” — which they did. The picture I got was one of doing it sneakily, through con games, which plumbed the depths of shame. I guess it was justified in their heads by the idea that someone had to deliver the negative karma of the universe and it might as well be them. Trouble was, it came sailing back their way. I’d agree that if a culprit is religiously dedicated to misdeeds, he should be treated with much more circumspection than an ordinary rogue.
While I don’t consider myself a biker, I do own and ride a HD Road King. I have known bikers over the years from real honest to god a Bandidos and at least one Pagan, to lawyers, pastors, etc. like many things, there is a “dark side” and a “light side”. I won’t say which is better but I will say this for the “dark side”, it is not true they have no values or principles. They have them, and damn serious. There really are things they would never do. You could predict that. Not the same set as you and me, maybe, but still they had some sort of line they would not cross. Not like our politicians. There is NOTHING they won’t do.
In my former town the local Banditos chapter had a distinguished list of offenses. They specialized in drunk driving, low level sales of narcotics, and sex with minors.
Squares with my exposure to bikers good and bad. So WHY, USNbandit, is it that two thirds of the folks arrested had ZERO prior criminal record in Texas? WHAT explains the complete lack of a criminal record in Texas for one of the guys who was killed, biker J.D. Rodgriguez, a decorated Marine (Purple Heart) and life-long biker?
The very fact that real criminal hard-core bikers have a distinguished list of offenses, puts the BIG STINK on this thing because the vast majority of folks arrested and held in million dollar bail, have zip arrest records, at least in the State of Texas. Maybe out-of-state "biker scum" dominated this meeting to discuss legislation among a wide coalition of clubs ranging from Christian to "outlaw" ... but ... I ain't holdin' my breath.
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