Hells Angels colors not cool with Salvation Army

Valparaiso, IN  (November 25, 2018) BTN —  Controversial “Aryan” patches worn by bell-ringing volunteers in Valparaiso do not match Salvation Army values, officials from the charity said Sunday.

Two days after images of bell ringers sporting controversial patches on leather jackets outside the Valparaiso Walmart went viral on social media, the Salvation Army released a statement on the matter.

Hells Angels members volunteering outside a Valparaiso, Indiana Walmart

Lt. Christopher Nicolai, of The Salvation Army of Porter County, said in a written statement Sunday that the bell ringers in question, members of a local Hells Angels motorcycle club, violated the charitable organization's dress code and would not be allowed to do bell ringing in the future.

"Our commitment to nondiscrimination includes a dress code for bell ringers, requiring that they wear red Salvation Army aprons, and making it clear that no "symbol, marking or lettering that is viewed as discrimination" may be worn, Nicolai said in the statement. "Clearly, the bell ringers in question did not comply with this dress code. They will not be allowed to volunteer in the future. We are embarrassed that we were unable to prevent this incident, and apologize to all who were offended, as were we."

Images shared on Facebook and with The Times show men with leather jackets, one with a patch reading "Aryan" and another with a Confederate flag patch ringing the bell Friday for the Salvation Army.

The bell ringers in question were confirmed to be members of the Hells Angels Northwest Indiana Region Motorcycle Club.

They confirmed through a Facebook post Sunday that the Salvation Army had canceled another bell-ringing event the club had scheduled.

"Due to all the negative comments about our holiday charity work. The Salvation Army was forced to cancel our upcoming bell ringing date in December. We hope all that responded negatively, will donate their time ringing the bell for the Salvation Army," the post stated.

On Friday, the motorcycle club responded to the criticism and attempted to explain the controversial patches.

"Our worldwide multinational, multiracial motorcycle club excepts motorcyclists from all walks of life," a representative for the motorcycle club said.

The representative said some members may wear "heritage-based" patches, such as Latinos wearing "LATINO," Japanese wearing "BUSHIDO" and whites wearing "ARYAN." He also said most members do not sport these types of patches.

"That's not what our clubs is about," the representative said. "However like all Americans, we love exercising our freedom. Sometimes freedom means you see and hear things you may not like. We accept that. The focus of today has nothing to do with freedom though. It has to do with charity and sacrificing for you community.

"I'd suggest to those making negative comments that maybe a little less time should be spent exercising your freedom of speech and a little more be spent to making a positive difference in our society."

The Hells Angels Northwest Indiana Region advertised their plans to bell ring on their Facebook page Friday morning. The post, including a graphic depicting the well-known red Salvation Army bucket and logos, shared that Hells Angels members would be collecting donations from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday at the Valparaiso Walmart.

On Saturday, the Hells Angels posted again — this time including their own photos of members dressed in vests with patches and Santa hats next to the Salvation Army's "Doing the Most Good" sign and buckets. One appeared to be sporting the "Aryan" patch that attracted attention in the original Facebook post that went viral.

"Thank you Valparaiso for showing your support for our less fortunate neighbors," the Hells Angels NWI Region Facebook post read. "You helped us fill 6 buckets fulla cash! Big thanks to the Salvation Army for the opportunity to help our community."

The original Facebook post was shared more than 10,000 times before being taken down.

The woman who made the original post on Facebook said the photos were taken by her mother.

The poster, whose name is being withheld, said her mother notified a Walmart manager about the men and their vests. The manager asked the men to remove the vests, and they refused.

The poster said she received several threats regarding her post.

“People thought I was going after the Hells Angels," the poster told The Times. "No, the Hells Angels does a lot of good and commendable things. … I have friends that are bikers, and I love them dearly. It’s not that I have anything against bikers.”

SOURCE: Northwest Times

Bandidos MC Members stopped by roadblocks

Melbourne, AU  (November 23, 2018) BTN —  Bandidos motorcycle club members from across the country have converged on Melbourne for the club's national run. A club insider said up to 500 bikes will roar through the city as part of the annual run, which left Bendigo on Friday morning for an all weekend party in Melbourne's south-east.

