Free Republic

Western Australia, an Australian state that comprises 32.9 percent of the continent, is being compared to Nazi Germany or Communist China over a controversial new proposal to ban biker gang members from showing off their tattoos or hanging out together in public.Set to be voted on by the Parliament of Western Australia sometime soon, the Unlawful Consorting and Prohibited Insignia Bill explicitly stipulates that biker gang members are “banned from wearing their patches and associating with one another in public.”The Sydney Morning Herald notes that a “patch” includes any type of “insignia, including tattoos.”According to a press release from the...

ODESSA — Detectives arrested three motorcycle gang members on charges that they executed the leader of a rival gang, saying they fatally shot him in his truck as he sat at a red light in the middle of rush hour traffic. Pasco Sheriff Chris Nocco said he fears that Thursday’s public burst of violence could ignite a war between local chapters of two infamous motorcycle gangs: the Outlaws and the 69ers Motorcycle Club. Nocco announced the arrests Friday. He said both gangs have national footprints, and investigators believe members from around the country may come to Florida because of the...

TULSA, Oklahoma - Oklahoma's Own helped a Marine reach his final resting place. U.S. Marine Staff Sgt. Jonathan Turner enlisted in 1998 and served seven tours in Iraq and Afghanistan before he medically retired. He died last week in California from combat-related issues. His mother lives in Georgia and his Marine family in California made arrangements for his services. When the nonprofit Patriot Guard Riders heard his ashes were to be mailed home, the group decided to organize a chain of motorcycle riders across the country to give his remains a more dignified final trip home. They planned a nationwide...

Nuclear power plant technicians, senior military officers, FBI contractors and an employee of “a highly-secretive Department of Defense agency” with a Top Secret clearance. Those are just a few of the more than 100 people with sensitive military and government connections that law enforcement is tracking because they are linked to “outlaw motorcycle gangs.” A year before the deadly Texas shootout that killed nine people on May 17, a lengthy report by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives detailed the involvement of U.S. military personnel and government employees in outlaw motorcycle gangs, or OMGs. A copy of the...

Bullets ricocheted around the parking lot of Twin Peaks, the Waco restaurant where a motorcycle gang shootout left nine dead, just minutes after Theron Rhoten pulled in on his vintage Harley chopper for a regional motorcycle club meeting, according to Rhoten’s wife. Katie Rhoten told The Associated Press that her husband ran for cover and was later arrested, along with antique motorcycle enthusiast friends and other “nonviolent, noncriminal people.” Authorities swept up around 170 bikers who had descended on the restaurant for what one club member described as a gathering to discuss laws protecting motorcycle riders.... McLennan County Sheriff Parnell...

A biker only known as Ron (right) hunkers down with a Kurdish comrade in Iraq. They put their motorcycle boots on the ground! Outlaw Dutch bikers have joined forces with Kurdish fighters battling ISIS fanatics in Iraq — and authorities in the Netherlands say that’s just fine with them. Klaas Otto, head of the No Surrender motorcycle club, told Dutch broadcasters that three members from the cities of Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Breda recently joined the fight outside Mosul in northern Iraq, Agence France-Presse said. A photo on a Dutch-Kurdish Twitter account showed one of the men — a heavily tattooed...

CHAPEL HILL - Apple Chill, Chapel Hill's annual street festival celebrating arts, crafts and entertainment, came to a violent and chaotic end Sunday evening as three people were shot despite a heavy police presence at the event. Chapel Hill Police Chief Gregg Jarvies said two victims were shot in front of the Caribou Coffee store at 110 W. Franklin St. about 8:45 p.m. One victim had a bullet graze to the head and was shot in the chest. The other victim was shot in the back. Both were taken to UNC Hospitals. Their names and medical conditions were not available...