About 18 months ago the California Highway Patrol formally acknowledged that it is legal to split lanes in California by publishing a document online titled “Lane Splitting General Guidelines.” The document explained to California bikers when they would and wouldn’t get a ticket for splitting lanes. Earlier this month the CHP took that document down.

Two weeks ago the Los Angeles Times reported that the Highway Patrol “retreated from the subject and” took “down its guidelines” “under pressure from a citizen who is opposed to lane-splitting.” The Times declined to name the citizen.

The citizen who forced the CHP to remove its guidelines on lane splitting is, according to the American Motorcyclist Association, “Kenneth Mandler (photo above), a longtime state employee who now conducts training sessions on how to get a state job.” Mandler, “petitioned the California Office of Administrative Law in 2013, claiming the CHP created an ‘underground regulation’ by formulating and distributing guidelines for safe lane splitting.”

Mandler’s objection and the CHP’s acquiescence to it once more puts lane splitting in legal limbo.

What Was Legal

The CHP issued the guidelines after the California Office of Traffic Safety released results of a survey of motorists and  riders on the subject of lane splitting. The report said, “Lane splitting has been a subject for controversy and confusion for years. The OTS survey showed that only 53 percent of vehicle drivers knew that lane splitting is legal in California. Eighty-seven percent of motorcycle riders say they lane split, while seven percent of vehicle drivers admit to having attempted to prevent it.”

Until a year and a half ago California bikers had no clear idea of what would get them a ticket and what wouldn’t. Lane sharing, which allows two motorcycles or a motorcycle and a car to ride or drive side by side in the same lane, has always been legal in California. The tricky legal issue for bikers has always been whether it is legal to ride on the white line. Depending on the traffic cop and the jurisdiction, you could get ticketed for occupying two lanes at once. Some police were adamant about it. Riders could be ticketed if they came to a stop at a red light with all of their motorcycle in one lane but with their left foot in another.

It is an important issue in places like Los Angeles which gets hot in the summer and has impossible traffic. The state always allowed lane sharing because air cooled engines tend to overheat in summertime traffic unless motorcycles are allowed to pass between cars.

The Guidelines

The Highway Patrol guidelines told bikers to forget about the white line and just ride cautiously. The guidelines advised riders that they wouldn’t get ticketed if they did not split lanes going more than ten miles an hour faster than other traffic; or if they didn’t split lanes going faster than 40 miles per hour; and if they only split between the far left lanes and if they used reasonable care. The new guidelines also reminded drivers that  “Intentionally blocking or impeding a motorcyclist in a way that could cause harm to the rider is illegal” and that “opening a vehicle door to impede a motorcycle is illegal.”

Throughout the first half of July the Highway Patrol ran public service commercials reminding drivers that lane splitting is legal in California.

Now all that legal clarity and good will has come to a complete stop because of a guy named Kenneth Mandler. And some people still claim that one man can’t make a difference.

After what appears to have been a years long investigation, the Federal Bureau of Investigation filed a criminal complaint July 29 that led to the arrest of two Sacramento area Vagos and two other men. The investigation included extensive electronic surveillance and the use of at least one and possibly two opportunistic snitches.

Much of the criminal complaint reads like a droll parody of life in a motorcycle club. Vagos and others have long conversations then move, seemingly at random, to other locations where they talk some more.

Apparently the FBI  tried for so long to get something on the Northern Valley chapter of the Vagos that they had to find some excuse to arrest somebody. “After months of gathering intelligence, debriefmg sources, conducting surveillance, and doing probation searches, it became apparent that it would be very difficult to infiltrate the Vagos using normal investigative techniques,” is the way FBI Special Agent John Sommercamp put it.

The Investigation

“In spring 2013, the FBI was able to introduce an undercover employee into the Sacramento area Vagos,” Sommercamp says. He does not say whether the employee was a special agent or a contracted snitch. The FBI also used a citizen indentified as Source Number Two.

“Source #2 was cooperating with law enforcement in this case based, in part, on a dislike of the Vagos. Source #2 did not like the group or its members. In addition, Source #2 was cooperating as part of a contractual obligation with a prosecuting office based upon pending charges for first degree robbery and larceny. Under the terms of Source #2′s cooperation, he/she was permitted to plead guilty to a lesser charge of robbery, remain out of custody after the guilty plea in order to cooperate with the FBI, and receive a recommendation of a lower prison sentence on the pending case. The FBI also provided Source #2 with monetary compensation during his cooperation.”

Crime One

The two FBI employees enticed or entrapped two Vagos allegedly working in association with two other men to twice sell them comparatively small amounts of methamphetamine for more than the going street price at the time.

On June 25, 2013 the federal sleuths allege they bought 111.3 grams of methamphetamine from James Cline, Jr., Michael Wright and Leonard Walter. Although the FBI complaint implies that all three men are Vagos, Cline told television station KXTV, “I can’t tell you about the Vagos. I’m so far away from being a Vagos you couldn’t even imagine. I’m a hard-working grandfather. I got mixed up for a second. I haven’t done anything to hurt anybody though.”

Nevertheless, the FBI surveilled Cline’s home continuously since last April using a pole camera and determined he was a Vago by using “reliable source information.”

The FBI found a great conspiracy at work as a result of this drug buy. “I learned that each drug transaction involved a number of Vagos gang members conspiring together in an effort to make the deal successful,” Sommercamp wrote. “While only one member may make money on any particular deal, as Walter did in this case, all the members take an active role in security, surveillance, and safety to ensure the deal is completed. This deal involved at least eight men, five of whom were Vagos, working in concert to complete the deal. A more traditional drug deal may only involve a purchaser and a supplier. The Vagos use their influence and membership numbers to improve their success and minimize their exposure.”

Crime Two

The same three men are charged with selling 96.6 grams of methamphetamine for $3,600 on August 27, 2013. “The going rate for methamphetamine was around $2,700 per quarter pound at the time of the buy,” Sommercamp explains.

Allegedly, Walter told the FBI employee, “I only do this for you guys. I don’t like to put my fucken ass in jeopardy.”

The complaint also alleges that “Wright stated he was ‘building a house for a rich marijuana dealer, He’s off the charts. One thousand plants at a time. The stuff was tested at 35 percent THC. I took one hit of that and was like wow!’ Clearly Wright is involved in the support of larger scale marijuana cultivation.”

A fourth man named Richard Cardenas was charged with supplying the methamphetamine to Cline, Wright and Walter.

Somehow we missed an absolutely essential reality television show this spring.

The Safecrackers debuted in March on TruTV and ran for six episodes. It was produced by American Chainsaws Entertainment which appears to be three guys named Duke Straub, Colt Straub and Royal Malloy. ACE has also produced such must see reality series as Alaska Moose Men, Family Style, Mountain Monsters, Rat Bastards, Diamond Divers, Bath Brothers and Half Pint Brawlers. Anyone? Has anyone seen any of these shows? Anyone in West Hollywood or Provincetown seen Bath Brothers? Rat Bastards appears to have been based on an idea for a dystopian reality show by Cormac McCarthy. Maybe someone has seen that.

