By now most everyone has probably heard about a couple of outlaw biker gangs getting into a major battle in Waco, Texas, a few days ago. Nine dead (several possibly shot by police), 18 injured, 170 arrested. And rumors, now discounted, that other gangs are headed to Waco to retaliate against the police.
It’s an ugly, disgusting situation. I’ve no use for adults who act like that. Turf battles? Most people leave those behind in the schoolyard.
Yet I find I’m having to fight some ugly, disgusting feelings of my own. Every time this story comes up on TV, I have the fleeting thought that we should just clear the area and let them fight to the death if they want to. Let them reduce their own numbers and whatever gene pool they crawled out of.
Bad, I know. But I did say “fleeting” …
You’re not the only one … I’ve thought the same about several groups, especially as they don’t seem to like anyone but themselves (the feeling’s mutual, guys) …
Oh good, now I don’t feel quite so guilty.
😀
These motorcycle gangs occupy a shadow world that the general public rarely sees. They do not want to attract any attention to their existence /the way they live. A whole different breed who live by choice outside of society.
I remember when the Bandidos were organizing (San Leon is not far from here. Lovely bayside bluff would make great home sites, but the thugs are pretty well entrenched in that area.) The established CA gangs didn’t want the group organizing at all – and the big thing then was some of the jacket insignia…apparently the jacket markings are still a big “serious” issue. Hard to believe. After all these years.
They actually have Facebook pages for the gangs. (Take a look. Is there a thug gene they all share?)
These are very violent dangerous people involved in dangerous illegal “occupations”. The only reason they crawled out of the shadows is an accident – an uninvited gang showed up and intruded on some negotiations. And a stupid bar owner allowed his facility to be used – for 2 months. (Money is money, until it costs everything…)
There will be retributions. (These gangs arrogantly feel even the President is organizing forces – including the marines – against them) Hopefully they can sort themselves out far away from ordinary citizens and the police who try to keep them away from us. (HINT: Dudes, Waco isn’t far enough.)
Serious stuff.
Well, the stupid bar owner learned his lesson. The Twin Peaks chain yanked his franchise license. It’s a miracle none of the innocent customers got hurt. As you said, the gangs need to take their turf wars, negotiations, and assorted illegal operations to some place far away from normal people … not that I’d expect such consideration from people like that. It figures they think the president is organizing forces to come after them. After all, he’s planning on invading Texas anyway, isn’t he?
The state jerked their liquor license that morning. By afternoon, the franchise was jerked. (That place was right by the road – we’ve been past it…and the Bed, Bath, and Beyond is next door.
Apparently the Bandidos were demanding payment for the “new” club to use the Texas rocker (curved design on their jackets) I have trouble taking seriously anyone who trucks their bike from place to place in a pickup, then unloads it to ride around with a crowd – of just park it. Although Waco is a looooong way out there from San Leon…can’t risk wear and tear on the bike?
Funny you said that – husband said maybe that’s the whole goal – getting rid of an armed bunch of problem “citizens” (have to use that word loosely with these guys). HA HA.
There’s a big “meet-up” of multiple biker groups this weekend at a place not far from here. 300 acres and a bar. THis is a different bunch/type of riders who mainly ride for fun and have real jobs during the week. It has been planned for a long time. The umbrella association has sent out word that if you can’t play nice and have fun, don’t come. We’ll see.
They truck their bikes to their meetings? LOL. What a bunch of wusses. I’ll admit just driving across half of Texas can suck, but those bikers are supposed to be tough. Aren’t they?
I know there are some “good” bikers out there. They have a big gathering every summer in Colorado somewhere, I think. I’ve got no problem with them. But the outlaw clubs are sure hurting the image of all bikers.
Saw some bike in truck beds in views of the scene. Now they say the whole thing started over a parking spot dispute and a guy getting his foot run over…and they make fun of women fighting over parking spaces at the mall – at least they don’t start shooting people over it…a few fist fights locally, but not a huge brawl.
Always said people are about the same as they were as preschoolers, only taller. (Hope you’re doing well – running behind as usual, but Molly finally out to run in fields with her friends – she and we really need her to release some of that energy.)
Well, we all know if women ran the world, there would be a lot less war.
Bet Molly enjoyed that run. Reminds me of the “Long Live Pets” video.
. . . and cats . . . LOTS more cats.
Doing my part with the kittehs. Have one now. Have had as many as 3. My son has 4.
These are not the only gangs around (33,000 per the FBI report: http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/investigate/vc_majorthefts/gangs/gangs).
Most cities of any size have gangs (branches, typically active in poorer neighborhoods) and some are fairly organized, almost as if they have their own franchise system.
And, we are not the only country with gang problems. (http://gangs.globalincidentmap.com/home.php)
. . . and yes, it would be nice if there were a switch we could throw and send them to a different dimension (aka, the Dead Zone).
