Neighbors pan cops' Outlaws stakeout

MCs in the News
How's this for a buzz kill:

Right smack in the middle of Bike Week, the most notorious bikers in town are dealing with uninvited guests that may stifle their party.
The local Outlaws Motorcycle Club, welcoming dozens and dozens of its far-flung members to the club's new digs are now joined by the Daytona Beach Police Department's giant mobile command post, parked across the street.
The crowd in blue swells four times a day, too, as police officers meet for their pre-shift briefings within a stone's throw of the motorcycle club's house on Tanglewood Street.
Thursday morning, just before the crack of dawn, Daytona Beach police parked the RV-style vehicle on North Street, facing the Outlaws house at 605 Tanglewood.
The Outlaws responded by sending the early morning shift inside the command post a dozen doughnuts. Their attorney, Dave Robinson, delivered the hot treats.

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That didn't help.
In the afternoon, the parking tickets began to fly as club members were told to move some motorcycles obstructing the sidewalk or jutting out into the street.

"We just want to send them a message," Police Chief Mike Chitwood said. "We'll be holding our briefings there for Districts 1 and 2, and the command post will be there for an indefinite period of time."
The briefings brought an onslaught of police officers and their marked cars into the neighborhood as they held their meetings outside the command post across from the Outlaws' front-yard gathering.

Chitwood said the command post is set up in various neighborhoods where there are concerns about crime. He said residents have been outraged since the Outlaws moved in last year.
But, longtime residents along Tanglewood, a narrow thoroughfare of Craftsman-style homes and newer residences, were disgusted -- with the cops.
Late Thursday morning, at least six residents said the lawmen were just trying to intimidate the Outlaws.

"That (the command post) is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard of," said 74-year-old Ray Millard. "They (the Outlaws) have been very congenial neighbors to all of us. They're quiet and they have cleaned up the street."
Other neighbors sang club members' praises as well, saying many Outlaws had helped them make repairs, watched out for their children and grandchildren and invited most of the people on Tanglewood to their new house for parties and barbecues.

But police were having none of the neighborly feelings being espoused by the people along Tanglewood, and, by Thursday afternoon, a cadre of cops handed out a few parking tickets to anyone whose bike fender hung over the street or sidewalk.

The enforcement infuriated Sandee Maroney, who oversees a property at Tanglewood and North, just across from the Outlaws' house where she would allow them to park.
Maroney said she has asked city officials countless times to allow the bikers to park in a lot that is owned by a close friend of hers from Orlando.
"I'm tired of this," Maroney said. "They won't let the Outlaws park on that lot for a few days during Bike Week, but this morning there were five police cars parked on that lot and I told them to get off the property."

Maroney said the Outlaws moved into Tanglewood last year and bought a house that was once an eyesore.
"That was the nastiest place I had ever seen," she said. "The Outlaws brought members from all over and they painted the house and cleaned it up. They've invited all of us to come over and partake in their parties."

Maroney was planning to bake eight pineapple-upside-down cakes for the club members for the weekend. Thursday morning she made them coleslaw.
Resident Suzy Whitford, a 54-year resident of Tanglewood, said the show of force by police was unwarranted. Whitford, a retired part-time policewoman with Daytona Beach police, said people need to get their minds out of the 1970s and 1980s when the Outlaws were considered to be a murderous criminal organization.

"It's 2010," Whitford said with an annoyed look on her face. "These people are great neighbors. They're just like regular people. If you don't mess with them, they won't mess with you."
Original article...

http://www.news-journalonline.com/news/local/east-volusia/2010/03/05/neighbors-pan-cops-outlaws-stakeout.html