TruTV asked viewers to “follow Phil Crawford, one of America’s leading safe-crackers, and his best buddy, Blaze as they travel the country to unravel mysteries and unlock the secrets lurking in abandoned safes. Phil, Blaze and their fun-loving crew of family and friends can track down and crack giant bank vaults, intricate antique safes and even armored vehicles and underground bunkers.” The show’s logline is “Unlocking Alabama’s Mysteries…One Safe At A Time.” Sounds amazing doesn’t it?

New York Times Raves

Neil Genzlinger of the New York Times actually saw 30 minutes of this tragic waste of our precious electrons and enthused:

“Apparently all the abandoned storage lockers have finally been opened.” “Could there be a touch of desperation in the air as this already played-out genre tries to keep itself alive?” “On Monday night TruTV introduces The Safecrackers, in which a ‘master safecracker’ in Alabama named Phil Crawford opens doors whose keys or combinations have gone missing. First: There are master safecrackers? And, second: Are there really enough of these mystery containers to keep a master safecracker busy?”

“‘All across the South, there are old safes and vaults, their contents locked and forgotten,’ the show’s introductory riff asserts. Sure there are. So Mr. Crawford and his sidekick, Blaze, open an old hotel safe, a forgotten fallout shelter and other things, hoping to find wealth therein.”

Blaze The Biker

The most interesting thing about this show, which may have gone out of production but is still airing and will never really die, is Blaze the biker. All the best reality shows seem to feature bikers these days. That’s Blaze in the photo above. Behold the tattoo on his left arm.

In one episode the guy with the fallout shelter agrees to give Phil and Blaze half of what is locked down there in payment for their astounding safe cracking skills. The men shake hands and Blaze then cuts off a padlock with a pair of bolt cutters. You can feel the drama already can’t you?

There are two fascinating details about Blaze the reality biker. One is that although he is featured prominently in the show’s promotional materials, Shane “Blaze” Brady of Woodstock, Georgia is never credited by name in the show. The other is that Blaze is the Region IX Director for the Iron Order Motorcycle Club.

Want to watch now? You’re welcome American Chainsaws Entertainment. My pleasure.

A new tell-all book about the inner workings of the Hells Angels was published last Friday. It is called Breaking the Code: A True Story by a Hells Angel President and the Cop Who Pursued Him. The authors are Patrick Matter and Chris Omodt. And, the big news is that apparently Pat Matter chose not to go into witness protection.

The Authors

Matter was a former member of the Grim Reapers Motorcycle Club who joined the Hells Angels in Minnesota, started a successful bike shop called Minneapolis Custom Cycle and was his charter’s President for 21 years. In 2003 Matter pled guilty to money laundering and conspiracy to distribute coke and crank. Allegedly, Matter was in charge of a Hells Angels drug conspiracy that sold 13 pounds of the stimulants each month from 1998 through 2001. He was sentenced to 17 years in prison, decided to get some of those years back and agreed to testify against his former club brothers. Matter later said he had been thinking about leaving the Hells Angels anyway.

Matter was particularly visible in the racketeering trial of 11 Hells Angels that resulted from the brawl between Mongols and Angels in Harrah’s Casino in Laughlin, Nevada in April 2002. Matter’s job was to convince anybody who would listen that the Angels were a criminal racket. He told jurors that most Angels were violent and heavily armed drug dealers. In open court he delivered one of the great cooperating witness lines of all time: “I’ve been snitching about things I have knowledge of,” he explained. Then he went away to prison. He ended up doing nine years. And, now he is back.

Chris Omodt, Matter’s coauthor. is a former Hennepin County (Minnesota) Sheriff who had a varied career, rose to the rank of captain, became a professor of criminal justice and has testified in court as an “outlaw motorcycle gangs expert.”

The Story

The book is told from the viewpoints of both its authors and you hardly have to read it to know what it says. It is a “true crime genre” book which dictates that Matter’s former motorcycle club must be portrayed as a criminal enterprise and the police must be portrayed as those brave few who sacrifice so much to protect society from criminals.

On the book’s Amazon page a man named Mark Reps, who is the author the “Sheriff Zeb Hanks” crime series gushes, “With no holds barred, Omodt and Matter rip back the curtain of seedy reality and toss you headlong into the complex relationships of biker gangs and the cops whose job it is to pursue them. The writing is graphic, truthful, revealing and explores both sides of the law – the right side and the wrong side – with equal detail. For lovers of true crime writing this is a must read.”

In his review of his own book, Omodt calls Breaking the Code “A Must Read for True Crime Fans.”

“Breaking The Code is unlike any other book about outlaw biker gangs I have ever read,” the co-author explains. “It brings in both the outlaw and the lawman and is told in a non-holds barred fashion. The book not only gives the inside action of the Hells Angels, it also gives insight into how the police combat groups such as the Hells Angels; having two sides of the story is a very compelling read. Matter and Omodt are honest, insightful and straightforward in their storytelling and the book reads really well. The unlikely friendship between these two men shows how little gray area there is between good and bad, between law and lawlessness. I recommend this book for any true crime fan or anyone who wants to know the inside scope of these diametrically opposed forces.”

True crime fans can find this must read on Amazon and, no doubt, elsewhere.

Senior military officers continue to call the Iron Order Motorcycle Club an outlaw motorcycle gang or OMG.

The Iron Order is a fast growing and aggressive motorcycle club that has branded itself as a “law abiding motorcycle club.” According to the ATF, “The Iron Order is one of the fastest growing motorcycle clubs in the United States. Members wear a traditional three-piece patch with a State bottom rocker. The fact that they wear the State bottom rocker has infuriated the HAMC, Outlaws, Iron Horsemen, Pagans and Bandidos. More importantly, many of their members are police and corrections officers, active-duty military and/or government employees and contractors.”

Cop Club

Recently John C. Whitfield, one of the founders of the Iron Order was quoted as saying the club “was started by a former secret-service agent in 2004…. More than half of our guys are military or law enforcement.” Whitfield also identified an Iron Order member who is an ATF Agent in Oklahoma as a source of information for the club.

Many police officers in the United States seem to regard the Iron Order as a force for good in a Manichaean struggle with evil motorcycle clubs. The distinction between who is naughty and who is nice is convenient for the sorts of police who want to perfect America through the use of extra legal violence.

The idea that the Iron Order is somehow more law abiding than other motorcycle clubs has blatantly contaminated the stymied investigation of the murder of  Zachariah “Nas T” Tipton outside Nippers Beach Grille in Jacksonville Beach, Florida in late June. Tipton was a member of the Black Pistons Motorcycle Club. He was shot in the head and killed by a member of the Iron Order. The confessed killer was released by Jacksonville Beach police without being charged. His name and most details of the murder, including the medical examiner’s report, remain official secrets.

Camp Pendleton

Military commanders however, continue to see the Iron Order less ambiguously than policemen do. For example a document recently distributed to service members at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton threatened sailors and Marines who join the Iron Order with “administrative or disciplinary actions, including administrative separation or appropriate punitive action.” The document was issued under the authority of DOD Instruction 1325.06, titled “Handling Dissident and Protest Activities Among Members of the Armed Forces.”

