As a biker, I know there is a difference between the true image of brothers in the wind and public perceptions. This becomes acute when it’s time to work on serious issues like association rights, enhanced “affiliation” penalties, noise mandates, ordinances to eliminate rallies and deal with 1%’ers.
Unfortunately, it seems when legislators deal with serious motorcycle issues they do so with little knowledge, act as experts and spray paint so called fixes on everyone. And at least one community is to blame — the media — for often failing to report unbiased information regarding motorcycle “clubs” or gangs. More often than not the reporting tends to lean towards the sensational. Bloggers are guilty too.
So, before I get a bunch of email stating how the term Motorcycle “gangs” indicates my bias or how they are misunderstood and are really a bunch of biker dads who love leather…let’s review the 2009 National Gang Threat Assessment (PDF) which was recently released. While much of the report is skewed toward “street gangs” (examples: Bloods, Crips, Latin Kings, Ñeta, MS 13, Sureños 13 etc.,) there is a lot of information about outlaw motorcycle gangs (OMG) (examples: Bandidos, Hells Angels, Mongols, Outlaws, Sons of Silence, etc.) all working to control retail-level distribution of cocaine, meth, heroin, and marijuana. The OMG designation is from the document and I’m using it to be consistent with the report.
The report conservatively estimates more than 1 MILLION gang members belong to more than 20,000 gangs. There are between 280 and 520 Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs (OMG) that range in size from a single chapter to hundreds of chapters worldwide. Estimates indicate that more than 20,000 OMG members reside in the U.S. If I did the math correct, OMG membership represent about 2% of the overall gang membership and about 3% of the total number of gangs. Not an alarming number in of itself, but somehow attracts a disproportionate share of media publicity. A few factoids from the report:
- Outlaw motorcycle gangs (OMG) pose a growing threat to law enforcement and public safety. Especially pronounced along the U.S.- Canada and U.S. – Mexico border. They frequently associate with criminal organizations to facilitate drug smuggling into the U.S.
- Criminal gangs are responsible for as much as 80% of ALL crime in many communities.
- National-level OMG criminal activity poses a serious national domestic threat. National level OMGs are a considerable concern to law enforcement because they are highly structured organizations with memberships ranging into the thousands, maintaining strong associations with transnational Drug Transport Organizations (DTOs) and other criminal organizations.
- In the U.S. 109 regional-level OMGs have been identified by gang investigators; most support one of the national-level OMGs. Several regional-level OMGs maintain independent associations with transnational DTOs and other criminal organizations.
- For the first time provides insight into the size and role of gangs in the military
The report goes on to highlight how the criminal organizations — like technology — seem to move fast, adopt and never stay the course with tactics. They are most busy and seldom wait on the sidelines missing out on “revenue” or allow themselves to become marginalized. They use cell phone voice/text messaging capabilities to conduct transactions and prearrange meetings. They use multiple cell phones or prepaid phones which are frequently discarded after conducting operations. Internet-based methods are being adopted and the use of social networking sites, encrypted e-mail, IP telephones, and Twitter message sites are common. The use of social media sites such as MySpace, YouTube, and Facebook to post well-produced, self-promoting music/videos of the “gang” lifestyle. Pre-teens are down loading propaganda ring-tones and images which glorify gangs! There has also been an increased effort by gang members to actively “spar” on internet message boards to protect their virtual spaces as well as use internet profiling techniques to recruit.
My grip after looking over the report is the fact it doesn’t attempt to address:
- Gang intelligence improvements that work and help reduce incidents.
- Gang suppression techniques which are working and the role of the community.
- Legal considerations on enforcement issues and use of gang-specific legislation.
- Cost of anti-gang resources and return on investment – no performance measurement of the organization?
So, do you think this report will help or hurt motorcycle enthusiasts? Do you think it will accelerate legislation to address enhanced “affiliation” penalties in the northwest? Should we wait for the Homeland Security advisory system to monitor and report on the ongoing threat levels of the nations criminal gangs? If so it would be set at HIGH (Orange).
Photo courtesy of National Gang Intelligence Center.
What people fail to realize when they read this stuff on bikers is that they have a better chance of winning the lottery and getting struck by lightning on the same day then having a run in with a random mad biker. Come on, just go on about your business and stay out of their business and you’ll be just fine. When you hear stories about some average guy getting his ass kicked by bikers, realize that the dude wasn’t just an innocent citizen but someone who disrespected them in some way. If you see a group of bikers and you are minding your own business, you really have nothing to fear. Give them their respect and space and they’ll do the same. I also understand that there are assholes everywhere in every group, biker or not, and it is easy to apply the guilty by association clause. However, for the most part, unless you go looking for trouble, you won’t find it here. We should worry less about motorcycle clubs and more about street gangs. Motorcycle clubs don’t go to teenagers to recruit members. Motorcycle clubs have a prospect phase and patches must be earned. Lastly, don’t believe everything the media says. Remember, they hype everything up to sell the news, not necessarily to report the news. Lets put our attention on things that effect all of us, like the economy and unemployment rate and leave the bikers be.
I’m in agreement with Mark B. on this. There was even a recent documentary on the negative aspects of bikers. I won’t mention the name of the documentary or the network – they’re not worth it. No matter what, there are bad elemtns in everything. Look at the church, hell, look at Wall Street! And politics….you don’t even want to go there. That being said, the OMG mentality is minor to me and probably most people.