OFF THE WIRE
agingrebel.com
There are two ongoing cases against members of the Hells Angels Motorcycle
Club in South Carolina. Federal prosecutors seem to be trying to win the one
titled United States versus Bifield et al. The other case, titled
Operation Red Harvest was probably never more than a publicity stunt to get an
interim police chief a permanent appointment.
The stunt was in Horry County, South Carolina which includes and surrounds
Myrtle Beach – a resort on the make that expends an awful lot of effort building
its brand and polishing its image. Myrtle Beach shut down a major motorcycle run
called Myrtle Beach Bike Week in 2010 with draconian noise, helmet and loitering
prohibitions. Then the next year the city was proud to serve as the location for
the HBO series Eastbound and Down about a fictional stoner,
egomaniac and baseball pitcher named Kenny Powers.
Powers spoke for bikers everywhere when he voiced this judgment of South
Carolina’s best known party place: “I can take a hint. These people have been
acting like assholes, so I don’t want to party here either. Fucking get off of
me, thank you. Fuck this party!”
Operation Red Harvest
Operation Red Harvest was a name given to a collection of 226 criminal
complaints brought against 34 people. Many of the accused had ties to the Hells
Angels or the Red Devils. It was also the name given to an 18 month long
investigation that began after a member of one of the clubs was expelled and
ordered to black out or remove his club tattoos. After some of his former club
brothers took the informant aside and reasoned with him he went to the police
and complained that he had been kidnapped and assaulted.
The ex-brother also confessed that a prospective member was growing marijuana
and some of the club members were selling it. Verifying this gripping and
important story took a year and a half and culminated in a series of raids last
April 30. Police told local television journalists they had seized “three bales”
of marijuana and three dead marijuana plants. The actual weight of this drug
bust has never been described.
Police also seized personal computers, cell phones, cash, a scale,
surveillance cameras, legal firearms, a bullet proof vest, filing cabinets, club
meeting minutes, other club records, thumb drives, a satellite dish, two sets of
brass knuckles, Hells Angels cuts, two printers, a glass pipe, more than 200 tee
shirts, earrings, framed photos, old Christmas cards, burned trash and “a
plastic baggie” containing “a white rock-like substance.”
Biker, Reefer Menace Defeated Thanks To…
The interim police chief, Saundra Rhodes, bragged “We believe this will have
a significant impact on the Hell’s Angels. In my 18 years with the department
I’ve never seen a grand jury investigation that netted 226 indictments…. This is
a pretty big deal.”
A local prosecutor named Greg Hembree told the cameras, “It’s going to take
up a lot of their (the defendants) time and energy and resources to defend these
charges.” And, it certainly has. And it was a big deal for Rhodes who was
permanently appointed Horry County Police Chief in September.
But two months after that none of the accused yet has a trial date.
Eighty-five percent of the assets and goods seized last April have been returned
to their owners. Records pertaining to the motorcycle clubs have never been
returned and have been fed into the great, all devouring maw of the Homeland
Security fusion center network.
A defense attorney named John Hilliard who is representing some of the
defendants told television station WPDE “As I’ve gone through this
process, I’ve found all those charged polite, hardworking, cooperative members
of the community with jobs, families and work and that they are all responsible
citizens.”
So far the case has not had “a significant impact on the Hell’s Angels” but
it has had a significant impact on the lives of “polite, hardworking,
cooperative members of the community.” And Saundra Rhodes got the job.