The document defines Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs “as organizations whose members use their motorcycle clubs as conduits for criminal enterprise. The following motorcycle clubs are recognized by the DOJ and/or California state and local Law Enforcement Agencies as OMGs: The Bandidos, Black Pistons, Hells Angels, Mongols, Outlaws, Sons of Silence, Pagans, Vagos, Green Nation, Green Machine, Military Misfits, Filthy Bastards, Iron Order, Grunts MC, Brotherhood, Vietnam Vets, Devils Disciples, Legacy Vets, Peckerwoods, and Diablos. This list is inclusive of identified OMGs in the southern California area but may not include all others outside that region.”

The document specifically forbids active participation in any of those clubs and states that “Active participation includes, but is not limited to, fundraising; demonstrating or rallying; recruiting, training, organizing, or leading members; distributing material (including posting on-line); knowingly wearing gang colors or clothing; having tattoos or body markings associated with such gangs or organizations; or otherwise engaging in activities in furtherance of the objective of such gangs or organizations that are detrimental to good order, discipline, or mission accomplishment or are incompatible with military service.”

Coverage of the Iron Order Motorcycle Club provokes numerous comments. Earlier today, a commenter who identified himself as Lol, spelled just like that, responded to a story titled “The Iron Order Outlaw Motorcycle Gang” by demanding to know:

“So is the IOMC a poser club or OMG? Please make up your tiny minds. They cannot be both. EITHER they ARE an OMG or they are a poser, wannabe OMG, I know the word ‘contradiction’ is not easy for many of you, but maybe with my help you can now google the definition!!! I will use it in a sentence for you!! It is a contradiction to say the IOMC is a poser, cop club, then attempt to label them an OMG.”

Lol’s argumentative comment deserves a response and rather than bury that response in the comments section of this page, The Aging Rebel is answering it here.

Dear Lol

The Iron Order looks like a cop club that has quickly grown large by recruiting many Sons of Anarchy fans and active duty servicemen.

Like most commenters on this page who want to protect the Iron Order from scrutiny, you twist what is written here for dramatic effect. Like every other ongoing story that I cover, I try to get as much as possible on the record. I will continue to get as much as I can about the Iron Order on the record because I know the people who read this site are  much more diverse than the people who comment here.

The Iron Order seems to be inherently self-destructive – which explains its growing list of enemies and perceived enemies.

About three years ago Jason Nark and William Bender of the Philadelphia Inquirer wrote, “Authorities say that the soaring popularity of the Sons of Anarchy TV show – the most watched in FX’s history – could be contributing to a disturbing trend: Weekend warriors, no longer content to simply ride together, are forming small motorcycle clubs and dabbling in the outlaw lifestyle.”

The Inquirer piece went on to quote Upper Darby Police Superintendent Michael Chitwood Sr. who called the new clubs “wannabes.”

Twilight of the Outlaws

Kurt Sutter, the outspoken producer of Sons of Anarchy, replied to the article by saying, “people are going outlaw because of oppressive economic times not because of a fucking tv show. Don’t blame me for your inability to protect.”

At the time the Inquirer ran Nark and Bender’s piece, I was already anticipating a book called The Twilight of the Outlaws. I had begun to give the evolution of motorcycle clubs some thought and I had begun thinking in terms of what I was then calling Version One, Two and Three clubs. Version One clubs emerged after WWII. Version Two clubs emerged during and immediately after Vietnam. And, Version Three clubs were the mushrooms that appeared as a result of both the Middle Eastern Wars and the commodification of the outlaw world – a commodification that is apparent in both genuine Harley-Davidson shot glasses and Sons of Anarchy.

The Iron Order epitomizes Version Three clubs. Version three clubs are more something people might buy than something people might feel, something more like a shirt or a wig than a tattoo. And because Version Three clubs are new there is no real consensus about what they are. The things people are going to say about any Version Three club are dependent on who is doing the talking: A cop or reporter in Philly, a television show runner, an old school outlaw or you.

The most immediate interesting thing about the Iron Order is that the club appears bent on destroying itself and the lives of at least some of its members. That’s why people get worked up about the club. The Iron Order is a must see psychodrama with equal parts delusion and malice. Personally, I think the delusion is more entertaining than the malice.

I think, for example, that it is deluded to demand that the Iron Order must be universally regarded as either an OMG or a wannabe club. I don’t think the “either/or” logical construction is particularly relevant here. Obviously, many cops believe the Iron Order is a “law abiding motorcycle club” which is how the club brands itself to cops – as the Eddie Haskell of motorcycle clubs. Provably, some military commanders and at least one ATF analyst see the Iron Order as an outlaw motorcycle gang. That is the line of reasoning that goes, “If it quacks it’s a duck.” Old school outlaws see the Iron Order as a pack of punks.

The essentially postmodern nature of the Iron Order means the club, like John Barth’s Floating Opera or the beast the proverbial three blind men tried to describe, cannot be accurately summarized as simply one thing. The Iron Order is a phenomena full of apparent contradictions and ironies.

Ironically, Iron Order members and officers demand constant attention. Most motorcycle clubs avoid scrutiny. The Iron Order insists that it be scrutinized. The club motto should be “Look At Us!” So of course, in the aftermath of the Iron Order murder in Florida, people are looking. Of course people are reading your words. The inconsistency is not that the Iron Order is described both as a tribe of dilettantes and a pack of criminals. The inconsistency is that the Iron Order demands scrutiny and then its members complain bitterly when their club gets it.

Dear Old Friend,

I believe you are Iron Order Motorcycle Club International Vice President Dale “Qball” Bubenhoffer. I believe you made this and other slanderous comments from your residence at 2126 Kingsfield St., Jeffersonville, Indiana. Your current phone number is 502-817-5110 and your active email address is qball_iomc@twc.com..

I believe your slanders are actionable. I believe that you are acting as a representative of the Iron Order Motorcycle Club and I beleive that unless you immediately cease and desist your motorcycle club has the financial resources to make me fucking whole. I am hereby giving you notice to cease and desist.

And just on a personal note, I think your comments about the Mongols Motorcycle Club are out of line. I do not speak for the Mongols and I would never presume to speak for that club or any club. But I think you are ignorant and out of line.

The truth about me is that I am just a fucking guy who tries to tell the truth about a dark corner of America. I am just a fucking guy who covers stories nobody else covers. And I am not at all afraid of punks like you. You don’t fucking know me. You don’t know a fucking thing about me. If you did you would be much more polite.

Tell Izod I am getting sick of this shit. Ask Whitfield what he thinks of my chances in a slander suit.

Do we understand each other yet?

Rebel

Derek Kinner, who writes for Jacksonville’s Folio Weekly and who has been trying to cover the Zach Tipton murder case, blasted State Attorney Angela Corey in an open letter this week for “keeping important information – in this situation I am specifically referring to Tipton’s shooting – out of the public eye as long as possible, thus harming public perception of the event and whether law enforcement is involved, and leading to rampant speculation.”

Kinner writes:

“On July 28, I received this email from your office in response to my request to confirm the name of the shooter in the month-old case of Zachariah Tipton’s death at Nippers Beach Grille in Jacksonville Beach:

“ Derek, the SAO’s statement is below:

“ The State Attorney’s Office is conducting a thorough investigation into the fatal shooting at Nippers. An investigation can take weeks or even months to complete. At this time, no information will be released regarding the pending investigation.’”