 Bandidos MC members set off to Melbourne

One associate described the run as the club's very own Christmas party. "This is what we do. It's the brotherhood," he said. The run, which involves the club's major figureheads including president Jason Addison, is being closely monitored by police.

"[We] will take swift action to detect and disrupt any outlaw motorcycle gang (OMCGs) members who commit crimes, road safety or public order offences," a Victoria police spokeswoman said.

Bandidos MC members leaving a service station on the Calder Freeway on Friday

"We are always gathering intelligence with regards to the activities of persons engaged in criminal activity, including those persons who may also be associated with OMCGs. "Our monitoring of OMCGs permits us to respond in an appropriate fashion if and when any risk of violence is anticipated.

Police in Highett checking hundreds of Bandidos bikies who have arrived in Melbourne for their AGM this weekend. pic.twitter.com/9H3UYD2jVC

— Paul Dowsley (@pauldowsley7) November 23, 2018

The club, which was formed in the US, established itself in Australia in 1983 after a group split from another club, the Comancheros. That split lead to the notorious Milperra massacre, where the two clubs clashed in a shootout that left seven people dead, including a 14-year-old girl, the Bandidos' vice-president, the Comancheros' vice-president and serjeant-at-arms.

While a Bandidos associate said the wider community has a misconception that the club is made up of criminals, authorities say they are a well-organised gang that causes harm across the country.

SOURCE: The Age

Throwbacks Continued: Chopper Motorcycle

Open primary chopped Harley-Davidson Motorcycle, Bates headlight and girder front end  

Feds attempt to seize Mongols MC trademarked logo

Los Angeles, CA  (November 21, 2018) BTN —  For many years, federal law enforcement authorities have been trying to take down the Mongols, a motorcycle club they consider one of the most dangerous criminal enterprises in the country.

They have infiltrated it with undercover agents. They have hammered members with charges ranging from drug dealing to money laundering to murder. They have conducted mass arrests that resulted in dozens of guilty pleas, including one by a past president.

 Related | Mongols MC: Feds going after clubs colors at racketeering trial  

But after a decade of trying, they have failed to deliver what they view as the coup de grâce: seizing control of the Mongols’ trademarked logo, a drawing of a brawny Genghis Khan-like figure sporting a queue and sunglasses, riding a chopper while brandishing a sword.

Federal prosecutors want to seize the rights to the logo of the Mongols Motorcycle Club

Now, in a racketeering trial underway in Orange County, Calif., federal prosecutors believe they have their best chance yet to take the Mongols’ intellectual property, using a novel approach to asset forfeiture law, which allows the seizure of goods used in the commission of crimes.

Prosecutors argue that taking the logo will deprive the group of its “unifying symbol” — the banner under which prosecutors say the group marauds.

If federal prosecutors have their way, one of them boasted at an earlier point in the court battle, the police could stop any Mongol and “literally take the jacket right off his back.”

But legal experts question the prosecutors’ grasp of intellectual property law. “Trademark rights are not tangible personal property like a jacket. They are intangible rights,” said Evan Gourvitz, an intellectual property lawyer with the law firm Ropes & Gray in New York. “But prosecutors are treating a trademark like a jacket.”

The Mongols are equally mystified. The logo — also called a patch — is emblazoned on the vests, T-shirts and motorcycles of hundreds of members. “Lots of brothers have tattoos of the marks on their necks and heads and everywhere,” David Santillan, the national president of the club, said. “How do you regulate that?”

For bikers, the patch is key to belonging and the optics of appearing tough, and members can spend months or even years proving themselves before they earn the right to wear it.

“The patch is like the American flag to these guys and speaks to the identity of the club, the individual and the culture,” said William Dulaney, a retired associate professor who is an expert on motorcycle groups. “Some clubs have the rule that if the colors even touch the ground, they have to be destroyed.”

Mongols MC trial in California 

The Mongols’ marks, like those of other biker groups, are registered with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Clubs have aggressively protected their patches from unauthorized use.

