Pack Predators

When you consider the fact that they are grown men, you have to wonder. I guess that goes for more than Just Hell's Angels, but that is what brought it to mind. As soon as I wrote that, though, my mind strayed to the gang of longshoremen that vandalized a place of business in Washington state because they think it is their God given right to tell people who to hire. The ones hired were union, too. That's off subject, but the same lowlife character and victim mentality.

The victim syndrome runs rampant just about everywhere. First you define the group, then convince them they are being abused in some way by whatever enemy you define, and all of a sudden normal inhibitions and morals go out the window because they convince themselves the enemy deserves whatever mischief can be brought upon them.

Many aberrant groups set them selves up to be victims by purposely intimidating people who don't run in gangs like a pack of dogs. Then if people give them a second look or vacate the vicinity they've soiled, the dogs bark in complaint and defiance. They pretend they've somehow been wronged so now you have no rights in their tiny little minds and that makes you fair game for their sadistic thrills.

I've seen plenty of bikers and motorcycle enthusiasts here in California. If they wear colors, it usually says something like, "Lawyers and Accountants with Hogs". I made that up but that gives the sense of the thing. Just people enjoying bikes. Not sadistic idiots who run in packs to bother everyone else and bolster their warped egos while compensating for some deficiency or other.

Today I saw a lone motorcyclist at the View Point wearing Hell's Angels, California colors. Colors means the obligatory leather vest or jacket with the gang's name and logo. There's plenty of ritual and rules that go with bike gangs and colors, but that's all I know. I don't respect them enough to remember any of the details.

It crossed my mind that it is a good thing that I do not carry a firearm. As I looked at the guy and considered what his proudly worn signage represented, I thought it would be good enough for the world if someone just shot him unceremoniously. I still think that.

I remember many years ago when Hell's Scumbags went down to Florida, in big numbers of course. (just an aside but this guy is the only lone Hell's jerk I've ever seen. I've never seen them ride solo. Two or more at least.)

Anyway, I saw them enter Rickenbacker Causeway which is the highway on and off Key Biscayne. It is a toll road and you had to pay a quarter at that time. They made as much noise as possible and rode through and on the curb throwing change at the girl in the toll booth. Just throwing it and laughing. For one thing, metal can hurt, and for another they knew they were making life tough for her and scaring her. I'll bet there was close to a hundred of them. A**holes!

During that same general time period they had gone to south Dade county, near Homestead, FL, I guess, where there was a lot of farming. This is before Miami spilled so far south and west. There was a migrant worker camp in a remote area, as the farmland was rural. They rode through raping, beating, destroying the shacks for no apparent reason. Just a pack of aberrant humans preying on those they saw as weaker than themselves.

Right about that time they grabbed a young woman, maybe only a teenager, from somewhere in South Florida. I guess they did the usual rape and humiliate, and left her nailed to a palm tree near W.Palm Beach. Literally nailed. They actually hammered nails. Glamorous, aren't they?

When I was in college in NC, friends of mine went to a huge annual event called the Fiddler's convention. It attracted all kinds of families and people. Big deal where tons of people camp and enjoy music, come for the day or the weekend, whatever. I didn't make it.

Hell's Angels did though. They came in tractor trailers and unloaded their dumbass bikes when they got there. Of course they did so with much pomp and circumstance and noise, according to reliable sources. They also roped off the area they claimed as their own after making a few people move their campsites. One unfortunate college age kid leaned on their holy rope. Several of the Hell's Vermin beat him to a bloody pulp.

I had brushes with Hell's Angels wannabes and did not get beat to a pulp. But it was the first time I ever seriously thought about killing. That bunch had attacked innocent people in Tallahasse before I arrived at a party back in my FSU days. Long story, but the short of it is, I hate biker gangs.

My NC college pal, George, claimed he knew how to make an approximation of napalm. We were hoping the Hell's Douchebags were going to make the Fiddler's convention again. I was going to rent a little Cessna and we were going to fry them. I was pretty skilled at low level flying, slow flight, etc. at that time. I flew Piper Cherokees and such as well, but nothing fit like a Cessna 150. I liked it even better than the four place 172 and such. It was just a thing I could drive very well at one time.

Anyway, we didn't ever do it, but I guess I might have if money and things had been no object. Even now, if someone were to firebomb a group of Hell's Angels or Outlaws or other gang that feeds on decent people, I'd applaud them. Gangs of any color or type whose only goal is violence and degradation of life should be wiped out. Wipe out one such cesspool without consequence or remorse or the media lamenting about what made them vile creatures to begin with and how society is to blame, and I imagine fewer people would be inclined to sign up.

Much of what fuels gangs is that psychoanalysis bit that paints them as victims. They have their gang family who protects them against the evil world. They pretend to be about freedom, but they only enjoy the freedom of violating the rights of others.

Lots of punks buy into that. One obvious example is the practice of playing what I'll loosely call music so loud that you can't escape it in your own home or car. That is a form of assault. Freedom to listen to whatever music you like does not give you the right to force your neighbors to listen.

I like motorcycles just fine. Hell, I like leather jackets and clever logos (although I prefer not to have logos on my clothing). But I do not like groups of people who have to run in a pack and who do nothing but bring misery to others. Grown men, often even over the age of forty go running around playing badass looking to intimidate people like grade school bullies. Now why would anyone care if someone blew them away if they found these creeps on the lawn, or just in their sights?

Maybe I am saying we are victims of gangs of various types. My thinking is that we are not victims if we don't allow it. And I don't think I'm suspending values.