“Jackelyn Barnard, Director of Communications”

Jay Church

The Aging Rebel believes the name Kinner tried to confirm was Jay Church. In a recent Iron Order Motorcycle Club membership directory, Church is listed as a prospect with the Merritt Island Florida chapter of the Iron Order. The prospect is one of two members of the Iron Order named Jay Church. A patched member of the club named Jay “Popeye” Church is a member of the Ashland, Kentucky Police Department.

The Aging Rebel contacted the prospect Church on July 15 by email. That email read in full, “I have been told, by a source who may or may not know what he is talking about, that you witnessed the shooting of Zach Tipton. If you were there and you have something to say I would like to hear it. I protect sources. Thanks for your time.”

Prospect Jay Church replied, “Not sure what you’re talking about.”

The Aging Rebel also contacted Jay “Popeye” Church the same day. He did not respond.

More Open Letter

Kinner’s 2000 word letter continues:

“Until you say otherwise, Zachariah Tipton was a victim. Yes, I have learned he was a member of the Black Pistons, which are part of the Outlaws Motorcycle Club and rivals of the Iron Order, and that an Iron Order prospect may have shot Tipton during an altercation. But no one – including Tipton’s family and friends – has learned anything about the case except for a few bare-facts news stories, rampant rumors, and from this publication’s July 16 cover story. (I reported that story with no help from your office, and very little help from the initial investigating agency, the Jacksonville Beach Police Department.)”

“When you speak of victims, do you mean only the ones you like or have connections with or can advance your career? I haven’t seen you do any press conferences with Tipton’s family like you did with the families of Trayvon Martin and Jordan Davis. But I have seen Tipton’s family and friends protest outside your office because you refuse to talk to them, whether to deliver good or bad news, or simply tell them the truth about why their loved one is dead.”

You can read Kinner’s complete letter here.

The Hells Angels Motorcycle Club held its annual run in Cody, Wyoming this year. The Angels last sojourned in Cody in 2006 when they were constantly harassed by a Department of Homeland Security helicopter.

The Angels National Run tends to be a boon for local policemen who use it as an excuse to demand overtime. Locals are usually whipped into a panic in anticipation of the arrival of the Red and White. This year was no different.

Hide The Women

Last month, the Cody Enterprise editorialized, “Cody walks a tightrope when it comes to the Hells Angels. Given our proximity to Sturgis, it appears they favor Cody as their staging area before proceeding en masse to the Black Hills.”

“We have our own militia,” the Enterprise alerted locals, “formed of city, county, state and federal officers – to keep a lid on things in our village. Cody has largely adopted the famous general’s ‘Powell Doctrine’ from the Gulf War. It emphasized ‘overwhelming strike capabilities with an emphasis on ground forces, and widespread public support.’”

“Armed with nearly $200,000 in special state funding to pay, feed and house our small army of officers,” the editorial continued, “we’re sure to have the first two criteria covered. But if officers stop or ticket locals every time they spit on the sidewalk, as seemed to happen in ’06, the Hells Angels may be the least of their concerns.”

The Damage

As it turned out, the local militia was less obnoxious that the last time the Angels were in town. And yesterday, almost a week after the club left, television station KULR in Billings, Montana added up the damage. This is what the station learned.

Christi Livingston, the owner of a motel called the Moose Creek Lodge, told the Billings station the Angels who stayed there “swept parking lots” and “took out their trash.” When they pulled out they left behind “two giant flower bouquets.”

Cody police chief  Perry Rockvam reported that club members didn’t let members ride drunk. “If they have someone they feel is too intoxicated or impaired to operate a motorcycle, they rented vehicles and they’re providing transport back to where they’re staying, then they coordinate getting their motorcycle back too,” Rockvam said.

And, a local food bank called the Cody Cupboard told KULR the Angels “donated 719 pounds of food, including fruit, milk, meat, and buns to the food bank.”

Sometimes when you do right people do notice.

Rebel,

There is also a Jay Church that is a member of the Brevard County Sheriffs Dept and was 2009 deputy of the year. Is there any relation?

Thank you for your coverage of this

10G

Dear 10 Gauge,

I don’t know for sure whether Church was there that night. He told me he had no knowledge of the Tipton murder. He wrote me right back to tell me he didn’t know what I was talking about. How many members of the Iron Order, do you suppose, had not yet heard of the Nippers shooting on July 15?

The Jacksonville Beach police issued a statement a week or so after the shooting that seemed to mostly be intended to categorize my coverage of the case as internet “rumors.” I know Sergeant Tommy Crumley issued that statement after he and I had words on the phone about him stonewalling me. I know one of the “facts” the Jacksonville Beach police wanted the public to know was that the shooter was not and never had been a cop. Of course, police never lie.

Jay Church

Off the top of my head, I don’t know how many men named Jay Church live in Florida, how many of those men named Jay Church are police officers and how many of the men named Jay Church are affiliated in some way with the Iron Order Motorcycle Club.

I do believe, based upon my knowledge and experience, that the name Derek Kinner was trying to confirm with the State Attorney was Jay Church; which was the only reason I brought up the name Jay Church in the first place. After reading Kinner’s long rant in Folio Weekly I have the reasonable suspicion that the State Attorney has no comment on anybody named Jay Church.

I would think that it would be easy for the State Attorney to simply say, “nobody named Jay Church is involved in or is a person of interest in this investigation.” I personally don’t see how that would contaminate the ongoing investigation at all. Maybe I’m missing something. I think it is a red flag that the State Attorney couldn’t just say, “No, you have the wrong name.”

Old Friend

I do know that my coverage of the Iron Order Motorcycle Club prompted the following four comments, two I which I haven’t published previously:

“All you retards that read this aging rebel stuff and believe it are sheep. All my real Diamond Brothers should know that this retard who writes this and you follow like a savoir is a rat and snitch. If you hold a 1% diamond you need to know, the faggot that writes all this, Rebel’s background as an ex-Mongol (you can view it on the home page of the Mongol’s website). He has been exposed as a coward who ran during the Agent Ciccone under-cover bust leaving his club to fend for itself. Ran like a little bitch and now you read his lies and Bullshit like its your last meal. Dont worry Rebel, your friends have not forgot about you.”

“Hey if you still have your FED contacts, you can ask them to trace this email for ya. Then you can find out who we are and maybe turn another case against us. Dont worry Buddy…..soon enough.”

“Pig…. no! Old Friend of mister rebel who he snitched on..YES. Dont worry….we dont forget that easy. only sheep i see are the ones who follow and believe this shit. Nothing different then the old days rebel. Right…lying sack of shit.”

“See you could not post the last 2 post. Scared your followers will learn the truth about you. Don’t worry snitch, I can smell your fear from here. Soon enough.”

Snitch

It is a fact that I am not a snitch. It is a fact that I protect sources. It is a fact that many policemen would like to do something about me.

Actually, what I wrote about the conclusion of Operation Black Rain was that I thought three undercover ATF agents were either accessories before the fact or actual participants in the murder of a Mongol name Hitman Martin on the Glendale Freeway. I do know that the day after Martin’s murder, Assistant U.S. Attorney Chris Brunwin pulled the plug on the undercover operation. I do know my coverage of the Mongols case earned me death threats.

