The biker gang shoot-out in Waco (May 17th 2015) took place outside a Twin Peaks restaurant in the middle of Texas. At least 9 were killed, 18 injured and 170 arrested. There was blood everywhere. It put the restaurant out of business, throwing 150 or so people out of work.
It started as a fist fight in the bathroom of the restaurant. The fight spread. People used clubs and chains and knives and guns. By one estimate, there were 30 people shooting. At least five gangs took part – six, if you count the police.
Amazingly, no bystanders were hurt or killed, even though it took place at a shopping centre on a Sunday afternoon where people were shopping and celebrating graduations.
This comes when the Baltimore riot on April 27th over the death of Freddie Gray at the hands of police is still fresh in everyone’s mind. The difference in how the police and the press have acted is striking.
For example, if you look at the story the New York Times ran on the day of the two events:
- It uses the word “violence” 12 times for Baltimore and only 2 times for Waco – even though Waco left 9 people dead and Baltimore left 0 people dead!
- It uses the words “thugs” 3 times in the Baltimore story – and 0 times in the Waco one. Why?
- It uses the word “black” 9 times in the Baltimore story, the word “white” 0 times in the Waco story, even though the bikers were mostly White.
- It listed the names of gangs in the Baltimore story, but does not name those that took part in the Waco shoot-out, even though they have blood on their hands.
Because of how the US press racializes crime, you would have little idea that:
- The FBI says that outlaw motorcycle gangs (OMGs) “pose a serious national domestic threat.”
- The Texas Department of Public Safety says that Tier 2 gangs, like those that took part in the Waco shoot-out, were “responsible for a disproportionate amount of crime across urban, suburban and rural areas of Texas.”
- Most gang-related murders are committed by Whites.
These so-called “biker gangs” are drug gangs, but no one seems to call them that. They smuggle drugs from Mexico and move meth and marijuana. They also make money from human trafficking and prostitution.
Despite the fact that these gangs are mostly White, Juan Williams is not talking about the breakdown of the White family. President Obama is not scolding White fathers.
Despite being a “serious national domestic threat”, no one seems to be looking for the causes in White pathologies.
Despite advance warning and threats, the police did not use riot gear or tear gas or tanks or the National Guard.
Despite 150 or so people being thrown out of work, no crocodile tears are being shed over biker gangs “destroying their own community”.
No revered figure of White history is rolling in his grave or crying or being quoted. Not Washington. Not Jefferson. Not Kennedy. Not Reagan.
Because “biker gangs”, unlike Black gangs, are seen as a strange subculture. They are not seen as “what White people are like.”
– Abagond, 2015.
Sources: Huffington Post, Mic, The New York Times articles on Baltimore and Waco.
See also:
- The term “thug”
- Freddie Gray
- If police brutality were a crime
- The White racist guide to
- The Wire – which pushes Black drug gangs as “what Black people are like”
- prejudice – out-group homogeneity and attribution error
581
The post could have been reduced to ” Business as usual in America”. Nothing new or surprising here. In 1970 I believe, a black man was murdered by bikers working security for a rock concert at Altamont raceway. No crime was committed since nobody was even indicted.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qTKsylrpsg)
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“The FBI says that outlaw motorcycle gangs (OMGs) “pose a serious national domestic threat.”—-I already knew biker gangs posed a threat. Though the problem is no one takes them remotely serious enough. The news does not report on this. I am shocked that this one made news. Let white people tell it white gangs don’t exist.
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But we’re sooo post racial guys!
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I was waiting to see if the mainstream news outlets would refer to these “yahoos” as “thugs” label them animals and show them to be the uncivilized cretins that they like to hang on black people.
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@Gen
Oh but the excuses I have read thus far are….”They are illegals!”
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I’ve been having this exact same discussion with friends, siting the exact same inconsistencies.
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[…] The biker gang shoot-out in Waco. […]
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They say they are coming for the police as well. I think they will try to initiate a race war. These are some dangerous people.
