Cop fired that placed gun to a HAMC member's head

Euclid, Ohio (September 26, 2018) BTN — Euclid Mayor Kirsten Holzheimer Gail has fired a city police officer after he pulled out a gun during a fight with suspected members of the Hell's Angels motorcycle club at a Willoughby bar last month.

Related | Cop on leave for starting bar brawl with Hells Angels

Todd Gauntner, 32, was charged with using a weapon while under intoxication in an incident that happened in the early morning hours of Aug. 24 at Frank and Tony's Place on 2nd Street in Willoughby, Willoughby police said.

Gauntner and two other men -- Dustin Wolf, 28, and Bradley Peterson, 39 -- got into an argument that turned into a physical brawl police said.

Back Patch of an Ohio member of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club

Officers went to the bar about 1 a.m. to investigate a report of a large fight involving several men. A bartender told the investigators that someone pulled out a gun and put it to someone's head, according to a Willoughby police report. Gauntner did not use his department-issued gun in the incident, the report says.

"You initiated the incident with the two men who were alleged members of the Hells Angels organization by making disparaging comments to them," Gail wrote in the one-page letter dated Sept. 17. "You also had the opportunity to remove yourself from the situation but failed to do so...You put yourself and many bar patrons at a significant risk of substantial harm due to your reckless behavior."

SOURCE: Cleveland.com

Hells Angels MC poker run stopped by police

Kelowna, British Columbia (September 22, 2018) BTN— Dozens of Hells Angels and associated motorcycle club members were pulled over by police on Kelowna's Glenmore Road Saturday, not long after the riders took off from the Kelowna Hells Angels clubhouse on their annual Poker Run ride.

Upwards of 100 riders were seen pulled over on Glenmore Road, just north of Summit Drive at about noon. Earlier Saturday, the bikers had left from the Hells Angel's clubhouse in Kelowna's North End, on Ellis Street.

The Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit, B.C.'s anti-gang police agency, is in Kelowna this weekend to support the Kelowna RCMP during the Hells Angel event.

The Kelowna RCMP have yet to comment on the ride, or about their interaction with the riders on Glenmore Road. It's unclear if any arrests were made.

The poker run involves riding to different locations and collecting playing cards. The cards are then used to make a poker hand at the end of the ride.

The Hells Angels set up a chapter in Kelowna around 2006. The gang's clubhouse, while still in use by its members, is the subject of an ongoing BC Civil Forfeiture Office trial in BC Supreme Court in Vancouver.

After several police raids on the property over the past several years, the property's assets were frozen in 2016, pending the outcome of the trial. The BC Civil Forfeiture Office is looking to seize the gang's clubhouses in Nanaimo and Vancouver, in addition to Kelowna, arguing the properties will be used to commit crimes in the future.

The trial, 10 years in the making, is scheduled into December.

UPDATE:

The police traffic stop of the Hells Angel poker run in Kelowna stemmed from some confusion over the correct route by riders, according to police.

Sgt. Brenda Winpenny of the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit BC says the confusion over the correct route resulted in the bikers blocking traffic on Glenmore Road.

"An RCMP traffic unit initiated a traffic stop with the lead bikers to address the situation," Sgt. Winpenny said. "CFSEU-BC was present and assisted the traffic unit with the stop."

The CFSEU-BC, B.C.'s anti-gang police agency, are in Kelowna this weekend for the Hells Angel poker run.

"The main objective at these events is to ensure police and public safety and that the participants of the ride abide by the law," Sgt. Winpenny said.

The Kelowna RCMP has not yet commented on the ride or the traffic stop.

SOURCE: Casanet

Photos of bikers taken by cops allowed court says

Orange County, Florida (April 5, 2018) BTN — Fighting a bill that would have allowed Floridians to openly carry guns, two Orange County sheriff’s officers in 2011 moved forward with a plan to give lawmakers a glimpse of some people who might be able to pack heat publicly.

The officers pulled together booking or driver’s license photos of “one percenters” — members of motorcycle clubs — who might be able to openly carry guns and provided the photos to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

In the end, lawmakers did not approve a broad open-carry proposal for people with concealed-weapons licenses. But the use of the photos led to a lawsuit that resulted this week in a federal appeals court rejecting arguments by three members of the Outlaws Motorcycle Club that the officers had violated a privacy law in using the photos.