It is also a fact that I wrote a reply to that last comment that appeared both in the comments section and on the front page. I thought and still think the accusation that I was a snitch is slanderous and that the veiled threats in those comments might just be criminal. In that reply I wrote that I believed the author of the comments was “Iron Order Motorcycle Club International Vice President Dale ‘Qball’ Bubenhoffer” and that I believed he made those comments from his “residence at 2126 Kingsfield St., Jeffersonville, Indiana.” And that his current phone number is 502-817-5110 and his active email address is qball_iomc@twc.com.

And it is a fact that after I published that “Old Friend” stopped commenting. What do you think? Coincidence?

So many amazing coincidences, huh? Like a shit storm of completely unrelated coincidences. Must be.

I have an email in my inbox right now from Ray Lubesky that I haven’t had time to read yet. The subject line is “Another bunch of errors.” So maybe Izod will be able to demonstrate to me that all these amazing coincidences are just that.

I can’t wait.

You’re welcome,
Rebel

In what can only be described as a shameless play for the attention of this page, Hormel Foods Corporation and the BBDO advertising agency have announced that a bacon powered motorcycle has arrived in Sturgis, South Dakota on its way to the Bacon Film Festival in San Diego.

The film festival will unfold Friday, August 29, beginning at 7 p.m. on the deck of the USS Midway which is now docked at 910 N. Harbor Drive in San Diego. Presumably, this publicity stunt is the result of some research that indicates motorcyclists are unabashed bacon lovers. A web site will chronicle the bacon powered bike’s transit of the left half of the continent. And you will find that site at www.drivenbybacon.com.

The bike will be accompanied by a 12-member support team as it travels west. Somebody or other will film the journey and edit the raw footage into a film that will be shown at the film festival. There is a high probability that the film will feature many colorful yahoos saying things like “Golly! Does that motorcycle really run on bacon!? Is it high quality and delicious Hormel bacon?”

Evaproducts T800DCI

The relentlessly technical will want to know that the bacon bike is really a modified diesel powered motorcycle called the Track T800CDI. It is built by a Dutch company called Evaproducts and it is designed for “adventure travel.” The prototype was unveiled about five years ago.

The original press materials on the T800DCI claimed the motorcycle has an 800 cc engine that makes 45 horsepower and 78 foot pounds of torque. Evaproducts claimed the bike got 140 miles per gallon. One reviewer described the Evaproducts bike as smelling like an old school bus and sounding like a tractor.

Now Smells Like Bacon

The ever cheery scriveners at BBDO explain the bacon bike will run on “grease from its Black Label Bacon plant in Rochelle, Illinois.” Hormel ships the grease to a company called Bio-Blend Fuels Inc. in Manitowoc, Wisconsin where it is converted into biofuel.

The advertisers claim the motorcycle gets about 70 miles per gallon running on the converted bacon grease. Also the thing is now supposed to smell like bacon.

Just so you know.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation issued a press release last week trumpeting the great Sacramento Vagos investigation of 2013 and 2014. The release, issued last Friday is titled “Vagos Outlaw Motorcycle Gang Investigation Leads to Four Drug Trafficking Indictments.” The release was issued ten days after the FBI announced it had filed a criminal complaint July 29 that led to the arrest of two Sacramento area Vagos and two other men.

Last month, the FBI announced it had arrested James Cline, Jr., Michael Wright and Leonard Walter for allegedly selling an undercover FBI employee about 100 grams of methamphetamine on two occasions. The amount of contraband involved totaled about seven ounces. The drug buys culminated a multiyear undercover investigation of Vagos in Sacramento. Cline immediately told television station KXTV that he wasn’t a Vago.

Fridays press release announced that Cline, Wright and Walter had, indeed, been indicted. It also announced that three more men named Richard Cardenas, Quentin Stallings and David Homan had been indicted separately – so there were a total of four indictments.

The News

Cardenas, who is not a Vago, allegedly sold the methamphetamine to Cline, Wright and Walter that they then allegedly sold to the FBI infiltrator. Cardenas was arrested last month when Cline, Wright and Walter were arrested.

Stallings is described in the July 29 criminal complaint as the president of the “Northern Valley Vagos” and “the Northern California Representative for the Vagos, since there are no National officers in the area. This means he is of higher status than a regular president and he communicates directly with the National Chapter. Stallings has a criminal history to include conviction for possession of a firearm- sentenced to two years in state prison, and conspiracy to commit a crime as a gang member – sentenced to four years state prison.” In the indictment announced last Friday, Stallings is accused of “knowingly and intentionally distribute(ing) at least 5 grams of methamphetamine (actual), a Schedule II Controlled Substance” “on or about June 19, 2013.”

There are no criminal complaints or indictments against “David Homan” in any federal criminal record listed on the Public Access to Court Electronic Records website. Homan is also not mentioned in either the July 29 criminal complaint or the indictments against Cardenas or Stallings. The FBI release describes Homan as a “fugitive.”

Behind The News

The fact that the FBI has made multiple announcements of criminal cases stemming from two relatively minor drug deals more than a year ago suggests that the FBI tried long and hard to bring a racketeering indictment against Sacramento area Vagos and simply couldn’t get anything on them.

Most of the July 29 criminal complaint and most of last Friday’s press release are comprised of prejudicial statements like:

“…this investigation targeted three Sacramento-area chapters of the Vagos Outlaw Motorcycle Gang (OMG). The Vagos are a motorcycle club that began in the late 1960s in California that has since evolved into one of the largest OMGs in the Western United States. They have nearly 600 members in 24 chapters located in Arizona, California, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, and Utah. They also have chapters in Mexico. The gang uses an organized hierarchy that includes a national president, vice president, sergeant at arms, secretary, and treasurer. The regional chapters also have the same structure in place as the national chapter. The chapters report to the national leadership and have mandated meetings and events and monthly dues.”

“This investigation confirmed that the Sacramento-area Vagos are involved in illegal activities. Such activities include distributing methamphetamine, purchasing illegal weapons, and handling stolen motorcycles. During this investigation, FBI used confidential sources and undercover agents to make multiple purchases of methamphetamine from Vagos members and their associates in the Sacramento area. The FBI investigation is ongoing even after this initial phase of charges.”

Jay Dobyns is back and he is still flogging the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives with the accusations that Hells Angels or their surrogates burned his home and that he was betrayed by his employers.

Yesterday, on the sixth anniversary of the arson, Dobyns published “An Open Letter to the United States Congress.”

Background

Dobyns was an ATF agent who pretended to be a gun runner in Bullhead City, Arizona and a member of the Solo Angeles motorcycle club as part of an ATF investigation of the Hells Angels. Eventually Dobyns prospected with what was then the Skull Valley charter of the Angels. For public relations reasons, four separate investigations were lumped together and renamed Operation Black Biscuit. The name was invented on the set of a Fox Television show named America’s Most Wanted.

The ATF wanted Dobyns to be famous and so he was. He was one of the main subjects of a book called Angels of Death by Julian Sher and William Marsden. Then he was the hero of Kerrie Droban’s book Running With The Devil. Finally he was the hero of his own book No Angel. During the last eight years he has made numerous television appearances.

