Clinton Lovelace, above, a driver who swerved into a pack of twelve motorcyclists on State Road 151 near Fond du Lac, Wisconsin on May 31, 2012, reached a plea agreement yesterday that will send him to prison. Lovelace pled guilty to two counts of homicide by negligent use of a motor vehicle and three counts of reckless injury.

Lovelace had faced up to 90 years. He will probably be sentenced to 20 years by Fond du Lac County Judge Gary Sharpe on February 6.

Lovelace’s victims were members of a Muskegon, Michigan riding club called the Muskegon Motorcycle Gang. Twelve members of the club had taken an express ferry from Muskegon to Milwaukee and were riding north to the Mackinac Bridge and a return trip home through most of Michigan. The loop was an annual club event called The Bridge Run.

The Accident

The dozen riders were about 70 miles into the ride when Lovelace, travelling in the opposite direction, suddenly swerved into the pack. A police report said “the vehicle’s crossing wasn’t a slow gradual movement, it was almost like it jerked over the centerline striking the motorcycles.”

The first bike struck was ridden by Eric “Ric” VanDam. Lovelace hit VanDam in the left saddlebag. VanDam spent two weeks in a coma, more than three months in a hospital and lost a leg. He is now confined to a wheelchair.

Dan Winsemius, one of the riders directly behind VanDam was pronounced dead at the scene. Douglas Yonkers, the man riding next to Winsemius, died a week later.

Lovelace struck ten bikes and all ten of those riders either died or were seriously injured.

The Drugs

Lovelace told police he took Adderall and Xanax daily. He also had a prescription for oxycodone and traces of Oxy and marijuana were found in his system.

Lovelace was injured in the crash and briefly hospitalized. After he was admitted, nurses found two unused syringes and multiple doses of what appeared to be blotter acid in his clothes.

Lovelace told investigators he couldn’t remember the crash or anything that had occurred since that morning. He said he couldn’t remember taking Adderall or Xanax. The level of oxycodone in his blood was within legal limits in Wisconsin.

He was 25 at the time of the accident. An examination of his car found no mechanical problems that might have contributed to the crash.

This is Street Vibrations weekend in Reno. It is also the second year the event, which was once and may yet again be everything Laughlin and Sturgis are not, will try to enforce a no colors policy.

The gutless boilerplate reads: “Due to events which have occurred at recent motorcycle rallies, and for the safety of participants, Street Vibrations prohibits the display of colors affiliated with Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs as defined by the US Department of Justice. Persons displaying these club colors at Street Vibrations Reno and Sparks venues and participating sponsor properties will be asked to conceal them or exit the event.” Presumably, the “events which have occurred at recent motorcycle rallies” means the gunfight Gary “Jabbers” Rudnick started two years ago at John Ascuaga’s Nugget in Sparks.

Color free or not, most of the event will take place on public property in downtown Reno where visitors can wear anything they want. Local resident Troy Regas told Emerson Marcus of the Reno Gazette-Journal, “The event will survive. This (the color ban) isn’t going to hurt this event. This event will grow. It will come back to be normal again. It’s just going to take time.” You can read all of the Gazette-Journal article here.

Money

Event planners expect about 1,000 people to “register” for the event. Registration costs $70 and entitles you to a parking pass, “Official Event Participant T-Shirt,” “Official Event Participant Ride Pin,” bike games, two poker runs, three poker walks and three “VIP Parties.”

Another 29,000 motorcycle enthusiasts are expected to just show up. A room for Friday and Saturday night will cost them about $400. Room packages include soap, towels and shampoo but do not include food, beer, liquor, drugs, women, lawyers, court costs or medical fees.

Reno boosters expect registered visitors to spend $614 per day during their visit. People who just show up will spend an average of $390 each day. The five day event should pump about $56 million into the local economy.

Safety Ueber Alles

Biker visitors who are as afraid of motorcycles as they are of the people one may meet riding a motorcycle may want to visit the website for HaulBikes Motorcycle Transportation.

HaulBikes appreciates your neuroses and is there to help. “Cycle transport makes getting to Street Vibrations a smooth ride,” the company’s website explains. “Planning to make Street Vibrations road show your next cycle rally destination but don’t want to deal with weather or wear and tear along the way? HaulBikes understands that when you go to a rally like Street Vibrations you want your bike waiting for you when you get there – battery connected, fluids intact and ready to ride.”

“HaulBikes Motorcycle Transportation will haul your motorcycle from almost anywhere in the United States, with shipping rates based on mileage from pick up to delivery location, making delivery of your cycle to Street Vibrations hassle-free.”

Bikers who intend to pose on their outlaw machines for a few photos then leave them parked will also be happy to know that there will be a free shuttle from the Nugget’s valet area to Downtown Reno every half hour from 8 a.m. until 11 p.m. A woman named Lauren Garber who works for the Nugget explained “The Nugget encourages event goers to take advantage of the free shuttle to help keep our roads safe.”

Harley-Davidson is expected to introduce a new motorcycle with a 600 cc engine displacement at a media event in Milan, Italy on November 4. The presser will precede the EICMA 71st International Motorcycle Exhibition which opens November 5. The new bike will probably be identical to the motorcycle in the photo above. The photo ran first on the Indian auto site Team-BHP.

The new bike is at the center of Harley’s global strategy of building less expensive motorcycles for so called emerging markets like India and China. Since 1981, Harley’s core market has been epitomized by the Harley Owners Group – a company sponsored, quasi motorcycle club that epitomized traditional American values. That market is now aging and growing poorer so Harley has been actively courting women and non-traditional buyers in North America and Europe.

At Harley’s 110th anniversary in Milwaukee last August, Chief Operating Officer Matthew Levatich said the new Harley would be “nimble, light weight, has a low seat height and supple throttle and braking. I’ve ridden it. It looks great, sounds great, it’s a Harley, and it’s priced right.”

Levatich also said, “The American qualities of a Harley are very important to people. The literal ‘where does that shock absorber come from’ part of it is less significant, but it has to have the spirit and soul of America. We have Harley-Davidson factories in India and Brazil. Can we leverage those facilities and expertise so it can get to the, for example, Indian consumer, faster?”

Little Harleys

Harley has built small motorcycles before. The Buell Blast had an engine displacement of 492 cc. In 1960, Harley rebranded a 250 cc, single cylinder bike built by the Italian company Aermacchi as the Harley-Davidson Sprint.

The new little Harley will feature a completely redesigned V-Twin engine with a wider than 45 degree cylinder angle. The bike will be built first in India.

Harley-Davidson entered the Indian market in 2009 and has sold only about 2,000 motorcycles there in the last four years. But the company has been adding dealers in the last year and has an assembly plant in Bawal in North Central India near New Delhi. Harley assembles Fat Boys, Fat Boy Specials and Heritage Softail Classics in Bawal. The motor company has announced it will begin assembling three more models in India in 2014 but hasn’t said what those models will be.

