READ ON!!!
Is it a "club" or a "gang?" What defines the difference?
Tim King Salem-News.com
Back to the 50's in the attitude toward motorcycle clubs.
Oregon motorcycle riders from a club called the Vagos will be serving hefty sentences for robbery and coercion,
(SALEM, Ore.) - The Oregon Attorney General's Office sent out a news release today stating that "A total of seven members of the North Valley Chapter of the Vagos Outlaw Motorcycle Club have been convicted of charges ranging from robbery and kidnapping to burglary and coercion."
The statement from Attorney General John Kroger goes on to say how his office convicted a "Grants Pass-based outlaw motorcycle gang member" on charges of coercion and unlawful use of a weapon.
Now, is it a gang or a club? I don't know the Vagos, but I know a lot of bikers who are having a very hard time with their civil rights these days, and the semantics are important.
Police and prosecutors are in a new time when words like "terrorist" instantly mean that a person loses their treasured Civil Rights, simply over a charge, an allegation. "Gang member" isn't as bad, yet... but where does it end?
This is where the rubber of real Civil Liberty meets the asphalt.
There is no clause in the U.S. Constitution that states "Unless the person is wearing a patch on their jacket" that I have ever seen.
I know that these law enforcement officials, keen on the key words, play out their strategies and that 99% of the media in this nation knows not the first thing about this unique American culture, so they aren't much help, simply parroting the words of law enforcement bent on seeing bikers removed from our streets.
There are many clubs that exist without excessive legal difficulties, but when motorcycles are involved, the term club frequently becomes gang when police talk about it, and it is a matter of legal maneuvering. I think this type of "news" from a state office looks an awful lot like propaganda when the facts are skewed.
I remember when my niece was in high school, cruising around with a few of her friends at night, and they were pulled over by the "gang unit" because there were six kids together in a car. A car that belonged to a girl's mom.
The police use these terms out of context.
"Outlaw motorcycle gangs pose a major threat to public safety," said Attorney General Kroger. "This case put a major dent in outlaw motorcycle gang activity in Southern Oregon."
Apparently they had an issue with a club member and somebody tried to steal a motorcycle. One person reportedly, "chased two individuals with a sawed-off shotgun."
OK, I wouldn't want to be chased around by a pissed off biker with a shotgun, I admit that, but the way this story is laid out you would think they had just brought Charles Manson to justice.
Robbery and Coercion. Those are the crimes that the motorcycle club member in question was convicted of. No drugs, no Murder, nothing like that. The news release states that the conviction led to a 26 month (slightly over two years) prison sentence for 52-year old Richard Coelho. The AG says it was "the final case in a multi-year prosecution of the North Valley Chapter of the Vagos Outlaw Motorcycle Club."
Years? And all they did was convict some bikers for apparently hassling one of their own? It doesn't exactly fit the bill for public menace, based on the conviction.
The other Vagos who were prosecuted include 43-year old Chris Jorgenson, who was sentenced to 70 months in prison for robbery, coercion and burglary; 44-year old Chris Church, who was sentenced to 70 months in prison for kidnapping and coercion (two counts); 63-year old Gary Jones, who was sentenced to probation for coercion; and 52-year old James Lloyd, who was convicted at trial and sentenced to probation for robbery and coercion. 49-year old Jack Sanders, and 56-year old Bob Moore, who were each convicted of coercion (two counts), have not yet been sentenced.
It reminds me of another recent story where vast amounts of tax dollars were spent funding a tremendous list of Oregon police agencies that busted a drug dealer. Rafael Martinez Ayala sold meth ten times to narc cops, and made drug deals while his kids were in the house. He was sentenced to 269 months in prison. Taxpayers will pick up the tab for 269 months, more than 22 years of prison incarceration. Yet in the same timeframe, a couple who repeatedly harmed other human beings, children no less, who refused a lawyer, behaved disrespectfully to the judge, and left children with lifetime scars on their bodies and souls, will serve a sentence less than 1/3 third the length of Ayala's.
Hispanics and bikers; huge lengthy sentences. A white couple that is extremely dangerous and abusive; a comparative slap on the wrist. What gives?
The public needs to realize that motorcycle clubs are as All-American as apple pie, whether people like it or not. Most bikers are U.S. military veterans. Many served in combat, starting with WWII, which is what launched the American biker movement.
Yet in the biker circuit are a whole bunch of undercover cops posing as bikers. They infiltrate these clubs, and if they were simply doing it to arrest people for illegal activity, that is one thing. But that is not what they do.
It seems the biggest goal of police intervention in motorcycle clubs is to incite problems between the various clubs.
I know for a fact that this is and has been taking place, and these are serious allegations. If the bikers themselves did anything remotely similar they would be arrested and face heavy charges, almost certainly on a federal level. Inciting violence is totally unacceptable criminal police behavior.
Some of these actions by police have resulted in clubs taking violent action against each other over the years. Police should not be allowed to do this. Being deceptive is a specialty of undercover 'narcs' and anyone who relies on deceit as their main tool reeks of dishonesty, and their word is stained.
Nobody writes about this because there is such a shortage of reporters who cross over in these areas of knowledge. Bikers are largely mistrusting of media, and I understand why. Sometimes though they need a break. I am not making excuses for breaking the law, that is not the point.
According to the news release from the Oregon AG, "Testimony established that the Vagos members considered themselves a 1 percent club, a reference to a 1960s claim that up to 99% of motorcyclists are law-abiding citizens, but the last one percent are outlaws."