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As A put it….Sons of Anarchy the live action version.
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Crazy white whackos in Waco!lol
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I’ve been speaking about things such as this for some time, because I ride motorcycles.
Since I’m not a favoured arse-kisser on this site, nothing I say is relevant to the majority.
That’s perfectly fine with me. I speak what I know and have lived…no more, and no less.
However…you who deny my life experience are as wrong to do so as the Biffs, Randys, and every other racist troll that you go out of your collective way to appease and understand.
Confirmation bias, indeed…go figure.
😀
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Unite black Americans the media is against you. Build your own media houses and advance your cause. The Rupert Murdochs do not want you to be liberated.
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“Most gang-related murders are committed by Whites.”
I think most people know this. The argument is that blacks commit a disproportionate amount of violent crime compared to their percentage of the population and that whites don’t. They’re way more white ppl than black ppl. We know this.
I don’t think denying that black crime is out of control is necessary to argue against racist portrayals in the media.
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@ solesearch
True but the reasons for the disproportionate amount of violent crime are so complicated that it’s hard to discuss without it’s component pieces.
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King,
I agree.
But the whites commit more crime argument and the white on white violence argument are used in bad faith by intentionally missing the point. Which is what we accuse the other side of doing.
Are we black folks supposed to be comforted by the fact that whites commit 5000 murders a year and black people only commit 4500?
Then we wonder why the other side thinks we only care when whites kill blacks.
It is almost as bad as that disgusting who rapes more women post. In effort to redeem the black race we downplay the severity of heinous crimes.
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@ solesearch
What I wonder is what the numbers would look like if you took the narcotics network hubs out of the Black/Latino communities? In most figures that Iv’e seen on the issue, drug wars, drug assassinations, drug theft and general drug mayhem are the main cause for the higher crime/incarceration rates in the Black community. Yet it’s not like Blacks took a vote and invited the sharp end of the narcotics spear into our neighborhood.
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I will .to start watching Sons of Anarchy now. The biker culture has been around for a long time. I always just thought it was the Hell’s Angels and the funny fictional biker gang in those old Gidget movies or maybe it was those old Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello movies with Erick Von Zivel and his goofy motor cycle gang. Those are pretty benign compared to the real thing. I am learning many of these gangs are drug addicts and dealers and very violent. I am thinking the Waco gangs are probably white supremacist.
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Correction the character was Erick Von Zipper and The Rats motorcycle gang from the old Beach Party movies pretty benign compared to the real killers.
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King,
I wonder how do we get them out?
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@ Kiwi
I recall reading the same conclusions somewhere… but I don’r recall the study or the methodology for reaching these conclusions.
Yes. But it’s complicated. I think many activists see the “War on Drugs” as a manufactured excuse, ginned up to put Black men in jail. That is not what it’s about. Regardless of what is being said, the reality is that Law Enforcement has an unspoken policy that they do not work to eliminate vice, but rather they seek to manage it. Their goal is never to eliminate drugs and prostitution from the streets. It is only to dictate which streets drugs and prostitutes can be sold on.
So drug dealers and pimps are harassed but controlled within certain poorer neighborhoods with the understanding that if they venture outside of those boundaries they will be made to pay for it severely. Police departments will also respond temporarily to citizen complaints to clean up neighborhoods. But they have no intention of fixing them in the long term. If you are poor and live in a trafficking zone then you may also be recruited to “make a lot of money” short term in the business. This is why poor young Blacks are constantly shooting each other in these neighborhoods and driving up the Black murder rate. These same are then arrested and incarcerated in high numbers.
It’s almost impossible to fight the way that the system is structured, “BLACKS” cannot fix a problem that they are not alone in creating.
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^ and solesearch
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The narcotics industry makes more than any other industry in the entire country. It’s bigger than petroleum, it’s bigger than communication, it’s bigger than automobiles or appliances. It’s bigger than Apple.