The new Little Harley will be manufactured, not just assembled, in India and is expected to cost less than $5,000.

Anoop Prakash, the motor company’s Managing Director for India told the Hindustan Times last month, “At Harley-Davidson India, we are enthusiastic about this market. We are a lifestyle brand. Last thing you do is to cut down on your passion and Harley is all about passion. We have seen a steady growth here.”

The Hells Angels’ gadfly lawyer Fritz Clapp has sued another couple of corporations for trademark infringement on behalf of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Corporation.

The corporations this time are 8732 Apparel, LLC and Dillard’s, Inc. They are both incorporated in Delaware. The suit was filed in Sacramento. Dillard’s is a national retail chain. 8732 Apparel is the clothing line of a rapper named Jeezy who was formerly known and yet may be known again as Young Jeezy.

8732 Apparel is selling a denim vest, the back of which is decorated with a red on white top rocker that reads “Street Bandits, a red on white bottom rocker that reads “Eight Seven” and a patch that very closely resembles the Hells Angels Death Head. The apparel company is also selling a couple of tee-shirts and a baseball cap that are decorated with logo that looks like the Angels’ Death Head. Clapp is also suing 20 John and Jane Does who “are persons and entities of unknown form who have commissioned, created, fabricated, displayed, distributed and/or sold the infringing items.”

The Suit

The suit alleges that the infringing items “bear a design confusingly similar to the HAMC Marks;” that the defendants “have obtained substantial profits from their infringement and exploitation of the HAMC Marks;” and that Jeezy and his co-conspirators have caused “Plaintiff HAMC irreparable harm for which money damages and other remedies are inadequate.”

The suit claims “Defendants’ conduct constitutes the use of words, symbols or devices tending falsely to describe the infringing items…. Defendants’ conduct is likely to cause confusion, mistake, or deception by or in the public as to the affiliation, connection, association, origin, sponsorship or approval of the infringing items to the detriment of Plaintiff HAMC;” that “Defendants’ activities have diluted or are likely to dilute the distinctive quality of the HAMC Marks;” and that “Defendants willfully intended to trade on Plaintiff HAMC’s reputation.”

Finally, the suit wants Jeezy and his people to stop it, pay Clapp’s fees, turn over any profits 8732 Apparel and Dillards have made selling the infringing items and “pay exemplary damages for fraud, malice and gross negligence.”

Don’t Even Say HA

The Angels have been particularly enthusiastic about protecting their brand. A recent notice circulating on Facebook has warned the world at large to never “post, or possess images of DeathHeads,” “use the words AFFA, HELLS ANGELS, HAMC or HA in any form” and “never use 81 by itself in any way.”

How enforceable all this huffing and puffing about the Angels’ marks is remains a mystery.

This is at least the third trademark infringement suit the HAMC has filed in the last year and a half. When the club sued Toys “R” Us and yo-yo maker Yomega those two companies countersued. Both suits were settled out of court. The club sued MTV star Rob Dyrdek, his cousin Chris “Drama” Pfaff and their corporations over the use of a logo nearly identical to the club’s in 2012 and that suit was also settled out of court. The terms of these settlements remain secret but Yomega continued to sell the yo-yos the club found offensive online after that settlement was reached.

Anyone who doubts that there is a global war against motorcycle clubs and that that war is being largely fought with hot air doesn’t have to look any farther than the front page of this morning’s New York Post.

An article there, titled “Inside the world’s deadliest biker gangs” was simultaneously published this morning by News Limited in Australia and appeared in a half dozen major newspapers down under. All these news outlets are owned by Rupert Murdoch’s NewsCorp, the same monster that poisons jury pools with Sons of Anarchy. In Australia, the story is illustrated with a video news feature that originated on the Fox Television affiliate in Los Angeles and was dramatically hosted by a Peabody Award winning reporter named Chris Blatchford.

Ashley Charles Wyatt

This morning’s story focuses on the recollections of a man known to the world as Charles Falco – a nom de trahison used by a born again Christian named Ashley Charles Wyatt. (You can learn more about Wyatt here.)

Wyatt describes “the brutal Outlaws as ‘a war machine,’ the Vagos as ‘mafia on wheels’ and the Mongols as ‘way, way more ruthless … because they aren’t afraid to go to prison – forever – so they walk right up, around children, and blow people away.’”

The man with multiple names describes the Mongols as “much, much more violent” than other clubs. He goes on to authoritatively state: “The difference between the Mongols and all other biker gangs is they brought in outside Hispanic street gang members…. They were 18, 19, 20 years old and they were willing to go to prison, they expected to…. So they would go where the Hells Angels were. There might be cameras, but they’d walk right up and blow them away…. They almost stabbed a Hells Angel to death at a Chucky Cheese pizza joint … in front of children…. They don’t care if they get caught..”

He tells the world that his Mongols chapter in Virginia, which was comprised almost entirely of sworn and unsworn government employees, devoted most of its member’s energy to “planning and hunting down Hells Angels….That’s what they (Mongols patch holders) live for…. It doesn’t matter where they are, they have to continue the war against the Angels.” So Australia better watch out. It seems almost beside the point to notice that almost everything Wyatt says is a lie.

Steve Cook

Today’s alarmist propaganda follows another News Limited story three days ago titled “Mongol invasion: Inside the most powerful bikie gang in Australia.” That story relied heavily on quotes from an unidentified “Australian police officer who has been investigating outlaw bikie gangs for more than a decade” and American motorcycle gang expert Steve Cook.

The Australian cop states unequivocally the Mongols are “known for ‘torture, murder, drugs, guns, explosives.’”

“Their reputation for violence and criminality is well deserved,” the Australian blowhard proclaimed. “And don’t believe all the PR they might say about how they’re just men who love their bikes and have a fight now and again, but collect toys for kids at Christmas. They are criminals. They are one percenters. They deal in methamphetamines, and to a lesser extent ecstasy and cannabis. They are into extortion big time, fraud and involved in places that are on the knife edge of criminality, like strip clubs.”

Cook warns Australians that newly patched Mongols down under “are now under the rule of the gang’s mother chapter, the Mongols in the U.S.” Cook, who lives in Missouri says, “We are gathering intelligence so we can be ready for when it begins…beatings, stabbings, shootings and arson, whatever happens.”

The Sunday story describes Cook as “Founder of the Midwest Outlaw Motorcycle Gang Investigators” and as “one of the few international law enforcement officers with a working knowledge of the bikie gang scene in Australia.”

Cook also explains that the Mongols “love hiding behind these images that they are just a group of guys who just want to ride their motorcycles, the whole brotherhood thing. Don’t buy it. They are in it for ego, status and money from criminal activity. They are violent and anti-social and will threaten, intimidate and mistreat the general public. And they are selfish and childish. What kind of grown man likes to call himself Pig Pen or Tank and wear patches and a costume? They turn it on for the media and then they go out and shoot someone and an innocent person gets hurt.”

