USA Today – by Doug Stanglin and Rick Jervis
A Texas Department of Public Safety Bulletin warns that members of the Bandidos motorcycle gang may be plotting attacks on law enforcement officers, but former Bandidos members say the information is wrong and highly unlikely.
“Absolutely ludicrous,” said Edward Winterhalder, a former high-ranking Bandidos member who is still in contact with former and current members. “From a purely common sense and logical point of view, there’s no reason for them to do that.”
Winterhalder was referring to a law enforcement bulletin, reported by CNN, that warned police across Texas that members of the Bandidos Outlaw Motorcycle Gang were planning to retaliate against law enforcement in response to Sunday’s shootout at a Waco restaurant, which left nine dead and 18 injured.
The Texas Department of Public Safety bulletin, reportedly based on information from an informant, said members of the gang who are in the military will supply grenades and explosives, CNN reported.
The purported threats, such as running over officers at traffic stops and car bombs, targeted the McLennan County Jail in Waco as well as sites in Austin, El Paso, Dallas, Corpus Christi and Houston.
A DPS spokesman would not response to the bulletin.
Winterhalder said only one of the nine killed over the weekend had any affiliation with the Bandidos. The majority of those killed were from the rival Cossacks gang, he said. “There’s no reason for the Bandidos to be angry at law enforcement at all,” he said.
The Bandidos have used similar explosives in the past, specifically during what is known as the Great Nordic Biker War of the mid-1990s, said James Quinn, a University of North Texas professor who has studied outlaw motorcycle gangs. In those clashes, the Bandidos and rival gang Hell’s Angels engaged in a three-year war in Sweden, Denmark and other Nordic countries that included clubhouse attacks, rocket launchers and car bombs.
But those tactics have been generally off-limits in the USA, where their use would bring down the weight of federal investigations and potentially dismantle the club, Quinn said.
“These bikers are smart guys and that would be a really stupid thing to do,” he said. “It would bring every law enforcement officer in the country focused on them.”
Police arrested about 170 people at the time of the shooting, charging them with felony counts of engaging in organized criminal activity and set their bonds at $1 million each. Police said they confiscated at least 318 weapons, including c
lubs, knives, brass knuckles, firearms, and chains with padlocks attached to them.
Police described the confrontation as a turf battle between two warring gangs.
“These were vicious criminals that knew that they were in trouble, and they were trying to dispose of evidence,” Waco police spokesman Sgt. W. Patrick Swanton said.
The killings in the central Texas town, however, have also prompted scorn on some social media and conspiracy websites that call the fracas a “police massacre” at a gathering of peaceful bikers.
One biker blogger who calls himself The Aging Rebel charges flatly that police statements on the killings are “fabrications.”
“There were no threats. Murders of, and even assaults on, sworn peace officers in the United States by outlaw bikers are extraordinarily rare. In the United States, policemen are more likely to be struck by lightening (cq) than to be punched by a motorcycle outlaw,” he writes.
Some readers on the site also claim that pre-positioned police did all the shooting and suggest the confrontation may be a trigger for a martial law crackdown by U.S. Army troops already in Texas to conduct summer training exercises codenamed “Jade Helm 15.”
A reader — posting on the Aging Rebel website as “M.E.” — called on the biker community to do more self-policing to give “big brother” less of any excuse to step in.
“Take into account the political climate and the current administration, and I guarantee you that you’re going to start seeing a lot of our ability to enjoy our lifestyle on two wheels, whether it be as an independent or in a club, eroded seriously over time,” M.E. writes.
Swanton, the Waco police spokesman, dismissed such sites.
“We would like to remind all that selective videos and cropped photos DO NOT paint a complete picture of what actually occurred,” Swanton said. “Law Enforcement has video as well but it is preserved for evidence. We play by a very strict set of rules and will not deviate from them to match attempts to sway the truth. I can attest I have personally seen the horror unfold and was amazed at the actions of our heroic officers in their quest to save innocent victims lives.”
Video footage reviewed by the Associated Press shows that when gunfire erupted in the parking lot of the restaurant, most of the bikers watching the confrontation from the patio or inside immediately ran away from the shooting. A few tried to direct people to safety, crawling on all fours heading for cover.
Restaurant security video reviewed exclusively by the AP on Wednesday showed only one of the dozens of bikers recorded firing a gun from the patio of the restaurant. None of the nine video angles shows the parking lot.
Waco police say they did not have any police inside undercover because Twin Peaks, the restaurant where the shootings occurred, was not cooperating with authorities who had tried to warn of the danger of a confrontation.
The national corporate leaders of the chain quickly revoked the local franchise, saying on Facebook that the restaurant’s local management in Waco “chose to ignore the warnings and advice from both the police and our company, and did not uphold the high security standards we have in place to ensure everyone is safe at our restaurants.”
Jay Patel, operating partner at the Waco franchise, denied the charge, saying on the local restaurant’s Facebook page that “our management team had had ongoing and positive communications with the police.”
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/05/22/texas-motorcycle-bangs-bandidos/27776405/
“Video footage reviewed by the Associated Press…”
What video? I’ll say it again: Linky or stinky.
“Winterhalder was referring to a law enforcement bulletin, reported by CNN, that warned police across Texas that members of the Bandidos Outlaw Motorcycle Gang were planning to retaliate against law enforcement…”
Of course the pigs would say that. Then they could kill bikers with impunity, and say they feared for their (miserable, worthless) lives.
On the other hand, the bikers would have to be totally brain-dead to even warn the pigs if they were planning anything. NOT LIKELY!
There going run them over, throw gas bombs and Molotov cocktails at traffic stops, and carry firearms for use according to CNN. The cops will just shoot first, ask questions later.
Free pass, no matter what they do (the pigs).
Cossacks biker gang first originated from where???