The Hells Angels have gone after large corporations including Toys “R” Us, the Alexander McQueen fashion line, Amazon, Saks, and Walt Disney, accusing them of infringement on its death’s head logo — a skull in a winged helmet — and other club symbols. They have usually been successful, reaching settlements that require defendants to cease using the trademarks and to recall and destroy merchandise, among other concessions.

The Mongols have had their share of run-ins with the law. The group was founded in Montebello, Calif., in 1969 and has about 1,000 members in the United States, most of whom are Hispanic. About half of the club’s membership is in California, though Mr. Santillan said 11 new chapters were recently established in Texas.

In 2012 Christopher Ablett, a suspected member of the Modesto, Calif., chapter, was sentenced to life in prison for the 2008 murder of the president of the San Francisco chapter of the Hells Angels, Mark Guardado. In 2014 David Martinez, a Mongols member in San Gabriel, Calif., was charged with murder in the shooting death of a Pomona police officer.

Five months ago, 21 members and associates of the Mongols chapter in Clarksville, Tenn., were charged with a host of crimes including racketeering conspiracy, murder, kidnapping and robbery. The Mongols say that they are not a criminal operation and that such crimes were largely the work of rogue members who are no longer in the organization. They further contend that some violent acts were committed in self-defense or in defense of others. Mongols, they say, are simply part of a brotherhood who are exercising their constitutional rights by wearing the patch.

“This is a case of guilt by association, an attempt to put the liability on all members,” said Joseph A. Yanny, the Mongols’ lead lawyer. “This is one of the most absurd cases I have seen the government pursue.”

But prosecutors argue that the patch is the flag under which Mongols carry out unlawful acts and intimidate the public.

“The government will show that the marks served as unifying symbols of an enterprise dedicated to intimidating and terrorizing everyone who is not a member,” they wrote in a court filing, “and assaulting and killing those who have sworn their loyalty to other outlaw motorcycle gangs.” A spokesman for the United States attorney’s office for the Central District of California said he could not comment on the case.

The quest to gain control of the Mongols’ colors began in 2008, when the tactic was suggested by members of the prosecution team at the United States attorney’s office, said Thomas P. O’Brien, who led the office at the time. “We were looking for a way to have real impact and we knew this was going to be a test case,” he said.

David Santillan, Mongols’ National President  CreditJenna Schoenefeld for The New York Times

The pursuit of the patch was part of a criminal indictment against 79 Mongols that ultimately resulted in 77 guilty pleas. Over the years, the trademark part of the case has been punctuated by conflicting interpretations of intellectual property law, judges overruling their own orders and confusion over who even owns the rights to the logo.

“Justice is often a long and bumpy road and this case has been particularly long and bumpy,” Mr. O’Brien acknowledged. During an early stretch of the case, Judge Florence-Marie Cooper of Federal District Court in Los Angeles granted a sweeping order that authorized the seizure of  “products, clothing, vehicles, motorcycles, books, posters, merchandise, stationery, or other materials bearing the Mongols trademark” from members, their relatives and any associates.

In response, some members defiantly flaunted the marks while others wore alternative Mongols logos. After further litigation, Judge Cooper would then rule that the Mongols’ marks were not subject to confiscation. In 2009, Ramon Rivera, a Mongols member who had not been charged with a crime, filed a lawsuit with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Mr. Rivera argued that his First Amendment and due process rights had been violated by the order, and asked that law enforcement authorities be blocked from confiscating his property. He ultimately prevailed and was awarded $252,466 in lawyers’ fees. In 2010, another federal judge, Otis Wright, preliminarily forfeited the logo to the government after the lead defendant and former club president, Ruben Cavazos, reached a plea deal with prosecutors.

But the Mongols argued that the club, not Mr. Cavazos, owned the rights to the images. Judge Wright sided with the Mongols, “regrettably” concluding that the marks were not forfeitable since they belonged to the organization.