The Orwellian war against outlaw motorcycle clubs in the Australian state of Queensland continues to illustrate the fragility of democracy in the postmodern world.

Two demagogic politicians in Queensland, state premier Campbell Newman and his running dog Jarrod Bleijie, who is officially described as Queensland’s Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, enacted a complex of new laws last month by proclamation that are intended to obliterate the public menace some people think motorcycle clubs represent. Among other things, the new laws ban 26 named motorcycle clubs and declare numerous places off limits to people who have been secretly accused of being members or associates of the named clubs.

The new laws forbid bars and hotels from serving any members of the 26 clubs which now must be officially described as “criminal motorcycle gangs.”

The specifics of the hysterical new laws are rotten with inaccuracies. For example, one of the banned “criminal organizations” is the Scorpion Motorcycle Club which does not exist in Australia. Or, to cite another example, an industrial property in Caboolture, north of Brisbane, is officially a “proscribed place” because the property once held a transmission repair shop allegedly owned by a member of the Rebels Motorcycle Club although the property was sold to the present owner, who has nothing to do with motorcycles or motorcycle clubs, in 2006.

Vietnam Vets

Last Friday, 20 members of the Queensland Police Services Taskforce Maxima raided a party thrown by the Vietnam and Veterans Motorcycle Club in Kingston near Brisbane. The club is comprised mostly of Australian Vietnam Vets. The club was raided because it has long-standing social ties with several outlawed clubs including the Rebels, Odins Warriors and Life and Death Motorcycle Clubs.

A spokesman for the VVMC told ABC that the clubhouse was “neutral ground” but that “We see them (members of the banned clubs), we ride with them, we go on some of their rides with them and they go on some of our rides with us. Whatever they do is up to them. We don’t ask them what they get up to when they’re out of here.”

Police raided the party looking for indicia connected to any of the banned clubs. The VVMC clubhouse and its liquor license could have been seized if any of the guests had been wearing anything police interpret as indicative of membership in a banned club.

After the raid, Taskforce Maxima issued a press release that described the raid as “part of a strategy to develop a rapport with legitimate members of the motorcycle riding community in the interest of effective policing.” It also said the raid was intended to ensure “that criminal motorcycle gang members do not attempt to infiltrate legitimate motorcycle clubs such as the Vietnam and Veterans Motorcycle Club.”

HOG

Queensland politicians and police have also told members of the Australian Motorcycle Council that motorcycle groups, such as the Harley Owner’s Group, should notify police before taking group rides.

Eva Cripps, a spokeswoman for the AMC there had been a “huge escalation” in the number of motorcycle riders being stopped, searched and harassed by police. “Police say they know who the (banned club) members are,” she told the Brisbane Times, “yet they find it difficult to identify them because they don’t wear their colors any more. The only option is to pull over all riders.”

Cripps told the Times the AMC opposed the idea of notifying police in advance of planned rides but that some clubs might acquiesce to police demands. “The clubs will let the police know what they’re doing to stop the harassment,” she said. “We’re quite concerned about the fact that people riding a legal form of transport have to report into police to stop themselves being harassed.”

David Laarhoven, a spokesman for HOG in the neighboring Australian state of New South Wales told ABC he thought the new laws were “draconian.”

“If we were to ride into Queensland as the Harley Owners Group,” Laarhoven asked rhetorically, “and we’ve got our nice leather vests on with the Harley Eagle on the back, will we be pulled over if we’re on a charity ride? Do we need to alert these authorities too, and how do they differentiate between us and other motorcycle clubs?”

If that is you in the photo above, congratulations. Harley-Davidson wants you.

Yesterday in Milan – not Milwaukee but Milan – Harley-Davidson revealed it’s “all-new platform to inspire the next generation of global riders.” The “platform” comprises two new products called “the Harley-Davidson Street 750 and Street 500 motorcycles – the first all-new platform from Harley-Davidson in 13 years.” And they “are built for urban environments with all-new liquid-cooled Revolution X powertrains, nimble agility and the sound and look that lets everyone know they are genuine Harley-Davidson.”

In other words, the two new baby hogs are designed to sizzle like a Harley. They even feature those cool, little Sons of Anarchy fairings. But what they really represent are Harley’s answer to the Honda CTX700N. The press release enthuses that the motor company “is continuing its monumental ride, which began with the introduction of Project Rushmore in August, by revealing two new Dark Custom motorcycles designed for young urban riders around the world.” While developing the new, little Harleys the company interviewed potential customers in ten countries and conducted about 1,000 focus groups in Chicago, Mumbai, Sao Paulo and Tokyo.

More Opportunities To Customize

“These are the newest motorcycles to join our Dark Custom lineup, which helped make us the number-one selling brand to young adults in the U.S. for the past five years,” Matt Levatich, Harley’s President and Chief Operating Officer, said. “Both the Street 750 and Street 500 were designed with thousands of hours of input from young adults in cities around the world. This input guided both the attitude and capabilities of these motorcycles. They are proof that being customer led continues to be a core driver of our product development process.”

The two new bikes are powered by “all-new 60-degree, liquid-cooled V-Twin Revolution X engines.” Both bikes feature six-speed transmissions. The 750 cc model weighs 480 pounds wet. The 500 cc bike will sell for $6,700. The bigger bike will cost $7,500. What Harley is really after is an influx of new customers for its tee-shirt, accessories and after sale product lines. The two bikes will feature “a new, narrow and lean chassis built for agility, with a super-low seat height, new suspension and broad handlebar sweep that provides confidence and maneuverability when managing tight turns and fast moves. Both signature Dark Custom motorcycles feature a premium, minimalist style that serves as a blank canvas for riders to customize.”

“These new bikes are leaner, yet still have a mean streak,” Mark-Hans Richer, Harley’s Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, bragged. “They’re the real deal, made of real steel. They’re designed to handle the abuses of urban environments and provide authentic opportunities to customize.”

Harley will begin building the new bikes at its Kansas City and Bawal, India assembly plants this spring. The Bawal Harleys will be sold in Spain, Italy and Portugal and Asia.

A Hells Angel named Steven Gatto filed a civil rights lawsuit this week seeking $100,000 damages, unspecified punitive damages, lawyer’s fees and injunctive relief from the City of San Francisco, the San Francisco Police Department and ten John Does. The suit was filed Tuesday and amended yesterday.

Gatto alleges he was kicked out of a “San Francisco Forty-Niner football game, which was being played at Candlestick Park on November 13, 2011, because he wearing a jacket bearing the insignia of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club.” Among other things the suit alleges that San Francisco and its police department condone and encourage police “officers in the belief that they can violate the rights of citizens such as plaintiff with impunity, and that such conduct will not adversely affect the officers’ opportunities for promotion and other employment benefits.”