The ruling by a three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with Michael Fewless, who in 2011 was captain of the governmental affairs section of the Orange County Sheriff’s Office and lobbied the Legislature, and John McMahon, an intelligence agent who selected and emailed the photos to Fewless.

The civil case focused heavily on whether the officers violated a federal law known as the Driver’s Privacy Protection Act and whether an exception for government agencies included being able to use the information for lobbying purposes. The appeals court Monday upheld a lower-court ruling that said the exception covered lobbying and concluded that Fewless had been representing the sheriff’s office when he provided the photos to senators and staff members and when he referred to them during a committee meeting.

“(The) record reflects that Fewless used the photos while acting on behalf of the OCSO (Orange County Sheriff’s Office) in the course of carrying out the OCSO’s lobbying function,” said the 10-page ruling, written by Judge Harvey Schlesinger and joined by judges Charles Wilson and Susan Black. “The photos were delivered to the committee and were seen only by legislators and staff members. Fewless merely referred to the photos in the course of his testimony before the committee. Thus, the distribution of the photos related directly to Fewless’ lobbying efforts.”

A brief filed last year on behalf of three bikers who were plaintiffs in the case, Leslie Baas, Tracy Osteen and Doyle Napier, said the way the photos were used was not legitimate.

“To start with, it is undisputed the disclosure of the plaintiffs’ driver’s license photographs had nothing to do with any criminal behavior on the part of the plaintiffs which might be a legitimate subject of legislative or public interest, let alone law enforcement inquiry,” the brief said. “Indeed, the disclosure had nothing whatsoever to do with the plaintiffs at all but rather had the admitted purpose of propagating a ‘counter-stereotype’ to rebut a stereotype utilized in lobbying efforts by a pro-gun lobbyist with no affiliation to the plaintiffs that an open carry bill would benefit ‘bankers and executives’ who might be charged with a crime if the concealed weapons they were carrying were accidentally exposed. 

To put it succinctly, the defendants (Fewless and McMahon), with the intention of creating ‘poster children’ for denial of a bill the defendants disliked, took it upon themselves to expose the ‘highly protected’ information of private persons who were believed to be law abiding … based upon a non-criminal private association (i.e. motorcycle club membership) and, most outrageously, the stupefyingly superficial criterion of an ‘intimidating’ appearance in the opinion of the officers.”

But in addition to ruling that the exception to the federal privacy law covered lobbying, the appeals court said the officers were entitled to what is known as “qualified immunity.”

“There is no case law clearly establishing that Fewless’ use of the photos was impermissible,” wrote Schlesinger, a federal district judge who was designated to serve on the appellate panel. “Moreover, appellants (the plaintiffs) were required to show that no reasonable officer in the officers’ position could have believed that he was accessing or distributing the photos for a permissible use under the DPPA (the federal law). Appellants failed to make that showing. Appellees (the officers) are therefore entitled to qualified immunity.”

SOURCE: Florida Politics

Source: Biker Trash Network

Police watching MC's in Daytona for Bike Week

Daytona Beach, Florida (March 14, 2018) BTN  — More motorcycle clubs are in town for Bike Week but the Volusia County sheriff said police will come down on them “like white on rice” if they break the law. Sheriff Mike Chitwood said he has seen an increase in motorcycle clubs coming to Bike Week in Daytona Beach.

To prevent violence, the Sheriff’s Office has taken a proactive approach and shifted the focus of its motorcycle theft task force that operated during the event for years. The team now monitors local, national and international motorcycle clubs.

“I would say that it seemed when I first got here in 2006, it was high, and then we hit a period where there was a lull, there was a period where we knocked their club house out of Daytona Beach,” Chitwood said.

In August 2007, Daytona Beach police and FBI raided and busted up the Outlaws motorcycle club’s clubhouse on Beach Street. The Outlaws MC tried making a comeback but Daytona Beach police and code enforcement has made it difficult for them to set up house in other locations in the city.