In a somewhat similar case in Michigan, prosecutors withdrew their bid for the Devils Diciples trademark after six members were convicted at trial for firearms offenses, drug trafficking, illegal gambling and other crimes. The individual who owned the trademark, prosecutors had discovered, was not among the defendants.

In a 2016 letter to one of the prosecutors, Fritz Clapp, a lawyer for the Diciples, said that if the government gained ownership of the trademark, it would face a quandary because owners must periodically demonstrate that the mark is still in active use for the purpose registered.

“Unless the government were to use the collective membership mark to operate a motorcycle club, then it could not satisfy the requirement,” Mr. Clapp wrote. “Trademarks, unlike copyrights and patents, have no enduring value apart from their use.”

But in Los Angeles, prosecutors did not give up. In 2013, they came back with a new indictment, this time against Mongol Nation, for many of the same racketeering offenses as were in the 2008 indictments, plus some newer ones. Again, they asked for the forfeiture of the trademarks. The trial is expected to continue for several more weeks.

The Mongols are watching closely, saying they know theirs is a test case. “They take our patch,” Mr. Santillan, the president, said. “And then they take all the clubs’ patches.”

By Serge F. Kovaleski

SOURCE: The New York Times

Pagan MC member files lawsuit against City and Police

Pittsburgh, PA  (November 21, 2018) BTN —  A member of the Pagans motorcycle club who was injured in a bar fight with undercover Pittsburgh police officers last month has sued the city and the officers on excessive force and false imprisonment grounds.

Photo: Frank DeLuca after drunk cops beat him in Kopy's Bar

Frank DeLuca, 38, and his lawyer, James DePasquale, say in their federal complaint that the officers were drunk and aggressive in provoking the brawl at Kopy’s Bar on the South Side on Oct. 12. Mr. DeLuca, of Greenfield, is the man seen being punched repeatedly in the head in a video of the incident.

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In the suit, he says he suffered head and face trauma and a dislocated elbow, among other injuries.

The suit names detectives Brian Burgunder, David Honick and David Lincoln as well as the city of Pittsburgh and claims they violated his civil rights by beating him and then accusing him of assault. Police had charged Mr. DeLuca and three other Pagans after the fight but the Allegheny County district attorney’s office dropped the charges. The U.S. attorney’s office and the FBI are examining the case for potential civil rights violations against the officers.

Mr. DeLuca said in the suit that the three plainclothes officers plus a fourth, Brian Martin, who is not a defendant, came into the bar at 7:30 p.m. and drank “copiously” all night. By 11:30, they were all drunk, the suit says. Mr. DeLuca and five friends came in at 11:41 and went to the rear to play pool. He said the officers became “fixated and agitated” towards him and his companions. He said Detective Honick was especially drunk. Mr. DeLuca said he didn’t know the men were policemen and thought they were what they “appeared” to be: “Four drunks in a saloon who were becoming obnoxious in demeanor for no reason other than their visible intoxication.”

The suit says the officers began to point at the men and told the bartender they shouldn’t be allowed in the bar. The officers told the bartender they were on-duty police officers and that the situation with the Pagans was “dangerous,” but they didn’t tell Mr. DeLuca or his friends they were officers, according to the suit.

Mr. DeLuca said two of his friends left, but the situation escalated when the officers positioned themselves between the men and the exit.

The suit says the officers began to “intimidate” the bikers, with Detective Honick repeatedly showing a gun in his waistband and gripping the handle. At 12:40 a.m., Mr. DeLuca pushed Detective Honick because of the “intimidation” he felt and the fact that the officers were blocking the exit, the suit says. The brawl then erupted, which the suit labels a “police riot.”

Mr. DeLuca said Detective Burgunder held him by his hair and arms while Detectives Honick and Lincoln punched him and a uniformed officer who came to assist sprayed him with pepper spray. After the fight, he said, he and his friends were arrested on assault charges and jailed. Mr. DeLuca is seeking compensatory damages for his injuries, punitive damages against the officers and other costs.

A spokesperson for both the city of Pittsburgh and Pittsburgh police declined a request for comment.

SOURCE: Pittsburgh Post Gazette