Gatto’s lawyer, Joseph Wiseman, told Mike Rosenberg and Joshua Melvin of the San Jose Mercury News that Gatto’s friend Dave Tollefson, who played for the New York Giants against the Forty-Niners that day, provided Gatto with a wristband that gave him access to the Giant’s sidelines.

Kicked Out Twice

According to the suit, Gatto entered the stadium “wearing his Hells Angels patch” without incident. During the game, while walking through Candlestick Park, he was stopped by an unnamed cop and ordered “to take off his jacket or be subject to arrest.” The cop told Gatto that wearing the patch violated the stadium’s “dress code…implemented with the expressed goal of keeping fans’ ‘game day experience free from’ a list of actions, including ‘offensive clothing.’”

Gatto complied, left the stadium and listened to the rest of the game in his car in the parking lot.

“Near the end of the game, (Gatto) left his car and walked to the temporary public bathrooms, which were located in the stadium parking lot. Plaintiff locked his jacket in his car before he left for the bathroom. After using the bathroom, Plaintiff returned to the gate and was let in the stadium a second time. This time, Plaintiff was wearing a tee shirt with the words ‘Hells Angels Motorcycle Club’ printed on the back. Plaintiff made his way to the players’ area and spent a few moments talking to his friend….” Gatto was soon rousted a second time and told to get out immediately because he was wearing a Hells Angels tee-shirt.

The Constitution

The suit argues that the cop’s actions violated the First and Fifth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, which ensure the rights of free expression and due process, and provisions of the California Constitution that guarantee the rights to free speech and due process.

This isn’t the first time Gatto and Wiseman have collaborated on such a suit. After Gatto was thrown out of the Sonoma County Fair for wearing his patch eleven years ago Wiseman sued on his behalf in federal court and won. In that suit Gatto was awarded $23,700 in legal fees and $1,000 damages.

As many readers are aware, this site was down for approximately 150 hours starting on November 9th. I sincerely apologize for the inconvenience and dismay this cost many of you and I am taking steps to ensure this does not happen again.

The problem seems to have been completely avoidable and entirely the fault of server provider DreamHost. During the past week numerous DreamHost tech support personnel have declared the disappearance of the site and all its contents to be resolved, or a figment of my imagination or one of the great mysteries of the cosmos.

Thank you to those readers who emailed Ralph Castro, DreamHost’s Vice-President in charge of Technical Support/Customer Experience at DreamHost. His email address, for those who still have opinions about this interruption, is ralph@hq.newdream.net.

To the best of my knowledge the site was not disabled by any law enforcement agency. I don’t know why the ATF or the FBI would shut down the site. This is, like, their daily newspaper.

I intend to begin uploading new content to the site within six hours and readers should be able to resume commenting, arguing, insulting and threatening one another immediately.

Again, I apologize and thank you for your patience.

Rebel

Stephen Stubbs, the bikers’ rights attorney who appears to lead a mostly vice-free personal life, was arrested Thursday night in Vegas for being Stephen Stubbs.

Stubbs (above) was attending a Southern Nevada Confederation of Clubs meeting in the Leatherneck Club, a Marine Corps themed bar on Spring Mountain Road a couple miles off the Strip, when he was asked to step outside where a member of the Bikers for Christ Motorcycle Club was being detained by police. When the detainee saw Stubbs, he immediately told the cops, “That’s my lawyer.”

Stubb’s told the police that the patch holder had a Constitutional right to remain silent and have an attorney present during questioning and the interrogation then proceeded with Stubb’s advising his client. After three to five minutes a police lieutenant assigned to the Las Vegas Metro Gang Task Force arrived and ordered Stubbs to leave so he could question the detainee in private. When Stubbs protested, “He has a Fifth Amendment right to counsel,” Stubbs was arrested, cuffed and transported to the Clark County Detention Center for booking on a charge of Obstructing a Public Officer.

The Booking Game

According to Stubbs, “After seeing multiple groups of arrestees processed over a two hour period, I inquired into the status of my booking, and was told that they could not start the booking process until the ‘paperwork was completed.’ During the three hours it took Lieutenant Yomita ( the arresting officer) and Vegas Metro Officer Del Rosario to finish their reports, Yomita repeatedly entered and exited the CCDC, intentionally walking in front of me and giving him a gloating smirk. After the Del Rosario finished his report at 10:47 p.m., the officer went to the CCDC exit next to me and I asked him ‘Did you write a long report?’”

The cop replied “Maybe. I’m really bad at writing.”

Stubbs began booking four hours after his arrest and was released from the detention center at three the next morning.

Implications

Yesterday Stubbs told Ken Ritter of The Associated Press “This was most definitely malicious. Since when is an attorney arrested for standing up for his client’s Fifth Amendment right to counsel? I think there are larger issues here. They’re trying to bully me off the case.”

“The case” is a biker civil rights lawsuit Stubbs filed against Vegas Metro and other police agencies and officers in June 2012. The suit alleges that members of several motorcycle clubs in Southern Nevada have been the victims of a malicious campaign of official harassment and seeks about $12 million in damages.

A Vegas Metro Police Officer named Jose Hernandez told The AP, “There is no harassment. He was arrested for obstruction.”

In what appears to be a test case in the American campaign to outlaw motorcycle clubs, the United States Department of Justice is trying to seize the American Outlaws Association clubhouse in Fort Wayne. The forfeiture attempt is part of a racketeering case filed in July 2012 and titled United States v. Bowser et al.

Civil forfeiture is one of the most potent weapons in the federal arsenal. Forfeiture proceedings are difficult and expensive to fight. Forfeiture may be granted on only a “preponderance of the evidence” standard. The forfeitures are often grossly disproportionate to the alleged crime and the connection between contested property and a convicted person is often tenuous.

For example, in 2008 former Mongols Motorcycle Club president Ruben “Doc” Cavazos agreed to a plea and sentencing agreement in which Cavazos gave the name and insignia of his former motorcycle club to the government. Multiple federal judges in multiple cases ruled that Cavazos couldn’t do that but more than five years later the federal government is still trying to seize the Mongols name and patch.

The Patch Pullings

The proposed Fort Wayne forfeiture results from a plea agreement signed last August by a defendant named Dax G. Shephard.

Shephard confessed that he told other members of the Outlaws that members of the “Iron Coffins Motorcycle Club had been making disparaging comments about the Outlaws Motorcycle Club.” Shephard and several other club members drove to a garage in Butler, Indiana and forcibly took an Iron Coffins patch from one person and took Iron Coffin shirts from two others. According to the confession at least four punches were thrown.