“Daytona is a national run for most motorcycle clubs during Bike Week,” Capri said. “Meaning that most motorcycle clubs require their members to be here.”

Daytona Beach police detectives have met with several of the motorcycle clubs and laid down the rules of the city to them, Capri said.

“Our number one goal is public safety,” Capri said. “We’ve met with them and told them they can have their fun but we’ve let them know that if they cause problems, we’ll be on them. They’ve been receptive to our rules.”

SOURCE: The Daytona Beach Journal

Source: Biker Trash Network

Police on standby as the Hells Angels roll into town

Geelong, Melbourne, Australia (March 14, 2018) BTN — There will be a highly visible police presence across Geelong and the Surf Coast this weekend as police officers monitor a large Hells Angels MC ride. Members of the biker outfit and their families have made reservations at a hotel in Lorne.

The Grand Pacific accepted the bookings after other hotels in the town agreed to police requests not to allow the Hells Angels members to stay at their premises. It is not known at this time if the group will be in Lorne for an organised meeting or a simple social gathering.

However Inspector Gary Bruce says community safety is the force's top priority and officers will be working hard to detect and deter any public order incidents and anti-social behaviour.

SOURCE: Bay 93.9
Source: Biker Trash Network

New Mexico's mysterious Gang Task Force invites Ex-Sheriff to speak

Las Cruces, NM (March 12, 2018)BTN — The New Mexico Gang Task Force’s recent speaking invitation to Wisconsin’s controversial former sheriff, David Clarke, raised two major questions.

First, why would the task force invite a partisan — and, some claim, divisive — figure to speak to state law enforcement officers at their annual conference in April?

Second, exactly what is the New Mexico Gang Task Force? Answering the first question may be easier than the second.

The organization responded to reporters’ questions about Clarke, the former sheriff of Milwaukee County, with a written statement that also was posted on its website. The task force’s bottom line: Clarke’s 15 years in law enforcement, a career critics say has been pock-marked by outlandish statements and right-wing politics — though, he was elected as a Democrat — would be valuable to share with those in the profession.

However, neither of the only two officials listed on the group’s website — Dana “Duke” Kouri, the task force’s program manager, and “gang specialist” 

Antoinette Apodaca — responded to repeated phone calls and emails asking about the structure, financing and history of the gang task force.

New Mexico State Public Safety Secretary Scott Weaver said last week that for years his department was the pass-through agency that received funds from the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program and distributed them to the task force. But, Weaver said, beginning in fiscal year 2016, those funds dried up. It’s not clear how the task force has been funded since then.

Besides his involvement in the task force, Kouri is listed as executive director of the New Mexico Police Athletic League, a position he’s held since the 1990s. According to his LinkedIn page, he’s also worked at former Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White’s private investigation company and is a certified police instructor at the state Department of Public Safety.

Although the invitation to Clarke was blasted by at least two major police agencies in the state, even those agencies that were critical had mostly good things to say about the task force’s training programs and its role in facilitating the sharing of intelligence about gangs among various law enforcement agencies.

A long-term problem

The subject of gangs is a big one in New Mexico. Between the late 1980s and late ’90s, reports of gang violence were commonplace in New Mexico media. In Santa Fe, that culminated in the 1997 gang shooting on the Plaza during La Fiesta de Santa Fe that resulted in the death of Carlos Santiago Romero, 19. Two others were injured by gunfire that night.

Though gang-violence eruptions have declined in the years since, those in law enforcement say it never went away. The New Mexico Gang Task Force’s website says, in fact, that it’s gotten worse.

“The gang problem in New Mexico has escalated in the last two decades from relatively traditional neighborhood gangs, found primarily in the state’s urban areas, to criminal gangs statewide,” the site says. “New Mexico’s gangs have evolved and continue to be more mobile, more violent, and more involved in high-level criminal activities.”

The FBI-established National Gang Intelligence Center, in its most recent report in 2015, said “gangs of all types remain steadfast in their objectives to generate revenue and gain control of the territories they inhabit; and in their dedication to these objectives, gangs continue to grow in numbers and expand in their criminal activities.”