Dobyns believed he and his family were inadequately protected from reprisals by the Hells Angels and he sued the ATF. In September 2007 the Bureau agreed to pay Dobyns $373,000 to drop his suit.  Eleven months later, someone tossed a can of flammable liquid on the back porch of his Tucson hacienda and set the porch on fire. Dobyns was “verifiably out of town” at the time.  His cell phone was turned on and cell tower records indicated that at the time of the fire Dobyns’ phone was actually travelling away from Tucson but his wife and kids were home. News reports estimated the amount of the damage at $30,000. Dobyns claimed his home was almost totally destroyed.

He encouraged the belief that his home was torched by the Hells Angels in retaliation for his undercover work. ATF officials accused Dobyns of setting the fire himself.

Eventually Dobyns sued the ATF again. The ATF countersued. The lawsuits are still unfinished, a year after a secret trial might have resolved them. Virtually the entire case is sealed. The parties are currently haggling over whether to work out how much each side owes the other in mediation. So far, they can’t seem to agree on that. As his case has infolded, Dobyns has attempted to link his grievances with the ATF Gunrunner Scandal.

Letter

In yesterday’s letter Dobyns told Congress:

“My situation may be unique, in that there was an attempt to murder me and my family, but the nature of cover-up and retaliation that I have suffered is similar to dozens, if not hundreds, of other cases in ATF. As I await the court’s resolution of my case, there are clear and decisive measures that Congress can take now to prevent situations like mine from being repeated. To date, none of those have been implemented, and no hearings have been held. DOJ and ATF have been empowered by your exhaustion for seeking the truth. In their eyes, they have won. They have weathered the storm, out-waiting and out-litigating your inquiries.”

Dobyns alleges:

“As evidence of those agencies unchecked brazenness; in May of 2013, one month before the trial regarding my allegations of failure to assist a threatened employee, I was attacked on a commercial airline flight by gang members who recognized me. ATF, the FBI and DOJ once again failed to conduct even the most elementary investigation of that event ignoring the simplest and most basic investigative procedures that would have quickly resulted in arrests and prosecutions. I assume that that they did not react knowing that this new attack on me was outside the scope of the allegations pending before the court and could not be discussed at trial.”

And, he concludes:

“I have done all that I can to seek truth, justice and accountability. I am but one man mostly powerless to force or affect change. Please do your part to ensure that no other government employee, no other lawman or woman anywhere, has to suffer the consequences that I have behind their service to America’s law enforcement missions.”

You can read the complete text of Dobyns’ letter as well as previously sealed documents presented at his trial here.

There still have been no charges filed or statements issued from the Jacksonville, Florida  State Attorney’s Office regarding the murder of a Black Piston patch holder named Zachariah “Nas T” Tipton 48 days ago. So this Friday, on the 50th day, friends and relatives of Tipton’s plan to hold another public demonstration in hopes that somebody somewhere might be persuaded to give a damn.

Tipton was shot two or three times in the face and once in the side of the head by a member of the Iron Order Motorcycle Club at the conclusion of what numerous sources have called an “intentional confrontation.”

The Iron Order

The Black Pistons are affiliated with the American Outlaws Association and since its inception the Iron Order has been at “war” with the Outlaws. A book by club president Ray “Izod” Lubesky titled IOMC – Birth of a Motorcycle Club is a virtual chronicle of armed confrontations between members of the Iron Order and the Outlaws. Lubesky presents himself as a former Outlaw hang around who joined a new club when he moved to Louisville.

The new club was founded by disgruntled members of the Blue Knights Motorcycle Club and a United States Secret Service Agent. The Blue Knights split away because the Blue Knights, according to Lubesky, “conduct their clubs more like the Elks club with motorcycles.” Lubesky wanted to join a club more like the Outlaws with whom he had ridden in Atlanta. “In fact,” he writes. “with some of these law enforcement motorcycle clubs there is a very fine line that separates them from the 1%er and other MCs.  I consider these other law enforcement motorcycle clubs to be MCs because they follow the same traditions we do in the MC world. As Fat Man was describing this new club and its origins, I thought it was one of these hard core law enforcement motorcycle clubs. It sounded interesting to me.” The new club was the Iron Order.

The Iron Order under Lubesky has simultaneously branded itself as a “law abiding motorcycle club” and as a violent club that celebrates chapters with “clubhouse whores” and encourages its members to carry guns. According to a high ranking Iron Order officer, more than half of all club members are active duty military members or sworn peace officers.

June 26

According to multiple sources, at least eight and possibly as many as 12 Iron Order members were at Nippers Beach Grille awaiting the arrival of three or four Black Pistons in the moments before Tipton died. According to multiple, non-police sources most of the Iron Order members were never questioned by police.

According to a source who told The Aging Rebel he was sitting on Nippers patio, “There were at least two tables full of Iron Order. A phone call was received and calls made at the Iron Order tables. Then an Iron Order member took a prospect and went to the parking lot with the prospect in tow. Then the shooting started. About six to eight Iron Order removed their vests, jumped the railing to the road and left. Three members of the Iron Order stayed on scene with their vests on. There was only one Iron Order prospect present.”

The source was detained by police until one the next morning, asked if he saw the actual shooting and then released without further questioning.

Police told the first Jacksonville reporters on the scene that Tipton had been shot four times in the face and head. Multiple sources have said they heard an initial volley of either three or four shots followed, after a brief pause, by two more shots. One news video (below) shows five, orange, spray painted circles of the type used to mark expended cartridges at crime scenes.

Twelve days after the shooting a Jacksonville Beach police spokesman issued a statement to clarify “a great deal of misinformation circulating in the public” about Tipton’s murder. “To the best of our knowledge, no one directly involved in this incident is or ever was a law enforcement officer,” the spokesman wrote. “This was a dispute between members and/or associates of two motorcycle clubs that ended in violence. The deceased was struck by one round and died as a result of that wound.”

The statement was issued 36 days ago. The organizers of Friday’s demonstration hope that a public show of interest might entice either the police or the State Attorney to say a little something more.

A Tennessee lawyer named John P. Cauley, acting on behalf of the American Outlaw Association of Knoxville, served the Knox County District Attorney yesterday with a legal petition demanding the return of property seized during a punitive raid on a New Year’s Eve party almost five years ago.

The case has always exemplified the extent to which American police can unconstitutionally and extrajudicially punish people simply because some cop thinks they should be punished. For the last five years the case has been an open sore on the American ideal of rule by law. If the demands in the petition are not granted, it will be proof beyond a reasonable doubt that might makes right and that the Constitution isn’t worth the paper it is written on.

The Infiltration

During what police described as a 14-month-long “undercover Investigation,” a Knox County Deputy named Joseph Neal Linger prospected and attempted to join the Knoxville chapter of the Outlaws. Linger got his job as a deputy as a reward for agreeing to try to infiltrate and get something on the Outlaws. On December 23, 2009, when Linger was discovered to be a policeman, chapter president Kenneth Foster and a club regional officer named Mark Lester stripped Linger of his colors and told him to get lost. Police characterized the seizure of the colors as a “kidnapping” and a “theft.” Eight days later, on New Year’s Eve, Linger applied for search warrants for the Knoxville clubhouse and Foster’s home.

