NCOM BIKER NEWSBYTES
Compiled & Edited by Bill Bish,
National Coalition of Motorcyclists (NCOM)
CONGRESS MOVES TO DE-FUND MOTORCYCLE-ONLY CHECKPOINTS
On November 5, the U.S. House of Representatives approved their version of the federal Highway Bill which, like the Senate companion measure, contains provisions of importance to motorcyclists, most notably the ban on federal funding of motorcycle-only roadside checkpoints.
In addition to curbing the controversial roadblocks, the House bill also authorizes a motorcycle crash prevention study; revives the federal Motorcycle Advisory Council; continues off-road trails funding; and makes highway safety grants more accessible.
Approved by a bipartisan vote of 363-64, the Surface Transportation Reauthorization and Reform Act of 2015 (HR 3763) provides $325 billion in transportation funding over the next six years, corresponding to similar legislation passed by the U.S. Senate earlier this year.
WACO INFO
One hundred seventy-seven people were arrested and held on million dollar bonds following the melee in Waco, Texas in May that left nine bikers dead and nearly twenty wounded, and on November 10th prosecutors announced 106 felony indictments charging defendants with engaging in organized criminal activity.
“The Waco Grand Jury indictments on 106 individuals for engaging in organized crime are not convictions,” explains David “Double D” Devereaux of the Motorcycle Profiling Project (www.MotorcycleProfilingProject.com), “The Grand Jury only determines whether the prosecutor has sufficient evidence to indict. The Grand Jury only hears from the prosecutor, no defense attorneys are allowed, and does not make a determination on guilt.”
“Double D”, who is also a member of the National Coalition of Motorcyclists’ Legislative Task Force (NCOM-LTF), says that as examining trials have made clear, the basis of the prosecutor’s argument in many of these case relies solely on an individual’s association with a motorcycle club that had members accused of committing a crime on May 17th. “These indictments based solely on association, particularly the cases where the prosecutor admits that there is no evidence that the individual participated in any crime or violence, flies in the face of recent Federal Court precedent.”
A U.S. District Court decision in Coles v. Carlini, 9/30/2015, relying on Supreme Court precedent, concluded that the government may not impose restrictions on an individual solely because of their membership in a MC, including a 1% club that the government labels as a gang or criminal organization. “The criminal activity of others does not justify denying rights and privileges solely because of association with an unpopular organization,” according to Devereaux.
“Although I agree with many that are concerned about the seemingly broken Waco criminal justice system, recent Fed decisions seem to say that the underlying assumptions of an indictment based solely on association are unconstitutional,” said Devereaux in a prepared document titled “Understanding the Waco Grand Jury Indictments.”
IDAHO MOTORCYCLE CLUB WINS SETTLEMENT OVER CLUBHOUSE RAID
Ten members of the Brother Speed MC, along with the club itself, will be splitting a $16,500 payment from the United States government, to settle their lawsuit over a 2013 raid on their Nampa clubhouse that yielded no charges.
The club and its members sued numerous federal agents and the United States, saying their civil rights were violated when federal agents serving a search warrant broke down the door, set off flash-bang grenades, and sent dozens of heavily armed SWAT team members into the small home. The club members were detained for up to three hours while agents forcibly removed their personal property, including their clothing, and confiscated club memorabilia, according to the club’s attorney, Craig Durham. “These were regular guys minding their own business that night,” Durham told The Spokesman-Review newspaper. “They were not a threat, and there was no call for the use of terrifying, military-style tactics to serve a simple search warrant.”
The government admitted no wrongdoing but agreed to the settlement, under which the club will receive $4,000, and the individual members will receive payments ranging from $500 to $2,500.
“This was never about money,” said chapter president Daniel Bugli. “It was about standing up for our rights as citizens and members of this community. Law enforcement officers shouldn’t be able to run roughshod over people’s rights based on speculation and assumptions.”
BIKERS’ LAWYER FILES CIVIL RIGHTS LAWSUIT AGAINST VEGAS POLICE
A Nevada lawyer who represents motorcycle clubs has filed a federal civil rights, false arrest and negligence lawsuit against Las Vegas police after he was acquitted in March of a misdemeanor obstruction charge.
Southern Nevada Confederation of Clubs (COC) attorney Stephen Stubbs alleges that a Las Vegas practice of harassing motorcycle club members led to his arrest in November 2013, and that being found not guilty by a local judge showed the arrest was improper. Stubbs told the Associated Press (AP) that he was prevented from representing a member of the Bikers for Christ motorcycle ministry who was being questioned by police, and who is a plaintiff in a recent lawsuit seeking at least $75,000 in damages from the department.
Stubbs is representing members of biker groups, including the Mongols, Vagos, Stray Cats and Bandidos in a federal civil rights complaint filed in June 2012 alleging harassment by Las Vegas and other area police. The lawsuit is pending in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas. It was filed a day after a meeting of Mongols national leaders in Boulder City was monitored by hundreds of local and state police and federal agents.