Shephard also confessed to participating in the expulsion from the club of a former Outlaw named Brian Glaze. Glaze had stolen $17,000 from the club. Shephard and others “confronted Glaze about stealing the money from the Outlaws MC treasury” and “instructed Glaze to give him his jewelry, vest, shirts, and belt, all of which contained the OMC logo.” Shephard also watched as a tattoo artist “blacked out many of the OMC tattoos on Glaze’s body. The blacking out of the tattoos caused Glaze to bleed significantly.”

Shephard pled guilty to racketeering and was sentenced last August to 46 months in prison and 60 months of supervised release and was fined $5,000.

The Small Print Taketh Away

Part of the boilerplate in Shephard’s plea deal was a government drafted confession that the Outlaws is a criminal racket and an agreement by Shephard to forfeit his interest in the Outlaws’ clubhouse at the corner of West Main and Cherry streets in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

U.S. Marshalls posted a preliminary motion of forfeiture on the property on October 3rd. On October 29th, officers of the AOO Black Region filed a Petition for Relief from Preliminary Order of Forfeiture with Judge Tanya Walton-Pratt arguing, among other things, that the clubhouse wasn’t Shephard’s to give away. Ten days ago the government filed a counter-motion that asked the judge to ignore the Petition for Relief because it had not been properly signed.

Judge Pratt has not yet ruled on either motion or scheduled a motion hearing on the matter.

The Australian state of Queensland is about to “toughen” its anti-biker club laws. New legislation expected to be enacted this week would make former members of clubs subject to the same restrictions as current members of clubs.

Under the current set of executive decrees, members of banned motorcycle clubs are banned from managing, owning or working in tattoo parlors. Imminent changes to the current law would also forbid alleged club members from working in the construction trades, owning used car dealerships, driving tow trucks, owning health clubs, working as security guards or working at any other licensed occupation.

Under the current law members of 26 clubs including the Bandidos, Comancheros, Mongols, Gypsy Jokers, Hells Angels, Red Devils, Iron Horsemen, Rebels and Outlaws are banned from gathering in groups of three or more, going to banned locations like bars, hotels or clubhouses or recruiting new members. Men accused of belonging to clubs must inform on one another and can be sentenced to special biker prisons. Borrowing a notion from American nut job and Maricopa County, Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio, imprisoned Australian bikers must now wear pink prison garb.

All motorcyclists in Queensland, whether patch holders or not, have been harassed since the laws went into effect in October.

Politician Speaks

Campbell Newman, Premier of Queensland and the brain behind the new laws, said the new occupations banned to alleged club members are “industries which have been identified…that the Queensland police…have indicated are the subjects of money laundering by bikie gangs.”

“Do you want a locksmith working at your place or your business that is owned by a criminal bikie gang,” Newman continued. “Do you want your children going to a nightclub where the staff on the door are employed by a criminal gang? If you are a motorist involved in a traffic accident or your car is towed … do you want your car in the hands of a criminal gang? I think these are real issues for Queensland that we will address.”

Terry O’Gorman, a spokesman for the Queensland Council for Civil Liberties said “This really shows the real intention and face of the government on this legislation. They are just wanting to severely victimize anyone in these past groups individually as much as they can.”

Pink Protest

Meanwhile Queensland bikers continue to protest the new laws in colorful ways. For example, a Harley Owners Group member named Trevor Acton has been riding around in a pink jumpsuit with “Fuck U Newman” printed on the back. Acton, a retired carpenter, began wearing the pink suit after he was pulled over and subjected to a long search.

Acton told the Brisbane Times he is helping to organize a protest run of Queensland bikers on December 7th. According to the Times all those riders will wear pink jumpsuits.

What is now happening to motorcycle outlaws in Australia and to a lesser extent in the United States illustrates the power of recently democratic governments to create a scapegoat class and punish members of that class as a public spectacle. The arrest in Vegas the other night of a lawyer named Stephen Stubbs illustrates the same underlying assumption – that the police can do whatever they want to you.

But, it is no longer just motorcycle outlaws and their lawyers who have every reason to fear and hate the police. Whether you are a left winger, a right winger, a tea partier, an occupy activist or a mealy-mouthed moderate, it should be obvious that the fundamental relationship between citizens of reputed democracies and the police has changed dramatically since nine-one-one.

The case two weeks ago of a New Mexico man named David Eckert should have proven that to the moderates who just want to live their lives in peace. Eckert was accused by police of clenching his buttocks after allegedly making a rolling stop in a Wal-Mart parking. Using that articulable, if fantastic, suspicion as a pretense a local judge issued a search warrant. Eckert was then detained for 14 hours and subjected to an abdominal E-Ray, two anal cavity searches, three forced enemas, anesthesia and a colonoscopy.

What happened to Eckert illustrates the reality of the new Sadistic State – a dysfunctional state that can barely govern but which jealously retains its unique power to control and punish. Because the Sadistic State is incapable of accomplishing basic governmental tasks like negotiating a budget or publishing a simple website it becomes ever more concerned with asserting its power over its citizens as an end in itself. That’s what is happening in the United States and there have been three banal examples of that in the last week.

Orianna Ferrel

The most broadly publicized of these was the attempted murder by police in New Mexico of a 39-year-old mother of five named Orianna Ferrel. Ferrel is not the most sympathetic of police victims. She was stopped for speeding near Santa Fe, got into an argument with the cop who stopped and her and drove off.

She was pursued, pulled over a second time and ordered out of her car. A brief and stupid drama ensued which included a brief scuffle between Ferrel’s 14-year-old son and the arresting officer. Ferrel, her son and her other children tried to lock themselves in their car and the policeman responded by smashing out her side windows. The window smashing prompted Ferrel to drive off again. As she did so a second policeman fired three bullets into her car.

The second pursuit lasted ten minutes. Ferrel’s lawyer says she ran because she was afraid for her children’s safety. Ferrel and her son were both arrested and Ferrel was charged with child endangerment, resisting arrest and reckless driving.

It should be clear to most reasonable people that Ferrel was guilty of multiple traffic violations. It should also be clear that she was shot at in order to punish her for disobeying the police.

Jim Howe

Jim Howe, a 40-year-old father who lives in Crossville, Tennessee was arrested last week after trying to pick up his children from South Cumberland Elementary School.

Students at South Cumberland are done for the day at 2 p.m. But a recently implemented and remarkably stupid school policy requires students to stay at the school for an additional 35 minutes unless parents pick up their kids by car. The idea of the new rule is to prevent students from walking home by themselves before 2:35 p.m. But the new rule has created very long lines of traffic and Howe thought he could avoid the traffic by picking up his children and walking them home himself.

When attempting to retrieve his kids Howe was confronted by “School Resource Officer” Avery Aytes. The authoritarian Aytes resented Howe’s insistence that his kids were Howe’s responsibility and arrested Howe for disorderly conduct.

