If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear. … All tyrannies rule through fraud and force, but once the fraud is exposed they must rely exclusively on force. – George Orwell, author of 1984
Six Shooter Junction – May 2015 didn’t escape the notice of the Waco City Council as “Motorcycle Safety and Awareness Month.”
Steven Cochran acted on behalf of the Confederation of Clubs and Independents by giving the grin and grab photo op in the Council Chamber a stone solid miss, just two days after the blood spilled on the pavement at Twin Peaks Restaurant.
Sandra Lynch, who had a part in the arrangement of Waco hosting a conference of clubs from the Metromess, Austin and San Antonio, couldn’t make it.
She and her husband were locked up in the Jack Harwell Detention Center, that bastion of neoconservative corporate can do dedicated to the notion that government should perform its ministerial duties the way the corporate world draws the bottom line over black and white figures – globally.
A project of the city and county economic development corporation built with Class AAA-rated municipal revenue bonds, it’s a steady money pit the private operation of which has resulted in a number of tax increases.
But, then, that’s what the to-do was all about. Number one on the legislative list that infamous day of May 17, 2015, was the small matter of a $17 million motorcycle safety fund extracted five bucks at a time from the pockets of Texas drivers with motorcycle endorsements when they renew their licenses.
It’s a designated fund, something the state’s executive leadership is obliged to spend on rider safety training. The upper echelon of state government doesn’t see it that way. They hadn’t drawn on the fund; they preferred to use it as a counterbalancing flywheel to trim out the debits and credits of the books. It had accumulated mucho dinero over the life of its existence.
Where did it come from? The lobbying arm of the COC&I had gotten the legislation passed, only to see its “repurposing” – love that corporation newspeak – as something else.
And then there was the motorcycle profiling bill that never got a sponsor after the blood spilled in what appears to have been a police-inspired shootout when certain patch holders attacked others with rags of differing colors.
After CNN and other networks splashed the bloodshed across the small screeens of televisions and computers worldwide, it was impossible to find a legislator anywhere near Ostentatious who would even listen, according to the Legislative Strike Force of U.S. Defenders.
Suddenly, their attention lay elsewhere, other issues, other proposed bills that would help them forge on through to retirement.
No one ever got the chance to hear about any of it.
When Jake Carrizal, former president of the Dallas Bandidos Chapter led a delegation of bandits including his father into the parking lot – well – all hell broke loose.
That’s when the police took over; Sgt. W. Patrick Swanton told the world long and loud that “These people didn’t come here to drink beer and eat barbecue.”
True story. They didn’t. The Bandits’ leadership attend all meetings of the Confederation of Clubs and Independents – nationwide.
They used to help collect the dues from member clubs to turn over to the confederation, something that has become a predicate in the Racketeer Influence Corrupt Organization criminal litigation leveled at the Bandidos U.S.A. in U.S. District Court at San Antonio.
They don’t do that anymore.
Then, two days later, the Waco City Council bestowed the proclamation of “motorcycle safety” on the organizers at the behest of City Secretary Esmerelda Hudson.
Outside of the biker press and the local scribes, few paid any attention, but a television reporter from Shreveport/Bossier City mentioned the factoid in a brief summary by saying that “…the same group that organized the motorcyclists’ meeting that turned violent received a Waco City Council proclamation…”
The motorcyclists’ meeting that turned violent? Say what?
For two years, Sandra Lynch and her husband Mike kept silent on the advice of their lawyer. They are charged but not indicted, which means a Grand Jury could act at any time because the charge carries the stipulation that as a result of their allegedly engaging in organized criminal activity, cases of capital murder occurred.
There is no statute of limitation of that crime – capital murder.
They didn’t do anything violent, and they filed federal lawsuits to redress what they allege was a violation of their civil rights.
All that is on hold pending the outcome of the 154 cases yet to be tried over the Twin Peaks debacle and the two RICO federal cases against national leaders of the Bandidos Motorcycle Club U.S.A., former President Jeffrey Pike and Vice President John Portillo.
After those two long years, they told the press that they frantically begged their friends in law enforcement to come see about the menacing presence of heavily armed men wearing the patches of a club that refused to join the Confederation of Clubs, the Cossacks.
Their pleas fell on deaf ears. Imagine their horror when they watched the world explode in a few seconds of fierce gunfire that left 9 men dead and 20 wounded and resulted in the arrest of 177 persons whose bail was set at $1 million.
They live under the conditions of bond, which strictures are severe and offer only a tenuous hold on freedom, one that is very expensive, obtained a day at a time, their lives regulated by prosecutors and court coordinators, bondsmen and lawyers.
I searched, very hard, but somehow I couldn’t find a picture of the city dads bestowing the framed proclamation upon the no shows from the Confederation of Clubs. I did find a picture of a heavily armed and armored SWAT team member standing vigilant with his “assault rifle” at the ready, a gloved finger handy to the trigger.
It may be of note that Swanton, the city’s public information officer was similarly armed. He mentioned to me at the time that the security condition of the crime scene was still “an active shooter situation.” He said, “We still have people out here with rifles, Jim. We can’t be too sure who they are or where they are located. You might catch a round in the back.”
Yeah, true story. He’s right. That’s why they call it Six Shooter Junction. Place has a rep for that kind of thing. There are even historical markers on the public square commemorating just how someone shot another guy in the back with a Colt “Peacemaker.”
Just saying, Officer McGruff.
I am sincere.
So mote it be.
- The Legendary