[vox_mundi]

Life Imitating Art ...

Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs (OMGs) and the Military 2014 - ATF Report

... Through our extensive analysis, it has been revealed that a large number of support clubs are utilizing active-duty military personnel and U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) contractors and employees along with state and local police to spread their tentacles across the United States.

Key Findings
- OMG support clubs are recruiting a large number of active-duty military personnel.
- Hells Angels, Vagos and Mongols in California continue to associate with OMG active-duty military personnel.
- Outside Ft. Bragg and Eglin Air Force Bases, explosives have turned up in residences of United States Army Special Forces operators – unsubstantiated connections to an OMG or support club.
- Violence between OMGs increased from 2012 to2013.
- The Bandidos continues to spearhead much of the violence across the Midwest.
- Violence between the Pagans and HAMC is escalating in Virginia, but decreasing in Maryland.
- Due to Pagans MC expansion, skirmishes have occurred between the Outlaws and Pagans.
- The Hells Angels is fighting a two-front war in California with the Mongols and Vagos.
- The “Dominant Six” continue to expand across the globe.
- Black OMGs are rapidly expanding in the United States.
- Expansion in the United States is hampering longstanding relationships between the Vagos and Mongols, Outlaws and Pagans, as well as the Bandidos and Vagos.
- A large number of nontraditional OMGs are associating with the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club (HAMC) in California, North Carolina, Virginia, Washington, Arizona and Maryland.

...biker gangs, show that countercultural groups are able to maintain a sense of stability that goes beyond the breakdown of the civilizations they depart from. The morality of these lawless groups is certainly shown by post-apocalyptic narratives as ambiguous, but whereas for other characters the apocalypse does mean the end of the world, for motorcyclists the end of the world does little to impede their freedoms, and may in fact even reinforce them.

[ennui2]

Biker gangs go back all the way to the 50s. Remember the controversy over the Altamont festival with the Stones? I don't think things are really on any sort of trend-line.

[Revi]

I just went to Tomorrowland, and that has to be another version of what's going on right now. It glorifies innovation, and basically says that the reason we are slipping backwards is a fault of imagination. I have to agree, but there are real problems like peak oil and climate change happening as well. We can change things, but we don't have the will to even start doing anything.

[Revi]

The world is going Mad Max, and Tomorrowland is a dream. I guess I agree with most people that we are not headed towards any kind of utopia. Maybe it can be better, but it won't because people like the Mad Max future way better than the idea of figuring it out. As the war boy said as he went into the fiery maelstrom. "What a lovely day!"

[Lore]

Revi, you will arrive at the gates of Valhalla, all shiny and chrome.

[Revi]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sU4mDyj8DSI

[Revi]

This explanation of the War Boys is excellent. It's a must see!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtO1moNeFIU

[Revi]

Revi, you will arrive at the gates of Valhalla, all shiny and chrome.

I hope so!

[JV153]

Once I went to a cafe in Finland, and the cash register lady must have heard I was coming - when I got close to the register she flashed (a fraction of a second) a look at my crotch and gobbed me with spit - and then she said "Well". I came down with the flu the next day. She must be one of those biathlon girls.

[JV153]

... Through our extensive analysis, it has been revealed that a large number of support clubs are utilizing active-duty military personnel and U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) contractors and employees along with state and local police to spread their tentacles across the United States.

Key Findings
- OMG support clubs are recruiting a large number of active-duty military personnel.
- Hells Angels, Vagos and Mongols in California continue to associate with OMG active-duty military personnel.
- Outside Ft. Bragg and Eglin Air Force Bases, explosives have turned up in residences of United States Army Special Forces operators – unsubstantiated connections to an OMG or support club.
- Violence between OMGs increased from 2012 to2013.
- The Bandidos continues to spearhead much of the violence across the Midwest.
- Violence between the Pagans and HAMC is escalating in Virginia, but decreasing in Maryland.
- Due to Pagans MC expansion, skirmishes have occurred between the Outlaws and Pagans.
- The Hells Angels is fighting a two-front war in California with the Mongols and Vagos.
- The “Dominant Six” continue to expand across the globe.
- Black OMGs are rapidly expanding in the United States.
- Expansion in the United States is hampering longstanding relationships between the Vagos and Mongols, Outlaws and Pagans, as well as the Bandidos and Vagos.
-

Yikes. I ride a bicycle myself, but that's all. Other than that drinking and drug use has been on the increase in N Europe for a long time.. I don't think they drank so much back in the <1940s.

[Lore]

People in Europe use to drink themselves into a coma. That was the pastime.

[JV153]

The original motorcycle clubs started after WWII and were staffed with returning soldiers who typically had post-traumatic stress syndrome. It's why bikes are so popular these days. Only a crazies or war wounded would not choose the comfort of an air-conditioned and heated automobile.

You want metaphors? I got metaphors lol

I'm starting to see more rusting automobiles - been left under a pile of snow. Nobody ever paid me enough money for the insurance and auto-tax on a car, let alone the fuel costs. A used car can be had for 500 euros, but how long before a chunk falls off of it ? It's getting a lot quieter these days.

[dolanbaker]

The original motorcycle clubs started after WWII and were staffed with returning soldiers who typically had post-traumatic stress syndrome. It's why bikes are so popular these days. Only a crazies or war wounded would not choose the comfort of an air-conditioned and heated automobile.

You want metaphors? I got metaphors lol

I don't know about the US, but just after WWII, most of Europe had a real shortage of cars (and a lot of other stuff, like food & shelter) but motorbikes were more available than cars. Most teenagers had a bike before they got a car, a trend that continued right up to the 1980s, I had a bike before a car and so did many of my friends.

[dolanbaker]

I'm starting to see more rusting automobiles - been left under a pile of snow. Nobody ever paid me enough money for the insurance and auto-tax on a car, let alone the fuel costs. A used car can be had for 500 euros, but how long before a chunk falls off of it ? It's getting a lot quieter these days.

It's a very different story here in Ireland, there are now a lot of newer cars on the roads and traffic jams are back with a vengeance after several quiet years after the crash. Lots of cheap money around!

[JV153]

It's a very different story here in Ireland, there are now a lot of newer cars on the roads and traffic jams are back with a vengeance after several quiet years after the crash. Lots of cheap money around!

Sorry.. I meant the country, not the city.