Just looking at what took place, law enforcement had provided warning beforehand that there was liable to be a problem at the "Confederation of Clubs" taking place there, and the alert continues to be high, especially for anyone in a uniform--but to be honest, if I were in the area and thought there might be another shootout as a civilian, I'd be pretty damned alarmed.
It strikes me as a bizarre scene--described by one officer as "the worst crime scene" he'd ever seen--but the backdrop is an entirely familiar-looking suburban strip mall. It seems like such a bizarre venue to be the host of violent potential. Which makes me wonder a bit at the sense of the Twin Peaks chain restaurant (which appears to be losing their franchise license) to host the event when there were warnings. We don't have this chain in my area, but I understand they are kind of like "Hooters" in that they cater to a sort of man-cave idea of a place just for things "guys" like. So maybe the idea of a biker "club" event seemed to the management to be apropos.
This was a mistaken point of view. There's a certain "romance" involved with biker life, I think, that we get mostly from movies. I think there is a romance we get with the idea of "the outlaw" in general--wild west desperados, thug life, Goodfellas and the Sopranos. Bonnie and Clyde. But when you see images of the crowd (from which 170 people have now been arrested) and start picking out things like white supremacist tats, you start to realize these are not just manly men who ride bikes. The Bandidos are like a motorcycle mafia. A whole lot of weapons were confiscated, which strikes me as meaning people were expecting to see some damage.
With so many members of one percenter gangs held with high bonds, I kind of feel wary--like something else will drop. This isn't a demographic that shies away from violent confrontation.
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Hi Vixen, by this time you've probably know the story, but I thought I would give you some context.
A long time ago, a fully patched-in Hell's Angel came to Texas and started trying to recruit in Bandit territory (Bandidos).
He received some phone calls telling him that he had to stop wearing his colors and stop recruiting in Texas and to get out of the state. The Angel refused.
A sniper took him out as he was coming out of a Denny's.
Bandits have regarded Texas as their territory since the 50s. However, Angels have wanted to slice in to the state to share in the lucrative drug cartel operations. Bikers, Bloods and Crips, and a lot of other organized criminal gangs are in the distribution and transportation of cartel narcotics operations. A lot of the biker gangs control their own methamphetamine manufacture, but still handle distribution for other cartels' narcotic products.
The Cossacks are a comparatively small OMB organization that has made links and affiliations wit the HA. With the empowerment of that association, they decided to put the word 'Texas' on the bottom rocker of their cut. Had they simply kept the name of their town on the cut, a problem would not have ensued. But with the support of the Angels, they had the chutzpah to claim Texas as their territory.
Don't let anyone tell you that this was all some innocent mistake. They knew what would happen if they started claiming Texas in the middle of Bandit territory.
This was the provocative element that touched off the battle in Waco. The Scimitars, another small biker club supporting the Cossacks and realizing the Cossacks' link with the Angels, jumped in on the side of the Cossacks when the melee started.
The Bandits will not allow a rival OMB to gain power by claiming Texas as their territory. You can anticipate more clashes to come, and it is possible that Bandits will invade Angels' territory in retaliation.
It is strange to the uninitiated to realize that wherever you live in the United States, you are in someone's territory. This is also true with the Bloods, Crips, Latin Kings, and other gangs, although often their territory will be limited to different neighborhoods or certain mapped out blocks.
Although the Luccheses, Colombos, Gambinos, Bonannos, Genoveses, control New York, they also ride herd over 25 different Cosa Nostra families throughout the United States. All of these organizations have international chapters, and to some extent they cooperate in an overlap of criminal ventures. In addition, there are Yugoslavian, Cambodian and Vietnamese gangs, Yakuza and Tong, and virtually every multi-cultural group has its own organized crime. We have become so touchy-feely and hypersensitive that we give hundreds of thousands of psychopaths the flexibility to prey on us, kill, and extort and otherwise injure us.
Already people are starting to ask in Waco whether any of the nine participants who died were shot down needlessly by the police. So as you can see, once you start creating an out for different violent individuals and gangs, the criminal element instantly seizes on it as another avenue of attacking the police.
Just the other day, a hapless janitor was wearing his blue uniform in Bloods' territory, and they beat him mercilessly for wearing blue.. if he had been wearing red in Crips' territory they would have attacked him for that. It's all like Lord of the Flies. You'd ;think that with ISIS cells preparing to activate we would have enough trouble.
I will say that with the bikers, they would not automatically kill you for being white. However, Bloods and Crips would not hesitate. We have so devalued whites that some criminals now use that as an excuse for attacking whites.
All I can tell you is you need to be armed, because these criminal elements are circling around just like sharks in the ocean. They're part of the natural habitat, and we keep making it easier for them rather than harder. Just watch your six and be ready.
LOL Hey Vixen, I want to correct a ridiculous error.
Never post on the fly with 4 hours sleep. I kept writing OMB rather than OMG. Naturally, OMG is the abbreviation for 'Outlaw Motorcycle Gang' whereas OMB is the 'Office of Management and Budget.'
On the other hand, maybe my slip was an unconscious association and recognition of the similarity of these 2 organizations.
Heh, I believe the anti-government joke would go something like: "One is an organization that manages how dubiously-obtained funds are distributed through dubiously-conceived schemes that are foisted on the public--and the other rides bikes."
Territoriality is pretty instinctive to humans--while certain gangs might make racial distinctions, there used to be "sundown towns"--where non-whites were warned not to be in past sundown for risk or their lives, and that was by the superficially legitimate and upstanding members of the local appointed and unappointed law. Whereas outlaws are just killers anyway. The particularity of victims mostly comes from opportunity, though.
As a woman, I've sort of been brought up assuming a degree of risk on that basis rather than on territory/local demography--situational awareness is pretty much my standard. It always pays to be careful.
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