That report doesn’t break down statistics by state. It does mention one New Mexico incident, a fight between members of the Banditos and Wheels of Soul motorcycle clubs in March 2015 at an Applebee’s restaurant in Albuquerque. One Wheels of Soul member sustained a nonfatal gunshot wound. He refused to cooperate with authorities during the investigation.

According to the New Mexico Gang Task Force website, the main goal of the group is to provide federal, state, local and tribal law enforcement agencies with training, information and funding to enhance interdiction and enforcement efforts with the goal of reducing criminal gang activity, including narcotics trafficking, throughout the state of New Mexico.

Other goals include training on gang activities and interdiction techniques, compiling data on gang trends and becoming “the centralized clearinghouse for New Mexico in the area of juvenile and gang violence,” according to the website.

Benefits of membership

Gilbert Gallegos, a spokesman for the Albuquerque Police Department, said his agency has been a member of the task force since its inception in the late ’90s.

There are no annual dues for an agency to join, Gallegos said, except for training. The task force’s website says there is an $80 charge for each officer participating in this year’s conference in April. Closer to the event, the price goes up to $100.

The Albuquerque Police Department “shares gang intelligence with other New Mexico agencies and other out-of-state agencies on our network,” Gallegos said. Federal grant funding has been used to cover the costs of joint overtime operations targeting gang activity, he said.

“The biggest benefit is a shared interactive computer database on known gang members and their associates documented in the system,” Gallegos said. “This program has been instrumental in criminal investigations in identifying unknown suspects based on such characteristics as gang membership, tattoos, gang clothing and colors.”

Santa Fe police spokesman Greg Gurule said the department has benefited from information shared by the task force. He said a series of armed robberies and other crimes last year were carried out by a group of youth, some of whom were linked to Albuquerque gangs.

Ex-Sheriff  David Clark flashes V for victory during a recent event

“The investigation resulted in seven arrest warrants being issued and confirmation that Albuquerque gangs such as the Only the Family [OTF] and the Get Hard Crew were operating in Santa Fe,” Gurule said. “If it weren’t for the sharing of information between agencies and collaboration through the New Mexico Gang Task Force, these gang members would have gone undetected within the city of Santa Fe.”

Gallegos described the training offered by the task force as “state of the art.”

Juan Ríos, a spokesman for the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office, agreed.

“This is training dealing with large criminal organizations,” Ríos said. “We’re not talking about the West Side Locos,” he said, referring to a Santa Fe gang that was active here in the 1990's.

Confiscated during a recent raid by the New Mexico Gang Task force

Among the classes offered at the April conference are those dealing with Mexican drug cartels, outlaw motorcycle gangs, white supremacists and “sovereign citizen” groups, Native American gangs, social media use by gangs, opioid death investigations, post traumatic stress disorder and psychological safety for officers, the task force website says.

Attendance is limited to those who work directly for public safety agencies and city, county, state or federal departments. Identification is required. And, the website says, the task force “reserves the right to refuse ineligible attendees.”

The Clarke flap - David Clarke is a controversial figure these days.

The former Wisconsin sheriff, who ran as a Democrat, stepped down from the job last year to become a spokesman for a pro-Donald Trump political action committee. He has made a second career out of saying things that delight the hard right and anger liberals. An African-American, he has compared Black Lives Matter to ISIS. He’s also advocated for suspending habeas corpus for Americans suspected of terrorist sympathies. And just recently, he suggested that Florida high school students who are pushing for gun control legislation are being controlled by liberal billionaire George Soros.

His invitation to speak in New Mexico outraged some in law enforcement.

“I don’t know why the gang task force invited this guy. I disagree with that,” said Santa Fe County Sheriff Robert Garcia.

Garcia added that if the deputy he’s sending to the conference wants to “go hear this radical speaker, he’ll have to go on his own time and spend his own money. I’m not spending any taxpayer money on this.”

Gallegos, the Albuquerque police spokesman, said in a statement: “It’s disappointing that any New Mexico organization would invite someone with such a radical disregard for civil rights and human dignity to be a keynote speaker. This invitation sends the wrong message at the wrong time, as we bring back community policing and make progress toward restoring public trust in law enforcement.”