How do you get the out? (sigh) You don’t.
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@ Kiwi
LikeI said, the job of the police is to *manage* vice, not irradiate it. Successful anti-crime programs are ones that bring crime down within “acceptable levels.” They have no intention of turning off the spigot, EVEN when they have the opportunity to do so! But then why would they want to get rid of vice, when the people who make the laws in the first place do not believe in following them?
Senators:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/david-vitter-prostitution/
Governors:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eliot_Spitzer_prostitution_scandal
Congressmen:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/clinton/frenzy/frank.htm
Mayors:
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/zumba-prostitution-scandal-ex-mayor-among-list-of-men-who-allegedly-paid-fitness-instructor-for-sex/
Police Chiefs:
http://abc7news.com/news/kensington-police-chief-fired-over-scandal-/521908/
Secret Service Agents:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/secret-service-scandal-colombian-woman-describes-night-of-carousing-with-agents/2012/05/04/gIQAcwyi1T_story.html
They never intend to get rid of either pimps or drug dealers because *they use them themselves* and are probably being paid by them, in one way or another, albeit, many steps removed. If your children, your neighborhood, or your race is suffering disproportionately from this, then TOO BAD.
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This event also coincides with President Obama’s order to prevent local law enforcement from using military equipment. This means in case of marital law or even a coup local municipalities could not confront Federal troops.
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Notice how these thugs aren’t handcuffed or sitting in police cars?! Smdh
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This is one of the reasons I keep coming back here.
I say I’m tried of negative news stories ,but maybe I get mainstream news confused with some of your blogs content or maybe I project my own frustrations and failures into no good news.
However I can’t say this was not inciteful and informative.
Regardless of the post on your blog that I choose to read and comment on,I offend learn something ,and indeed something quite astounding.
As opposed to traditional media outlets which due overwhelming racial bias I now deliberately ignore.
And your style and prose is quite excellent.
Regularly extremely deep and inciteful posts on a wide range of social and historical issues ,events and figures.
And your blogs layout is to be commended as well.
This is why I don’t regularly post to my own blog ,through I may have ideas ,my expression and delivery may never be as good.
Now I’ll sit back offline and read all the comments for learning as well as entertainment.
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@solesearch,
“I don’t think denying that black crime is out of control is necessary to argue against racist portrayals in the media.”
Actually, that’s not true. ALL crime has plummeted over the past two or so decades. The data is readily available. Here’s a snippet from an article in the Atlantic:
“But over the past 25 years, the tide of crime and violence seemed to simply recede. Crime is about half of what it was at its peak in 1991. Violent crime plummeted 51 percent. Property crime fell 43 percent. Homicides are down 54 percent. In 1985, there were 1,384 murders in New York City. Last year (2014) there were 333. The country is an undeniably safer place. Growing urban populations are one positive consequence.”
The notion that we must somehow be, for lack of a better word, “perfect”, before we can call out the racist nonsense regarding the the portrayals of black protestors vs white criminals idoesnm’t make sense.
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@Ks
The problem KS is; that despite crime plummeting, its still much higher than it should be.
Your both right.
@General
Anybody hear about the “conspiracy theories” out there like this might have been some kind of planned hit by the cops?
That the Bikers didn’t actually start this?
Personally I think its BS but I also didn’t bother to read what they put up for evidence to support their argument.
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Reblogged this on oogenhand and commented:
“Because “biker gangs”, unlike Black gangs, are seen as a strange subculture. They are not seen as “what White people are like.””
All good points being made. The system is biased BOTH ways. In some ways against black people, in some ways against white people, keeping everyone at each other’s throat.
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Great post!
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You can’t tell me this has nothing to do with white privilege.
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lololollolololololololololololololololololo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
https://www.thedailybeast.com/why-last-waco-texas-twin-peaks-shooting-charges-were-dropped
LAWL!!!.
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