CNN was reporting this afternoon that there are biker clubs worldwide. That really surprised me. For some reason I thought it was a North American thing. Probably because that’s all I’ve seen or heard about. I just have no use for law breakers, period. I do appreciate the “good” bikers who do things like show up at military funerals to make sure the Westboro Baptist Church doesn’t interfere.
There’s a reason why, here in Texas, we pronounce it: Wakko…
😐
Duly noted. 🙂
If Shakespeare were alive today, I think he’d write “First we kill all the politicians.” So I’ll vote for your idea if you’ll vote for mine: it’s the same as yours, but instead of bikers, we put all the politicians in a fenced off area–then shoot the one that survives!
BTW: I forgot to add
/snark
to the bottom of that post — sorry.
Yes, must be politically correct. 🙂
Works for me.
Are your feelings about these thugs ugly? I’m not so sure. One of the smart things more thoughtful participants in playground activities often have done is encourage bad guys–“Why don’t you two guys fight?–while stepping away from the action. May be continuing good policy in many places. ISIS, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, anyone?
Sure would be a simpler way to wage wars. Just send in each side’s champion. Representative warfare.
This recent biker activity kind of reminds me of the biker gang activity of the early fifties and sixties. And the humanists think that mankind is getting better. Nothing could be further from the truth.
It depends what you are looking at . . . number-wise, much better. As far as exposure, much worse, mostly because of both the immediacy and more detail available to everyone.
It galls me getting a breaking news alert from my local station letting me know of a shooting on the other side of the country. Yesterday I got an alert that a dog had died in a house fire. I like dogs, but I’m not particularly interest in knowing when each of them kicks off.
I have to fight my inclination to think mankind is getting worse by telling myself the media hone in on and cover only the worst stuff they can find and now they have so many more ways to distribute and keep it in front of us 24/7. Good, normal, everyday activities are not newsworthy.
(I’m a humanist, by the way, and do not think mankind is getting better. As disperser says, the media are having a major influence on our perception of the world in general, and it’s usually negative.)
Here are two articles that probably you and most of your readers will not chance upon . . . maybe. if you’ve already seen these, sorry.
That second article is (or should be) informative. I carry a gun, and contrary to what most people think, it makes me extra careful about where I go.
Not because I carry a gun, but because that’s part of a mindset. While I recognize that everyone “should” have the freedom to walk peacefully everywhere they go, I am also an amateur student of human nature as it spans the range from a pacifist who would not harm a fly, to a psychopath who enjoys hurting babies.
So, I stay away from the obvious places where trouble might spontaneously or deliberately sprout up. But more than that, I am hyper-aware (or try to be) of both people around me and the environment I’m in.
Chances are if something doesn’t look or feel right, it isn’t.
Better to walk away. Walking away might have you miss out on a great sale, a wonderful opportunity, a historic event . . . but staying and having it blow up in your face has far more dire consequences.
When I heard that “civilians” (I put that in quotes because everyone involved but the cops were civilians) were in the restaurant, I literally shook my head.
If I pull up to a restaurant and there are twenty bikes parked there, I don’t wait to find out if these are obese idiots escaping from their accounting jobs or if they are members of an organized gang. I move on to the next restaurant, preferably some distance away. If I am at a restaurant and twenty bikes pull up, I quietly and discretely leave as soon as I can. I don’t sit there admiring their fancy bikes and ogling their weird mode of dress.
Just saying. One can wish for a better world, but one should adapt to the world they have been handed.
Yes, I’d heard police were responsible for some of the deaths. Not surprised. When they order an armed individual to drop the weapon and they aren’t obeyed, they’ll shoot to kill.
Interesting to read what the Bandidos “1%” means. I’d wondered about that.
As for “walk away,” you’d better believe I do. Or drive away. Or run away. Whatever it takes. I don’t linger in “iffy” places, and I sure wouldn’t linger if bikers were gathering. Seems to me that’s only common sense.
My sister lives in Waco, It is not an encouraging idea that “civilized” people should just back away and deal with the consequences. There are business around this place where people will now lose their jobs if they can not resolve the safety issues caused by these gangs that everyone has looked the other way and allowed to develop to this dangerous degree. As a teacher, I would never look the other way and allow children to simply fight it out on the playground. If it was your child, or your neighborhood I don’t believe you would be so apathetic.
I would not for a second suggest anyone actually do what I was thinking. (“Hyperbole.” Look it up.)
And of course I wouldn’t let kids fight it out on the playground. No responsible adult would. That’s a good way to develop thugs like these bikers — let them get away with antisocial behavior when they’re kids.
As for safety issues and small businesses in the area, I think the city and Twin Peaks did the right thing in shutting down the bar where the gangs met. Nobody wants something like that in their neighborhood.
John Steidley’s thought about humanists believing society is steadily getting better surprised me. I’d recently heard that argument, which some good research supports, advanced by an economist as a “proof” that a great spirit created the universe and continues to guide it in a general way..
I could summon many arguments both for and against the idea that society is getting better. But either way, I’d blame/credit human nature. The issue so equivocal, it’s hardly proof of anything.