Minnesota,They'll be looking for outlaws. The "one-percenters."

OFF THE WIRE
Source: winonadailynews.com
When the motorcycles fire up Saturday for the biannual Flood Run, police won't just be looking for speeding bikers, road hogs and drunken drivers.

They'll be looking for outlaws. The "one-percenters."

A brawl between rival biker gangs marred the spring Flood Run in April, when, by most accounts, members of the Outlaws motorcycle gang stomped several Hells Angels outside two Minneiska, Minn., bars. Officials are worried the gangs could try for payback during Saturday's run.

Law enforcement from the Winona County Sheriff's Department to the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives have been meeting in preparation to share intelligence and make plans for a beefed-up police presence along the route, which follows both sides of the Mississippi River from Lake St. Croix Beach, Minn., to Winona.

Police aren't saying they expect trouble, but they aren't taking chances, either.

"There's always the chance of things breaking out," said Bernard Zapor, special agent in charge of the St. Paul Field Division of the ATF.

The Upper Mississippi River Valley is, as one official put it, on the frontier of both groups' turf. The Outlaws claim Wisconsin; the Hells Angels claim Minnesota. The gangs have warred for decades throughout the country, sometimes killing to protect territory.

"We don't want any trouble here," Winona County Sheriff's Department Chief Deputy Ron Ganrude said.

The brawl

The police reports read like something out of the Marlon Brando film "The Wild One."

Deputies were dispatched to the parking lots of the Eagle View Bar and Grill and Buck's Bar and Grill in Minneiska about 2 p.m. April 17 for a report that motorcycle gang members were beating up a person outside the bars. When deputies arrived, they learned a large group of bikers involved in the fight had left and were driving south on Hwy. 61.

Witnesses said Hells Angels and Outlaws members threw punches while scores of other bikers watched. But no one involved in the fight, even a man with cuts on his face, would speak to police. A group of about 100 Outlaws were later pulled over on Hwy. 61 near Minnesota Hwy. 248, but with no victim complaints, no one was cited.

One spring Flood Run participant, who asked not to be named for fear of retaliation by the gangs, said the dispute was kicked off when Hells Angels rode into Wisconsin - Outlaw territory - via Prescott, down to Nelson and then back into Minnesota.

Apparently outraged, Outlaws pursued and caught up to the Angels in Minneiska.

Mark Erickson isn't convinced by that story. The commander of the Southeast Minnesota Narcotics and Gang Taskforce said he's heard nothing of Hells Angels rolling into Wisconsin.

"I just heard that the Hells Angels were at Minneiska, and the Outlaws got them there, beat them up and took their colors," he said.

Possible payback

Some time before 2001, a La Crosse Outlaws chapter was formed "strategically ... to protect the Wisconsin border from encroachment by the Hells Angels," according to the Justice Department's National Drug Intelligence Center. Outlaws have recently been spotted in Minnesota, crossing the river in La Crescent and heading up Hwy. 61.

Authorities are worried that continued provocation could lead to more disputes.

"If the Outlaws are going to come over, there's the thought we could have trouble," Erickson said.

And if history is any indication, worry over trouble between the biker gangs isn't unreasonable. More than two dozen Outlaws were indicted this summer in Virginia for acts including assault, kidnapping and murder. Much of the violence was directed at the Hells Angels.

According to reports about indictments filed against 17 Outlaws in 1997, seven Outlaws traveled to La Crosse in 1993 "to kill members and associates of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club."

But, for the most part, there's been little overt violence in the area around Winona. Authorities couldn't remember another biker brawl in Winona County besides the one during the spring Flood Run, and according to the ATF, there haven't been any major disputes between the Hells Angels in Minnesota and Wisconsin Outlaws chapters in the past decade.

Police normally worry more about preventing fatal crashes during the Flood Run. Not brawls.

"In years past, we never had the problems that we are experiencing now," Winona Deputy Police Chief Tom Williams said. "There weren't lines drawn in the sand."

If there is retribution, conventional wisdom says it would happen in Wisconsin, with the Hells Angels hitting back at Outlaws on their home turf. Buffalo County Sheriff Mike Schmidtknecht said his office is using a state grant for motorcycle law enforcement to staff the Flood Run.

"We always have a little heightened awareness," for the run, he said.

The preparation

Police are taking their cues for next week from a 2009 Carlton County powder keg between the two clubs that didn't blow. The fuse, according to law enforcement, was lit when the Hells Angels decided to hold their annual national gathering near Cloquet. Hundreds from the club converged at the end of July.

Meanwhile, a large group of Outlaws set up shop nearby in Superior, Wis. Officials worried a turf war would erupt.

Feds and local authorities blanketed the area, warning both crews that any trouble would bring a swift reaction. The week ended up rather quiet, and police even took some criticism for being excessively cautious.

Williams said four Winona police officers will work overtime for the run. As in previous years, the Winona County Sheriff's Department will have all 20 deputies working Saturday. The department hopes to have "super high visibility," Ganrude said. More state troopers will also be on the road.

The plan is to let the motorcycle clubs know they are being watched.

"If they ride into our area, we will shadow them and try to keep anything from happening," said Erickson, the gang taskforce leader. "We just don't want these outlaw motorcycle gangs to come."

Authorities have also been meeting in advance of the event to share intelligence about the gangs. Erickson said he's met with members Enforcement Administration, and metro-area gang task forces.

The 99 percent

Police emphasize that most Flood Run bikers are law-abiding. Some are even police.

The run, according to legend, commemorates when bikers joined efforts to save the area from flooding in 1965.

Brian Denny, a Flood Run organizer, said the rides raise tens of thousands of dollars every year for the Gillette Children's Hospital in St. Paul.

"That money has been going there for a long time," he said. "It goes to such a great cause."

The events are also a cash boon to bars that become stops along the run, in places like Maiden Rock, Wis., and Minneiska. Denny, who declined to comment about anything to do with Outlaws or Hells Angels, said he expects Saturday's event will go off without a hitch.

It's the so-called "one-percenters" police are worried about. The phrase - attributed to the American Motorcycle Association after press reports of a supposed biker riot in Hollister, Calif. - goes that 99 percent of bikers are law-abiding citizens, and the remaining 1 percent are outlaws.

"There are cops and deputies and lawyers and secretaries and people from all walks of life that ride their motorcycles," Erickson said. "We don't want the one percent being an issue here."