Nevertheless, Clarke is scheduled to speak twice at the conference at Isleta Pueblo — once as the keynote speaker for attendees and once at a $150-a-plate “VIP dinner,” which is open to the public.

Responding to criticism about the invitation last month, the task force released this statement:

“Each year we look for speakers who can provide a unique experience that officers can utilize in the training…Ex-Sheriff Clarke served the people of Milwaukee County for 15 years and politics aside, his experiences are invaluable to law enforcement everywhere. … The decision to invite former Sheriff Clarke was made by the [task force] training committee, a committee of 10 volunteers. We stand by our decision to have him as our keynote speaker.”

STORY: Steve Ferrell

SOURCE: The Santa Fe New Mexican

Biker war veteran shoved by cops during charity motorcycle run files complaint

Woodenbong, New South Wales, AU  (March 11, 2018) BTN — A war veteran says he has filed formal complaints about the behaviour of police who conducted a mass stop of motorcycle riders on a charity run in northern New South Wales.

Biker Michael Parr being hassled by the police 

About 150 riders were pulled over in Woodenbong at the weekend as part of a cross-border operation targeting outlaw criminal motorcycle clubs. Police allege officers seized a prohibited weapon, and issued 21 defect notices and 50 traffic infringements.

One man was also charged with using offensive language.

One of the riders, 58-year-old Michael Parr, said there was a single member of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club on the ride, with the rest coming from social clubs.

“We had probably 20 to 30 social clubs on that ride, 97 registered bikes on the ride, all social club members,” he said. “Ages from about 18 through to 60, various physical conditions, males and females.”

Mr Parr has alleged he was shoved by one of the officers involved, and said as a returned serviceman and member of the Veterans Motorcycle Club he expected better treatment. Biker Trash Network

“I leaned forward to him to say you are not going to disrespect me,” he said. “I’ve gone overseas to fight for this country. I’ve got my ribbon bars on my vest and you are showing me no respect. “Then he turns around and shoves me, so how do you think I feel?”

Operation a crime prevention strategy, police say

But police have dubbed the joint-agency operation a success, saying it enforced consorting legislation, firearm and traffic laws.

Officers from the New South Wales Police Force, Queensland Police Service and Australian Federal Police carried out 70 random breath tests, 30 drug tests and 69 bike and person searches as part of Operation Chappell.

Tweed-Byron crime manager, Detective Chief Inspector Brendon Cullen, said the operation aimed to disrupt any potential criminal activity on the cross-border run.

“I would say that we intercepted the people before offences were committed, and that was the whole strategy of the operation,” he said. “To stop them as soon as they come across the border so they do not commit offences in this state. “So from that perspective I would say that’s very successful.”

Detective Chief Inspector Cullen said the operation targeted people who chose to associate with members of outlaw motorcycle gangs.

“This operation wants to send a clear message for those who associate with these people who claim to be that 1 per cent of the population that doesn’t abide by the law,” he said. “We will intercept them if they come across the border into New South Wales. We’ll use the legislation that is available to us to make them unwelcome in our state.”

Lawyer questions safety of mass stop

A Queensland lawyer said he was disgusted by the attitude of police during the operation.

Chris Main, from Alibi Criminal Defence, said he had been phoned by one of the riders involved, then called police at the scene to raise his own concerns.

Mr Main said he questioned the safety of pulling a large group of people over on the side of the road, including a diabetic rider who needed water and to relieve himself.

“I was quite disgusted to hear that the police view, after listening to what I had to say about safety and the comfort of the riders, their view [was]‘I don’t care, we’re going to do what we like’,” he said.

Mr Main said as a civil libertarian, he was drawn to the case.

“Motorcycle enthusiasts are a group of people who like motorcycles. That is not criminal,” he said. “If government or police or whatever group suspects someone of criminality, well then they can build a case, and they can charge them for that criminal act" he said.

“I don’t think it’s suitable or appropriate for Parliament to make laws which allow police to criminalise people, anyone, just on the company that they choose or the hobbies they decide to undertake.”

SOURCE: BrinkWire