The warrants authorized the seizure of: “Controlled substances and controlled substances paraphernalia, one 2XX leather vest…indicia of ownership, dominion, or control over premises to be searched such as rental receipts, mortgage receipts, mortgage payments, utility bills, photographs of any persons involved in criminal conduct, all financial records pertaining to the disposition of the proceeds of the violation of the criminal laws specified above, and any goods or instruments used to facilitate or constituting proceeds from the violation of the criminal laws specified above, and any evidence or items which would be used to conceal the foregoing or prevent its discovery; together with any Outlaw paraphernalia with insignia, including but not limited to vests, patches, flags, banners, tshirts (sic), and jewelry.”

That night a platoon sized force of militarized police raided the Knoxville clubhouse at 9 p.m. while a New Year’s Eve party was in progress. The raid was clearly intended to be punitive.

The Raid

It was, according to court documents, “a dynamic raid, using concussion, flash grenades thrown into the midst of the party, without any knocking or first announcing their presence…(and) entered the residence and Club House with great physical force, injuring several” of the party goers who “were all forced to the ground with violence and threats and those that did not get to the ground quickly enough were kicked, stomped and slammed to the ground….” In order to conceal their identities the militarized police wore hoods. After all the revelers were in chains the police continued to point guns at their heads and threatened “to ‘blow their heads off’ if they moved or said anything.”

The cops then proceeded to wreck the place. They “broke furniture, destroyed windows and window frames and smashed in doors with a battering ram after they had already secured entry, when all they had to do was open the unlocked doors.” Cops seized “every item that had any Outlaw Club reference including even gravestone markers of Club members who had died.” And, after putting the partiers in chains the police “took all items of value from the premises” and from individual detainees “such as flat screen TV sets, video equipment, cash money and jewelry.”

Then, just so there was no misunderstanding about who was in charge and who didn’t matter, the cops ate all the food.

Tha Newz

Prior to the raid, police “contacted the local television networks and newspaper media and invited them to come to the residence and clubhouse to video tape and report on the raid.” Then police “allowed and encouraged the news media to come inside the residence and photograph the interior of the building and videotape a press conference held inside the residence.”

The next day the Knoxville News Sentinel reported: “The Knox County Sheriff’s Office dropped a different kind of ball on the heads of a notorious motorcycle gang on New Year’s Eve, sending at least two of them to jail for allegedly threatening an undercover officer and stealing his vest last month.

“A SWAT team armed with concussion grenades and assault rifles raided the clubhouse of the Outlaws Motorcycle Club’s Knoxville chapter off Western Avenue,” the News Sentinel continued, “swiftly handcuffing more than a dozen leather-clad bikers and at least two women as they were celebrating with booze, sandwiches and vegetable plates, authorities said.”

“‘These guys are a menace to society,’ said Knox County Sheriff Jimmy ‘J.J.’ Jones. ‘Everything they stand for is illegal.’”

“They’re involved in every illegal activity known to man. Prostitution, methamphetamine,” Jones told local television station WVLT.

The State of Tennessee let Mark Lester sweat it out for a year before dismissing the criminal complaints against him. Four months later the state dismissed all criminal charges against Kenneth Foster. But the state never returned what it stole from the Knoxville clubhouse and from Foster’s home.

What Was Stolen By Police

According to the petition served on the Knoxville DA yesterday: “The Knox County Sheriff’s deputies involved in the search removed everything inside the (club) house and outside of the house that bore the Outlaws club logo, jewelry, lawfully possessed firearms, surveillance equipment, all financial records, thousands of dollars in membership dues, televisions, framed memorabilia, shadow boxes in memory of dead club members, commemorative tombstones, and many other items.”

Police also stole “items bearing the club logo, records of regional dues paid by club members through their chapters, thousands of dollars in regional dues, lawfully possessed prescription medication and other miscellaneous items” from Kenneth Foster’s home.

Apparently nobody knows where all this loot went. Some of it was “turned over to” the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. There has never been a state or federal forfeiture suit filed. There has never been a state or federal accounting of what was seized. The police simply stole it during what could truthfully be described as a home invasion robbery.

Abandoned

Almost two years ago, on September 7, 2012 Sheriff  Jones obtained an exparte court order declaring that the stolen property had been abandoned. An exparte order is a kind of secret order that did not require the Sheriff  to notify his victims that their stolen property hadn’t really been stolen but rather abandoned because nobody had yet found where he had hidden it.

A lawyer named Mike Whalen got an injunction that November that prevented Jones from destroying what he had stolen.

Twenty months later none of the stolen items have yet been returned.

The petition served on the Knoxville District Attorney yesterday demands “the return of all seized property,” demands that the victims of these home invasions be compensated for the costs of all this avoidable legal action and demands that the victims be awarded unspecified “general relief.”

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Five weeks ago the Wet Mountain Tribune, a weekly newspaper in Southern Colorado, reported that a young family had been the victims of an unprovoked attack by members of the Valiants Motorcycle Club over the Independence Day Weekend.

The Tribune reported that 25-year-old Travis Harter, his 24-year-old girlfriend Nicole Mickeletto and their three-year-old son “were surrounded by the motorcycle gang known as ‘Valiant.’”

“The attack began west of Wetmore on Highway 96,” the Tribune reported. “There were a dozen motorcycles and five SUVs that increased and decreased their speed around the family, and refused to let them pass.” “By the time the family had come onto Hardscrabble Road they had been rear-ended by one of the SUVs already.”

And according to the Tribune report, one motorcyclist pointed a gun at Harter and ordered him off the road. Then a white sport utility vehicle shoved the family’s car off the road. Harter was beaten, his headlights were smashed, his tires were slashed, his door was stabbed and his family was menaced.

Cañon City Daily Record

Today the Cañon City Daily Record added the detail that the couple’s dog was also beaten after barking in the backseat of the family car during the attack.

The Daily Record reported that Custer County Sheriff Fred Jobe has issued arrest warrants for four suspects in the case. “There were more at the scene of the assault,” Jobe told the paper. “We’ve identified more of them, but these four are the ones we know were at the scene, one of them being the main attacker. He is the one who did the most damage to the car and the victims.”

Harter was transported by ambulance to Parkview Medical Center in Pueblo where he was treated and released the same day.

Sheriff Jobe said yesterday, “Physically they (the family) are doing fine. Emotionally, they are still struggling with some of it.”

Charges

The Cañon City paper declined to “publish the names of the suspects…while the incident is being investigated.” The paper described the suspects as three males and one female from the Denver area who are in their late 20s or early 30s.

The Daily Record did reveal, “The four suspects are facing misdemeanor and felony charges including menacing, third-degree assault, criminal mischief, harassment, unlawful conduct on public property, theft, disorderly conduct, cruelty to animals and criminal attempt.”

“One of the suspects also is facing an additional charge for violation of a protection order because he was prohibited from possessing weapons. ”

After 28 months a court clown named Scott R. Hixson, whose official title is Chief Deputy Solicitor for the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit of South Carolina, has dropped 107 criminal charges brought against members of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club in Horry County and Myrtle Beach.

The charges resulted from a criminal investigation called “Operation Red Harvest” which began in 2010 and was intended to punish its victims for the non-crime of belonging to a motorcycle club. At the self-congratulatory press conference in April 2012, Saundra Rhodes of the Horry County Police Department modestly allowed, “We believe this will have a significant impact on the Hell’s Angels. In my 18 years with the department I’ve never seen a grand jury investigation that netted 226 indictments. This is a pretty big deal.”