Kim Cope

A woman named Kim Cope in Fort Worth has become a symbol of the national effort to collect DNA samples from all Americans. Although the Constitution asserts that Americans have an absolute right to be free of unreasonable searches the Sadistic State has begun to collect bodily fluids from citizens and database the information those fluids contain.

Cope was pulled over in North Fort Worth at a police enforced road block sponsored by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The idea of the road block was to determine how many drivers are driving drunk at any time. Cope’s blood alcohol level was measured by “passive sensors” at the time of her detention.

“It just doesn’t seem right that you can be forced off the road when you’re not doing anything wrong,” Cope, who was on her lunch break when she was stopped, told NBC affiliate KXAS. “I gestured to the guy in front that I just wanted to go straight, but he wouldn’t let me and forced me into a parking spot.”

Cope was offered $10 for a cheek-swab DNA sample and $50 for a blood sample. She declined both offers but agreed to blow into a breathalyzer for free. Technically, Texas is one of twelve states that forbids sobriety check points.

“I finally did the Breathalyzer test just because I thought that would be the easiest way to leave,” Cope told KXAS. “It just doesn’t seem right that they should be able to do any of it. If it’s voluntary, it’s voluntary, and none of it felt voluntary.”

The helmet law debate, now in its 47th year, is starting to heat up again. In the last month the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the British Magazine The Economist have editorialized for a national, mandatory helmet law for motorcycle riders. Yesterday a Republican Congressman from Michigan named Tim Walberg accused the CDC of trying “to reduce the use of motorcycles – a legal mode of transportation.”

The original helmet laws were a result of the National Highway Safety Act of 1966, which was passed in response to the publication of Ralph Nader’s book, Unsafe At Any Speed published the year before. Helmet laws were almost an afterthought in that bill which mandated the standardization of bumper heights, safer gas tanks, padded dashboards, collapsible steering wheels and factory installed seat belts. Forty-nine states had helmet laws by 1975. The lone holdout was California which led the nation in motorcycle registrations.

The original intent of that 1966 law was to reduce traffic fatalities. Most states repealed their helmet laws because, as a Michigan appeals court put it, the “logic” used to justify helmet laws “could lead to unlimited paternalism.” The current campaign for mandatory helmet laws is that riding without a helmet presents an unacceptable risk for insurers.

The Economist

In its editorial in the United States print edition published November 16, The Economist argued, “When states repeal or weaken motorcycle-helmet laws, as dozens have, helmet use falls, fatalities rise and head-injury hospitalizations soar. Biker deaths rose 18 percent after Michigan repealed its all-rider helmet law in 2012. A rule obliges un-helmeted Michigan riders to carry at least $20,000 in medical-payments coverage. That does not even cover initial stabilization in intensive care after a nasty crash.”

The editorial continued, “Libertarians often demand: ‘Let those who ride decide,’ says Jacqueline Gillan, who heads Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, an insurer-funded lobby group. Her retort is: ‘Let those who pay have a say.’”

The Economist noted that this is a partisan issue. Most helmet law opponents are Republicans. An important Republican Congressman named Tom Petri wants the CDC “to stop researching motorcycle safety” because he thinks the Centers have “an anti-motorcycle agenda.” Most opponents of helmet laws in state legislatures are also Republicans. So it’s not surprising that Walberg, a long time rider and a member of both the American Motorcyclist Association and the Congressional Motorcycle Caucus takes issue with the CDC’s most recent hymn to mandatory helmet use, a report published late last month titled, “Motor Vehicle Related Injury Prevention: Economic Impact of Motorcycle Helmet Laws.”

The CDC

The CDC thinks mandatory helmet laws reduce health care costs – which is a subject of much fevered debate in Washington these days. As a matter of fact, all motor vehicle crashes are responsible for a little less than two percent of all American health costs and motorcycle crashes represent a tiny percentage of that.

But the CDC and The Economist agree that it is very expensive to survive a catastrophic bike crash. The British magazine alleges that helmetless riders in major crashes “typically run up $1.3m in direct medical costs” and that “fewer than a third work again.” The CDC study argues that taxpayers are stuck with paying 63 percent of the cost of the aftermath of these accidents.

So there is obviously going to be a push this winter to enact a nationwide helmet law. You just haven’t heard about it on your local news yet.

There is a completely unpublicized case in Las Vegas that illustrates what is most wrong with the federally financed war on motorcycle clubs. Eight members of the Vietnam Vets/Legacy Vets Motorcycle Club are being forced to prove their clubs are not criminal gangs.

The case results from a fairly straightforward fist fight between two grown men in the parking lot of Mr. D’s Sports Bar and Grill last year in Las Vegas. Mr. D’s is about three miles off the Strip.

The Incident

According to multiple sources, the alleged victim was a member of “another group” who decided to pick on the oldest Vietnam Vet there. After repeatedly describing the veteran as a “motherfucker” and deliberately pushing him the old guy dropped his tormenter. The victim suffered a significant facial cut and bruised ribs and a brief shoving match between the two groups ensued.

The event was investigated by the increasingly draconian and out of control Las Vegas Gang Task Force which chose to view the dustup as territorial beef between rival mafias.

Police have alleged that the victim was assaulted with a weapon.

The indictment against the eight men implies that the old veteran and his friends started it and “did then and there willfully, unlawfully, feloniously, and knowingly” get into a fist fight “for the benefit of, at the direction of, or in affiliation with, a criminal gang, to wit: Vietnam Vets/Legacy Vets Motorcycle Club, which has as one of its common activities, engaging in felonious criminal activities, other that the conduct which constitutes the primary offense.”

The case is still unresolved and ongoing.

Prosecution As Punishment

As is invariably the case with motorcycle club prosecutions, the Vietnam Vets case is not intended to solve or punish a crime or protect the public at large but to use the power of the law to inflict a maximum of inconvenience, embarrassment and pain on the defendants so as to make examples of them to all the other uppity bikers. It is a malicious prosecution that seems to have been brought simply because the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department has decided to go to war with bikers.

According to multiple sources the eight men have run up $140,000 in legal bills so far. The bills represent a de facto punishment. It is all very well for prosecutors and other tools of the prison industrial complex to mouth self serving platitudes about an imaginary “presumption of innocence” but the platitudes do not represent reality and the general public has a right to know how American justice really works.

The danger the case illustrates is that if the police can vilify the Vietnam Vets they can vilify any community group. It just so happens that members of the Vietnam Vets define their identities by wearing patches and riding their motorcycles in packs. It is a very small step from defining them as “felonious criminals” for the way they express their identities to describing political, religious and other social groups the same way.

The anti-bikie campaign in Australia and efforts in the United States to outlaw the insignia of both the Mongols and Pagans Motorcycle Clubs are all part of the same international jihad.