ANTI-PROFILING LEGISLATION INTRODUCED IN PENNSYLVANIA
On November 13, 2015 Pennsylvania Senator John Wozniak (D-Johnstown) introduced Bipartisan Bill SB1058: An Act providing for motorcycle profiling prohibited, and the measure has been referred to Law and Justice.
“No police officer or police department may engage in motorcycle profiling in this Commonwealth,” states the bill, and calls for police instruction on “what constitutes motorcycle profiling in patrol procedures and other police department operations and the duty to refrain from engaging in motorcycle profiling.”
As defined in this legislation, “motorcycle profiling” means “the use of the fact that an individual rides a motorcycle or wears clothes or possesses paraphernalia that a reasonable person associates with such individuals as a factor in a decision to stop and question, take enforcement action against, arrest or search the individual or motorcycle in violation of Federal or State law.”
Such violations by law enforcement “may bring a private right of action in a court of competent jurisdiction against any police officer or police department that engages in motorcycle profiling in violation of this section. In the action, the victim may be awarded injunctive relief, actual damages, punitive damages and reasonable attorney fees and costs.”
72 TYPES OF AMERICANS CONSIDERED “POTENTIAL TERRORISTS”
Are you a conservative, a libertarian, a Christian or a gun owner? Support states’ rights? Belong to “The Patriot Movement”, or display a “Don’t Tread on Me” flag? Are you opposed to abortion, globalism, Communism, illegal immigration, the United Nations or the New World Order? Anti-establishment? Do you believe in conspiracy theories, or ever visit “extremist” websites? Are you a veteran? If you answered yes to any of those questions, or a vast array of others, you may be an “extremist” or a “potential terrorist” according to official U.S. government documents.
At one time, the term “terrorist” was used very narrowly, explains the alternative website www.activistpost.com, but says now the Obama administration is removing all references to Islam from terror training materials, and instead the term “terrorist” is being applied to large groups of American citizens, which it delineates in an article on their website; “72 Types of Americans That Are Considered ‘Potential Terrorists’ In Official Government Documents,” by D.C. attorney Michael Snyder.
The “list” covers much of our country’s demographics and most of its citizenry, but if you belong to a group of people that is now being considered as “potential terrorists” by the government, the author warns that you should not take it lightly.
MOTORCYCLE SAFETY FUND PROVIDES SIGN-LANGUAGE FOR DEAF RIDERS
The National Motorcycle Safety Fund (NMSF), a 501(c)(3) charitable community organization created in 1980 to augment the work of the Motorcycle Safety Foundation, has created a new grant program to help rider training sites cover the costs of hiring sign-language interpreters for deaf and hard of hearing students.
MSF-recognized Rider Training Sites regularly receive requests to accommodate students with physical disabilities, so in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and state laws, the NMSF grants will help defray the cost of sign-language interpreters.
There are many deaf and hard of hearing car drivers and motorcyclists on the road today. To compensate, drivers and motorcyclists typically employ risk-reduction strategies such as Search/Evaluate/Execute (SEE), maintain longer following distances, make better use of peripheral vision, and check their mirrors more frequently.
STUDY INDICATES MOTORCYCLE RIDERS’ INJURIES DIFFER WITH HELMET USE
Helmet-wearing motorcycle riders are less likely to hurt their heads in accidents, but end up with more injuries to other parts of their bodies, suggests new research. Researchers suggest in JAMA Surgery that the results may be due to helmeted riders being more likely to survive high-force crashes, and ultimately end up with more extensive injuries.
The authors write that loosening restrictions on helmets in some U.S. states allowed them to study how wearing head protection may influence other injuries. For the study, they used national data from 2007 to 2010 on almost 86,000 people with some sort of motorcycle-related trauma, paying particularly close attention to the number and extent of injuries to people’s heads and necks, torsos, spines and extremities.
Overall, the researchers found helmeted motorcycle riders were about half as likely to end up with head injuries, but helmeted riders were more likely to have injuries to the chest and extremities than riders who weren’t wearing helmets.
One explanation for increased injuries to other body parts could be that helmeted riders feel more secure and end up driving at higher speeds, wrote the Indiana University researchers.
There was no difference in the time people spent in a hospital regardless of whether they were helmeted.
CALIFORNIA DMV OFFERS “VETERAN” DESIGNATION ON DRIVER LICENSES
Veterans in California can begin applying to receive the word “VETERAN” on their driver’s license or identification (ID) card starting November 12, 2015.
In accordance with the legislative language contained within Assembly Bill 935, the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) requires veterans to first obtain a Veteran Status Verification Form and to pay an additional one-time $5 designation fee to apply for the special Veteran designation.
QUOTABLE QUOTE: “Tous pour un, un pour tous.” (All for one, one for all.)
~ Alexandre Dumas (1802-1870) French author; “The Three Musketeers”
Vive la France!