The point of the case was always to use the state’s exclusive power to prosecute in order to obviate the basic, ancient and almost universally recognized right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty. Greg Hembree, who preceded Hixson as official court clown, said as much when he announced the wildly overblown case that led to raids on 11 locations and charged 34 people with the 226 crimes that ranged from illegal tattooing to lynching. “It’s going to take up a lot of their time and energy and resources to defend these charges,” Hembree bragged.

Credible Evidence

Thirteen months after the press conference court clown in chief Jimmy Richardson, whose official title is Solicitor for the 15th Circuit of South Carolina, dropped more than 100 of the charges. “What we did was we went through…we looked at each charge individually, and the stuff that we couldn’t prove, we dismissed it” Richardson said.

Yesterday, defense attorney John M. Hilliard, III announced that all the remaining charges had finally been dismissed. “These cases represent the entirety of criminal charges lodged by the Horry County Police Department two and a half years ago against members of the local chapter of the motorcycle club,” Hilliard wrote. “All charges were thrown out after prosecutors carefully examined each case against each individual.”

“There was never any credible evidence against any of my clients, a fact that I have repeatedly pointed out to the prosecution since the time of the original arrests,”

Hilliard

Hilliard wrote, “No drugs or other evidence of the commission of crime were found during any of these (April 2012) raids or searches of Hells Angels’ properties. Police officers seized money, clothing and Hells Angels memorabilia, business records, computers and the like during their sweeps nonetheless.”

Property was returned after Hilliard pointed out to the prosecution that valid search warrants limit seizure of property to evidence of criminal activity. “Warrants do not allow law enforcement to go on fishing expeditions to collect trophies,” Hilliard said.

“Hembree was right,” Hilliard continued. “It has taken a lot of time, energy and resources to defend against what have proven to be baseless charges. That was all time, energy and resources that my clients would otherwise have used to pay family bills. This has all been a real financial hardship on everyone who was arrested in this police sweep. My clients were required to pay for surety bonds in excess of $1,000,000.00 in this case.”

Not Criminal Gang

“The Myrtle Beach Chapter of the Hells Angels is not a ‘criminal gang’ by any definition of the word,” Hilliard went on. “It is a motorcycle club, nothing more. Nonetheless, because of these arrests the names of my clients are likely to end up being included on the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division watch list.”

The SLED list stores information about alleged “criminal gangs” on a separate, loosely regulated computer registry. Under existing rules, a naked, unsubstantiated allegation by a law enforcement officer can result in someone’s name being on that list. Hilliard said those files, “are shared with other law enforcement agencies around the State and country and with federal authorities. Among other things, being listed on the ‘criminal gang’ registry can result in a person being put on ‘no fly’ or ‘terrorist watch’ lists circulated by Homeland Security.”

Hilliard said, “Members of the club are now deciding whether to pursue various civil actions because of these arrests, including removal of their names and that of the Myrtle Beach Chapter of Hells Angels from the criminal gang registry.”

While the soulless humanoids who now run Harley-Davidson continue their quest to keep the motor company afloat by blowing hot air at hipsters their chief domestic competitor, Polaris, wants to sell you a better motorcycle.

This month that better motorcycle is the 2015 Indian Scout, a model the original Indian Motorcycle Manufacturing Company discontinued in 1949. The original Indian replaced the 46 cubic inch Scout with a bigger model called the Warrior in 1950.

The 2015 Scout weighs 558 pounds wet and is powered by a 69 cubic inch, (or 1133cc) liquid cooled, fuel-injected V-twin. engine. Polaris claims it makes 100 horsepower and 72.2 foot pounds of torque at 5900 rpm. It is a sled, with a 25.3 inch seat height and its most obvious defect is a 3.3 gallon gas tank that is at least a gallon too small.  It has a six speed transmission, a 31 degree lean angle and a 5.3 inch ground clearance that will protect you from many, if not all, speed bumps. Almost everybody who has tested the bike loves it. You can reach 60 in second gear and it looks like a real motorcycle.

Polaris introduced the Scout earlier this month at Sturgis but you can’t buy one until late this fall. When you can a black Scout will cost $11,000 plus tax and license. A red or grey bike will cost about $300 more.

Indian And Polaris

Indian was founded in 1901 in Springfield, Massachusetts. It remained an important brand throughout the Great Depression and was integral to the effort to win the Second World War but it couldn’t survive the peace. The company went out of business in 1953.

There were attempts to revive Indian motorcycles in 1955, 1963, 1970, 1994 and 1998. Interest in the brand increased during the Harley boom beginning in the 1980s. The Indian Motorcycle Company of America owned the brand from 1999 through 2003. A separate and distinct Indian Motorcycle Company built a limited number of motorcycles in North Carolina between 2006 and 2011.

Snowmobile manufacturer Polaris started making Victory Motorcycles in 1998. Polaris bought the Indian brand in April 2011 and began shipping three Indian models – the Chief Classic, Chief Vintage and the Chieftain – a year ago.

Robert William Richards, one of four Marines vilified 20 months ago by their nation’s leaders and Sergeant at Arms for the Jacksonville, North Carolina chapter of the American Infidels Motorcycle Club died last Wednesday August 13, 2014 at his home. The cause of death has not been announced.

Geoff Womack, a Houston, Texas attorney who had represented Richards during the last year and a half of his life, told the Tampa Tribune that Richard’s death was “in no way a suicide.”

Scout Sniper

Roberts was born in St. Petersburg and enlisted in the Marine Corps in January 2007. He served with the Scout Sniper platoon of the 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marines based at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. He was deployed to Afghanistan three times and was awarded the Purple Heart, the Combat Action Ribbon, a Presidential Unit Citation, a Navy Unit Commendation and two Marine Corps Good Conduct Medals.

He was severely wounded in the neck, foot and back when a roadside bomb exploded near him during his second tour of duty.  He was redeployed a year later.

While serving in Helmand Province on July 27, 2011 Richards and three other Marines urinated on four dead Taliban.  The urination was video recorded and after the four Marines returned home a copy of the video circulated among troops serving at Camp Lejeune. The recording was uploaded to YouTube in January 2012 and immediately became a sensation,

It was widely reported that Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Jim Amos wanted the four men “crushed.” Richards was demoted from Sergeant to Corporal after a summary court martial a year ago and was almost immediately given a medical discharge.

Dedicated Marine

Richards is survived by his wife, Raechel; his mother, Cate Richards; his maternal grandparents, retired Army Colonel Bill Collins and Ann Collins; his paternal grandmother, M.D. Richards; his in-laws and many aunts, uncles and cousins.

There will be a viewing this Thursday, August 21 from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Anderson-McQueen Family Tribute Center, 2201 Martin Luther King Street North in St. N., St. Petersburg, Florida. A graveside funeral service with full military honors will be held at 9:15 a.m. on Friday, August 22, 2014, at Bay Pines National Cemetery.

Those who knew him remember he was a selfless leader, a dedicated Marine, and a faithful friend.

Robert William Richards was just 28. He deserved better.

Requiscant In Pace.