In an interview earlier this month with the Australian Associated Press, ATF Agent John Ciccone did his best to encourage a war between Mongols and Hells Angeles in Australia. “In Australia, the tensions will still be there due to the fact there will always be tensions between the Mongols and Hells Angels,” Ciccone told the AAP. “Now the Mongols have equivalent numbers with the Hells Angels they may expand into different areas. If they move into known Hells Angels’ areas, that could result in future violent confrontations between both organizations.”

Ciccone has had a supervisory role in numerous undercover entrapments against American motorcycle clubs including but hardly limited to Operations Ivan and Black Rain against the Mongols, Operation Black Biscuit against the Hells Angels and Operation 22 Green against the Vagos.

One of his pet rats, a man born Ashley Charles Wyatt who is currently known as Charles Falco, has been appearing in news and television stories about the biker menace for the last month. Ciccone is involved in the current American forfeiture case, titled USA v. Mongol Nation, an Unincorporated Association, that is intended to seize the Mongols insignia. If that case goes to trial Ciccone will testify for the government.

Ciccone On The Steenking Constitution

Ciccone told the Australian news organization that he is involved on a daily basis with the effort to outlaw motorcycle clubs down under. “We are in pretty much daily contact with those guys about the Intel we are hearing here,” Ciccone said. “We are trying to do what we can.”

Current laws in the Australian State of Queensland forbid membership in about two dozen motorcycle clubs including the Mongols and Hells Angels; forbid recruiting members for those clubs; forbid the gathering of three or more alleged members of those clubs; determine who is and is not a member in secret courts using secret evidence that cannot be contested; forbid alleged members of those clubs from working in numerous occupations including tattoo artist, plumber and electrician; compel alleged members of clubs to incriminate themselves and others under penalty of prison; and establish ultra-punitive prisons for members of motorcycle clubs.

Under the laws, virtually everyone on a Harley-Davidson in Queensland is subject to routine harassment. About those laws, the AAP quotes Ciccone as saying “I think they are outstanding.”

Save The Patch

American Clubs are aware of the threat the Australian laws advertize. In Southern California, widely respected members of all major clubs have met to discuss ways to fight an American biker ban.

The Southern California Confederation of Clubs has established a Facebook page titled Save The Patch.

That page currently states:

“It has become time to further protect and defend our rights to ride, associate, and enjoy our lifestyle for all motorcycle riders and enthusiasts.

“To wear our respective clubs membership insignia, which have been trademarked, copyrighted, and incorporated by these organized entities.

“Representatives from a few of these clubs in Southern California have come together to make the initial steps in presenting and organizing the support of all motorcycle clubs and riders to standup and work to prevent the freedoms we all value and enjoy from being eroded further, by an ever more intrusive government apparently bent on tyrannical control, we all need to become involved and work to defend that which we all enjoy about our lifestyle, be it as a club member or independent rider.”

After 26 months of research, the New York Times has finally published Pulitzer Prize winning reporter Serge F. Kovaleski’s 3,500 word think piece on the motorcycle outlaw frontier.

After the brawl and gunfight in John Ascuaga’s Nugget Hotel and Casino in Sparks, Nevada in late September 2011, Kovaleski proposed to take a “totally fresh look” at motorcycle clubs. He consulted informed sources from at least four one percenter motorcycle clubs and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and appears to have carefully contemplated what America needs to know and what the Times is willing to say.

Fritz Clapp

In the end Kovaleski decided to write mostly about Fritz Clapp. On his Facebook wall this morning, Clapp wrote “Big article in NY Times today about me and my friends.” Clapp is an offbeat attorney and confidant of Hells Angels eminence gris Sonny Barger. Clapp initiates all of the trademark infringement lawsuits for which the Angels have recently become famous. He accompanied Barger on the Chief’s book tour after the publication of Hell’s Angel. He was an executive producer on the Hells Angels movie the late Tony Scott almost made: Which would have been the first film since 1967’s Hells Angels on Wheels to allow actors to wear Hells Angel insignia including the death head patch. Clapp is not a member of the club although most Angels consider him to be the club’s best friend.

One long time Angel, speaking on conditions of anonymity, expressed reservations about Clapp’s influence on club policy. He said some members of the club were concerned that the proposed film and marketing deal would have resulted in “death heads on Happy Meals.” The same source alleged that Clapp would have been paid a seven figure fee if the film had gone into production. Mickey Rourke would have played Barger in the film which was roughly based on Jay Dobyns No Angel: My Harrowing Undercover Journey To The Inner Circle Of The Hells Angels and to a lesser extent on two other books.

The Angels

The Times article lets the Hells Angels represent all outlaw clubs, which may be an inherently flawed point of view. Kovaleski is also oblivious or unconcerned about internal disputes within the club. Overall the feature is fair and even-handed to a fault.

The Times acknowledges that the Angels “still exists as a uniquely American subculture of hardened individualism, fierce fraternity and contempt for society’s mores.” The article also allows ATF Agent John Ciccone the opportunity to say:

“In my experience working street and motorcycle gangs, the Hells Angels operate like a criminal organization with a global infrastructure and a lot of money they can generate from members worldwide…If you go up against the Hells Angels to prove they are a racketeering enterprise, they do have the resources to fight tooth and nail and all the way to the end. You do not usually see those dynamics in street gangs like the Crips and Bloods.”

The article also treats Jay N. Richardson, the unscrupulous federal prosecutor in the South Carolina, Rock Hell Nomads case as an informed and legitimate source. But Kovaleski was bright and honorable enough to close what he has called “My opus on the Hells Angels” with a truthful quote from attorney Richard Gaxiola: “When it comes to the Hells Angels in the justice system, their constitutional rights are under assault at every step.” It would have been a better story if it had begun with that quote.

You can read the full article here.

The photo at the top of this story is from The Australian.

There is a growing backlash against the extreme anti-biker laws in the Australian State of Queensland. About 2,000 riders protested yesterday in Brisbane and mainstream pundits have begun to question the morality of the laws. In an Op-Ed page editorial published this morning, a mainstream and moderate Australian columnist named Tom Percy asked “Is there any real threat to society from the outlawed motorcycle gangs that makes it necessary for us to effectively have two sets of laws – one for us, and one for them? I don’t generally represent bikies. But over the years I have met quite a few of them in social and political situations. Contrary to the stereotype, most of them are intelligent, polite, law-abiding and have no criminal record.” Calling the authors of the new laws “politicians who peddle the paranoia,” Percy said that in Australia, as in the United States and Western Europe, “law investigation and enforcement has become a police and prosecutors’ picnic.” You can read Percy’s column here.

Brisbane Protest

The Sunday protest ride was organized by Gabriel Buckley. Buckley has no affiliation with any motorcycle club but he is offended that the laws reverse the onus of proof onto those accused of being associated with one of Queensland’s 25 outlawed clubs. “Some people are being pulled over three times on their way to work,” Buckley told the assembled riders. “You can imagine why these guys are getting impatient with the government.” Travis Windsor, who represent the Australian Motorcycle Business Chamber, told the crowd the new laws were about “anti-bikie” hysteria and that they were hurting small business owners. “There are 1500 bike-related businesses in Queensland,” Windsor said. “That’s a $1 billion turnover and 10,000 jobs. Since these laws were introduced we’re losing $5 million a week.” There were additional protests in other Australian cities.

