Rival Texas Biker Gangs Turn Restaurant Into Shooting Gallery Killing Nine
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After three motorcycle gangs opened fire in a restaurant and spilled out into the parking lot, nine people are dead and several are injured in Waco, Texas, KWTX reports.
Police Officers and sheriff’s deputies surrounded the Twin Peaks Restaurant this afternoon after reports of shots fired, and were securing the parking lot when the biker fight poured outside, says police Sgt. W. Patrick Swanton.
The bikers allegedly fought with various weapons, including chains and knives, until gunfire broke out—both bikers firing at each other and officers firing at them.
The scene devolved into “absolute chaos,” says KWTX, before EMS units arrived and people were taken away to hospital. No word yet on whether diners at the restaurant were injured, notes NBC Dallas Forth-Worth.
Swanton says the Twin Peaks scene is “as secure as it can be right now,” but police fear the violence may spread among other groups in and near Waco. Other reports describe a crime scene at the Waco Convention Center, but details are scant.
The area has been closed, and EMS unites and armed officers are on the scene, according to a law enforcement spokesman.
A photographer says he saw a few men being arrested at the Center. Police have apparently been trying to cool tempers between biker gangs at Twin Peaks for weeks, and were especially wary on Thursday nights, when the restaurant hosts Biker Night.
A district attorney says two local biker gangs fought there a few weeks ago, joined by Dallas-Forth Worth gangs that game to support them.
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The word gang doesn’t apply to a casual motorcycle group or club of weekend riders. The word gang applies to a criminal enterprise whether it be black, white, Chinese, Russian, Italian…whatever the color or nationality. International motorcycle gangs such as the Bandidos or Cossacks are just that. Criminal groups. That’s the message that I get from this. I haven’t heard anybody mentioning that we should arrest our bankers. Wait, wait. Ok just not for riding a Harley Davidson.
LOL. Point well taken Dan 🙂
That isn’t the point. This country has had a problem since the journalistic Jihad of the late 40’s seeing motorcyclists as anything but scary, nasty and likely criminal. It’s not true elsewhere. Would the headlines be screaming “SUV gang” or “trucker gang” if they had arrived in Hummers? I doubt it. We don’t even hear about the guns they were carrying – it’s all about the motorcycles not about the gang.
I recently saw an ad put out by some association – a picture of a bearded man in a leather jacket with the caption “some people see a biker, I see Grandpa” It’s more true than most people suspect and the demographics of Harley Davidson owners is nearly identical to Cadillac owners: late middle age and affluent.
The Meme that Won’t Die — motorcycles and bad guys. Marlon Brando in the Wild one and a host of other dumb movies following a mostly-did’t-happen and some staged Life Magazine pictures in 1947 ruckus in a small town in California. It still wanders the night like a zombie. Hear the word motorcycle and your knee-jerk response is “gang” Admit it.
I ride with a Harley group with over a million members. Go to any gigantic bike rally and you’re thousands of times more likely to meet your accountant or your doctor that an outlaw. More real gangsters drive Toyotas than Harleys, but the words “biker gang” always make the headlines.
I used to live in Key West, and a couple of times a year the bikers would visit, either on a poker run or some other charitable cause. Knew a lot of the guys, and, as you said, straight up decent guys who loved their Harleys 🙂
My local Harley Owners Group chapter has about 400 members. The meetings look a bit like AARP conventions, only maybe a bit older. A third of them are women. Some are also members of my yacht club, but to any tinhorn newspaper reporter, they’re “bikers” and drivers get all nervous and do stupid things if any number of us happen to be riding together. BIKERS!
I always wanted a Harley, never managed to get one. I think I’m too long in the tooth to start a new adventure. I would, however, love to be seen as a BIKER 🙂
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