Everyone that was wearing biker clothing got arrested?
Who is the object of my indifference and whom is the object of my rage? One vote for staying on the outside looking in ... I did not make the grade today and I’m not the only one ... Move beyond ...
Of course they are innocent. They always are.
Ferals never do anything wrong.
“I’d like for Swanton to explain. “
I’d like him to “explain:” a lot of things about this whole matter. I don’t like biker gangs, but I also don’t like the fact that most of the dead were at the hands of the cops, while no LEOs were injured. We need to know the circumstances that lead to the deadly force use. From the disjointed press accounts, there seems to be some reason to suspect that the cops are not telling the truth about their actions.
So far all we have heard is the “official” explanation.
We will know pretty soon what really happened. My educated guess is the real answers are somewhere between an innocent gathering of bikers, with a couple getting into a fight and a gathering outlaw drug smuggling biker gangs that erupted into a gun fight.
Let’s see. There were 100 weapons found and 170 were charged. Were they sharing weapons? I do think they rounded up a few that weren’t shooting anyone.
Pretend its the Crips and Bloods. That should make it go down easier.
When police round up 170 suspects I have no doubt that a few innocent fish got swept up in the net. When you’ve got 9 bodies on the ground police often sweep up all the usual suspects and sort things out later.
Great how they arrest any and all bikers at Twin Peaks for the big rumble and kill at least 4 or 5 bikers, yet in Baltimore and Ferguson the rioters and looters don’t get arrested. The bikers should have been black.
Is she a real wife or property like most gals in biker clubs?
I think it stands to reason that at least SOME of the 170 people swept up by the police following the incident are innocent of wrongdoing; especially considering that the event was a scheduled, regional Confederation of Clubs meeting, and most groups that participate in COC are NOT outlaw biker gangs.
Yeah, and I’m sure that so many of the people in Baltimore were simply walking by those protests and just got caught up in the mayhem. Actually, they were all walking home from church.
The criminal 1% gangs, are only too happy to have the peaceful biker clubs to associate and give them cover.
Members of the general public don’t have the information or interest, to make fine distinctions, for who does and does not have a particular patch.
I assume the bad guys here, were the Banditos, known criminal gang, and the uninvited Cossacks, known criminal gang, affiliated with the Hells Angels, and not invited to the confab at the sports bar.
Maybe additional criminal elements desiring association with Banditos and/or Cossacks.
Then supposedly, in addition to the known criminal gangs, there are biker clubs, non-violent, in attendance.
And articles like this are pleas for the public to recognize the distinctions. I get that.
But why do non-violent bike club members, even associate with known criminal bike gangs?
When the non-violent folks get caught in the crossfire, or swept up in mass arrests, I have a fairly small reservoir of empathy for them.
IMO the non-criminal clubs, are being used as “respectability” cover, for drug dealers and murderers.
I just finished a series on Netflix about the infiltration, and use of RICO against the NY mafia, by Giuliani, when he was a federal prosecutor. FBI agent Joe Pistone was undercover (aka Donnie Brasco).
Law enforcement wanted to take down the five family leaders. It worked, although some were assassinated or committed suicide.
RICO was the legal mechanism. Everybody involved can be charged with more serious crimes, by association with a criminal network.
Technically speaking, anybody attending last weekend, that knew the nature of the Banditos, might catch a murder charge, since the cops killed some bad guys.
I believe many of the “good guys” like the vicarious thrill of associating with known criminal “bad guys.”
two biker gangs got together to try to iron out some difference.
if they wanted to start a fight i dont think they would choose a public restaurant as the meeting place.
i am not yet convinced that nervous cops overreacted to something and started shooting. All the dead are bikers- no cops.
I was listening to a report of this on television. They reported that many had concealed weapons and that the leader of the gang encouraged his members to get a conceal permit. I was thinking at the time if that were true, then the gang was not a criminal gang because you can’t get a carry concealed permit with a criminal record.
I’m beginning to wonder about this incident too. If they had been meeting at this restaurant each month, what was different about this day? The CEO of Twin Peaks said he received noticed from the police that this meeting was going to take place. He called the manager of the restaurant, who ignored him. If they had been meeting every month, I can see why the manager had ignored the warning.
If all the killings were by the police, something is not right here.
There’s the trial going on right now about an undercover policeman in a motorcycle gang that participated in the criminal harassment of a man and his family. Luckily there is video of what happened or the harassed man may have been charged with hitting one of the motorcycle members and leaving the scene of an accident.
It’s pretty clear that most of the folks posting here have no experience with motorcycle clubs.
I spent several years in a county ABATE chapter which most of the folks here would call a ‘club’, so I’ve got a small amount of knowledge on the subject that I can hopefully share.
In terms of motorcycle groups and clubs, there are one-percenters and the rest of us.
From the article: “Buscemi disputed the police claim that the meeting was to resolve a turf war, saying groups had planned to discuss laws protecting motorcycle riders at the meeting, which he said has been going on bimonthly for 18 years.”
The meeting in Waco was a motorcycle rights meetup which means that anybody who rides is welcome and there are usually “neutral territory” and “No Colors” rules in place to prevent strife.
One-percenters don’t follow the rules and in the photos released it’s clear that there were a lot of colors being worn.
Any turf war was between the Banditos and Cossacks and their affiliate clubs, not the majority of the folks (99-percenters) who showed up at the regular bi-monthly meetings.
The police, however, seem to have arrested everyone in order to let the courts sort it out later. Sort of a “Kill ‘em all and let God sort it out” approach.
I’ve noticed some bogus information coming from the police, however.
— The “I won’t dignify these gangs by giving their names” crap that concatenates everyone into the ‘gang’ classification.
— The “hundreds of weapons found” BS is another point of contention. When is a screwdriver a weapon? When it’s convenient for the cops.
— The refusal of the police to say how many of the dead ‘may’ have been shot by cops is another issue. It will be interesting to see if that information comes out and how long it takes to do so.
— The tacit admission that undercover officers were inside the restaurant was interesting. What part of the drama did they play?
Now, I don’t know any of the folks involved, neither am I interested in what the one-percenters do (as long as they leave me out of it) but I’m pretty sure that the police are obscuring the truth and/or intentionally misleading the public.
ye are known by the company ye keepeth (elpadre-ism)
Maybe some are innocent of the behavior at that incident, but likely a lot have other warrants outstanding! Check ‘em out, then let ‘em go or hold them as the case may be.
bump for later