Politicians Speak

Queensland Premier Campbell Newman was unmoved by the protest. “Anybody who is a law-abiding motorcycling enthusiast really would probably have a better Sunday if they went for a fun ride around one of the scenic attractions around south east Queensland,” Newman said in a prepared statement. “These laws are against gangs – gangs who manufacture drugs and sell them to kids, gangs that result in a whole lot of human misery in our society. Nobody that’s a law-abiding motorcyclist has to worry about these laws … they are tough but they’re appropriate.” Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, who supports the laws, said “We’re not talking here about motorcycling enthusiasts. We’re talking about hardened criminals engaging in – to put it bluntly – a giant criminal conspiracy against the public.”

The next biker civil rights case has been brewing for a little over a month in Rochester, Minnesota where the local police and a city attorney named Terry Adkins have pooled their experience and training and declared the Sons of Silence and the Med City Crew Motorcycle Clubs to be “criminal gangs.”

The declaration violates a Minnesota State Law which specifically forbids discrimination against club members who are flying colors. The law is Minnesota Statute 604.12 which states that access to public establishments cannot be denied to “a person who operates a motorcycle or is wearing clothing that displays the name of an organization or association,” unless that person’s behavior is endangering other people or property, or his clothing “is obscene or includes the name or symbol of a criminal gang.”

The legal dispute may eventually determine whether it is reasonable to call the two clubs “criminal gangs.”

Gangs

Social Scientists have been trying to accurately define the vague term “gang” since the juvenile delinquency panic in the 1950s. Most sociologists agree that “gangs” are social organizations that exist to serve the social needs of individuals who feel marginalized by society.

California, which was a pioneer in formalized name calling, uses the even vaguer term “criminal street gang” to create separate laws for people the police don’t like. “Criminal Street Gang” is defined under California law as “any organization, association or group of three or more persons, whether formal or informal, which (1) has continuity of purpose, (2) seeks a group identity, and (3) has members who individually or collectively engage in or have engaged in a pattern of criminal activity.”

Most rational and educated persons understand that the California definition is logically circular. It also uses the same logic that is applied in the federal judiciary to define the equally vague idea of a “racketeering enterprise.” The federal notion is that if some members of a social group are criminals then all members of that group must also be criminal. In the federal Central District of California, the premise of a case called USA v. Mongol Nation, an Unincorporated Association, is that since, as recently as five years ago, some members of the Mongols Motorcycle Club were criminals that entire social organization must be a criminal racket. It is a naked accusation against which all members of the Mongols must now defend themselves.

The Minnesota law that defines “criminal gangs” closely follows the current interpretation of the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act which defines a “pattern of racketeering activity” as two or more criminal acts committed by three or more persons during the previous decade.

In Rochester

The current dispute in Rochester began when Michael Bader, an attorney representing the Confederation of Clubs of Minnesota, accused Rochester police of telling bar and restaurant owners to deny service to members of the two clubs. Bader wrote City Attorney Adkins a letter telling him that the two local chapters do not have a history of violence and asked him to enforce Minnesota Statute 604.12.

Adkins wrote Bader back three weeks later and told him “The Rochester Police Department tells me that the Sons of Silence is a motorcycle criminal gang with a common name whose members wear clothing containing an identifying sign/symbol.” He quoted a Department of Justice memo which defines the Sons of Silence as “an organization whose members use their motorcycle club as a conduit for criminal enterprises.” And he cited five criminal convictions involving Sons patch holders in Rochester and St. Cloud, Minnesota, and in Iowa and Colorado between 1999 and 2013.

Adkins wrote, “As such, I have concluded that the Sons of Silence is a ‘criminal gang’ as that term is defined by Minnesota Statute 609.229, subdivision 1.”

Members of the Med City Crew will also continue to be banned because they belong to a motorcycle club that maintains cordial and friendly relations with the Sons.

The next step will be litigation.

There are a couple of new electric bikes in the news at the end of the first week of December 2013. And Harley-Davidson continues to expand its marketing base in Asia.

The bike about which all the globe is currently atwitter is called the Voxan Wattman and it debuted this week at the Salon de la Moto in Paris.

Voxan

The Voxan is built by Venturi Automobile, a French company that builds electric sports cars. It looks like a prop from The Jetsons (photo above) and it weighs 772 pounds. Venturi claims the bike’s motor produces 200 horsepower and that it is the most powerful electric motorcycle in the world which may be most analogous to building the world’s lightest lead balloon. The bike was designed by a Serbian named Sacha Lakic.

The manufacturer claims the motorcycle can go from 0 to 60 in 3.4 seconds and can hit a buck in just under six seconds. But the thing only has a top speed of 105 mph. The electric motor runs off a 12.8 kilowatt hour battery. It takes about 30 minutes to achieve an 80 percent charge. When fully charged the manufacturer claims the motorcycle will run for 112 miles.

Voxan hasn’t announced a price but it considers the Voxan Wattamn to be a prestige product that will be built by hand, one at a time, for an “an exclusive international clientele that is passionate about technology and emotions.” Voxon’s President, Gildo Pallanca Pastor, is also quoted in the press release as saying that “It is…a starting point for a new human and technological adventure which is built on ten years of challenges, creativity and solutions proven in developing Venturi vehicles.”

Saietta R

A second public relations campaign is currently touting the Saietta R, an electric motorcycle built by a British company called Agility Motors. It is also stylish, inconvenient and under powered but environmentally correct. The press packet describes this one as designed for “urban assaults rather than long-haul freeway blasts.” The Saietta R, like the Voxan, has a range of 112 miles which seems to be about as far as these things can be made to go.

The manufacturer claims the Saietta R motor will make 97 horsepower and 94 foot pounds of torque. It runs off an 11 kilowatt hour lithium battery. It weighs 485 pounds and has a top speed of 80 mph which is about the de facto speed limit on the 105 Freeway in Los Angeles.

It takes eight hours to fully charge this beast. An optional “fast charging system” can cut the time needed for a full charge in half. The Saietta R will go on sale in the United States in about a year and is expected to cost $22,000.

Meanwhile In Vietnam

The Harley-Davidson Company opened its first dealership in Ho Chi Minh City last week. The business calls itself Harley-Davidson of Saigon.

The Motor Company is aggressively expanding into Asia. Harley recently announced two, new bikes aimed at the Asian motorcycle market. The new Harleys have engine displacements of 500 cc and 750 cc. The company also has an assembly plant in India.

Vietnam is the fourth largest motorcycle market in the world, trailing only China, India and Indonesia.