Director Randall Wilson recently won a Director’s Choice Award for his movie, Ride Free Or Die. The movie is available on Amazon, and is described there as ‘an insider’s look into the political world of motorcycle clubs. The clubs are fighting for their constitutional rights against what they perceive as law enforcement profiling and harassment. The documentary features Mongols MC, Outsiders MC, Devils Diciples MC, Sin City Deciples, Ironworkers MC, ATF agents, and motorcycle clubs from all over America.’
Now, a lot of people have made a lot of documentaries about biker profiling, 1%ers, and the ATF. But, there is something different about this one… along with the interviews with several people and patches we all recognize.. it also has coverage of the Waco Biker Tragedy, including interviews with Waco Bikers Paul Landers and Sandra Lynch.
One of the biggest instances of biker profiling occurred on May 17, 2015 at a Twin Peaks restaurant in Waco, Texas. Nine lives were lost and 170 people were incarcerated with million dollar bonds. Not a single person was charged.
Link to where to buy Ride Free or Die:
https://www.amazon.com/Ride-Free-Die-Hessian-Spike/dp/B07WW8S4PF/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?crid=327T2YSSFOD7V&keywords=ride+free+or+die&qid=1655702922&sprefix=ride+free+or+die%2Caps%2C107&sr=8-1
The movie has good reviews out so far, and so all I am going to say is, watch the dadgum movie. Its worth it. Every biker in America needs to know what happened that day in Waco.
Reviews for Ride Free or Die:
https://coloradoridernews.com/ride-free-or-die-movie-review/
I would like to also give a shoutout right here to the Motorcycle Profiling Project and Double D for all of their continued hard work in biker profiling:
A link to the Motorcycle Profiling Project:
https://www.motorcycleprofilingproject.com/
What I am about to write, is gonna be a little more personal than a review. I am going to discuss, the Waco biker tragedy. You see, I have been trying to write an article revisiting my experience covering the Waco bikers for Bandit and bikernet for at least six months.. This movie by Randall Wilson, has inspired me to try once again… to force myself to remember some things I usually try to forget.
When most people hear ‘Waco’.. they think of David Koresh and Branch Davidians. When I hear Waco, I think of a bright Sunday afternoon in Texas.. a Twin Peaks restaurant with a parking lot full of shiny Harleys.. a day that the clink of dishes and hum of Harleys and muted laughter became a hail of gunfire. A beautiful day, that quickly became a nightmare, and American blood was spilled, right on that heart of Texas. I think of a day that changed so many lives irrevocably, a day that the majority of American citizens never even knew the truth about what really happened.. a day when one of the worse mass violations of constitutional liberties ever occurred in American history… when 9 people died and 170 people went to jail.. a day when American citizens were found guilty until proven innocent.. when they truly learned what it means, to Ride Free or Die.
A fusion center is an information sharing center, many of which were jointly created between 2003 and 2007 under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Office of Justice Programs in the U.S. Department of Justice.
No one will ever be able to define how many lives were destroyed that day. All of those 170 people had families who suffered from financial, emotional, and mental anguish. Those of us who were not there that day, but who came in later and tried to help them.. journalists, lawyers, other bikers.. well it changed us too. We witnessed first hand a crack in the foundation of America’s justice system, and our Constitutional rights and civil liberties. People lost their homes, their jobs, their wives, their pride, their rides, and their lives that day. There were women, veterans, preachers, people from all races and walks of life arrested en masse just for being at a CoC meeting. The First Amendment, Second Amendment, Fourteenth Amendment.. all flew out the window like a fart in the wind.
According to records released to the AP following a public information request for 911 calls, Officer Brandon Blasingame reported “shots fired,” to a dispatcher at 12:26 p.m.
“Two shot behind Twin Peaks,” Blasingame reported two minutes later.
“They have an AR-15,” he said in the next dispatch. It was unclear who he meant had the rifle, and if it was something he saw or was told.
The chronology ends at 12:31 p.m. and police have refused to release the rest of the report, saying it could compromise the investigation. Blasingame did not respond to requests for comment.
Speaking of Uvalde.. did you hear about the Bandidos passing a hat at a drag race on Memorial Day and raising $20,000 for the victim’s families?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EPj09dA-Pk0&feature=youtu.be
I was in the Don Carlos restaurant next door to Twin Peak the entire time, from the first bullet shot until the police said it was safe to leave. As me and a friend started to exit the building two swat style cops snuck up from behind shouting get down throwing us to the ground. I had turned my hoodie inside out during the event due to watching what happened to others outside by police, I didn’t want to get caught up or shot in the situation as you could imagine.
-Eye Witness Testimony from a Waco Biker
The Bandidos always have maintained their innocence in the Twin Peaks tragedy.. and I for one, believe them. If they WERE wanting to pick a fight, they wouldn’t have done it at a COC meeting where there was dozens of Mom and Pop club members and innocent people having lunch. They released a statement shortly after the 2015 incident through biker attorney Stephen Stubbs, with their official statement on the whole ordeal.
The Bandido statement:
1) The Bandidos were at the Twin Peaks restaurant to attend an organized political meeting and nothing else. A regional meeting for the Texas Confederation of Clubs and Independents (a bona fide political organization centered on Constitutional rights) was scheduled, and a prominent member of the Bandidos was the key-note speaker at the meeting. This Bandido key-note speaker was to report on the National Coalition of Motorcyclist event that occurred weeks earlier. Because COCI members from across the state were expected to attend this special meeting, it was purposefully scheduled in Waco, TX, a central city between Austin and Dallas.
2) The Bandidos have no knowledge of any other meeting. The Bandidos are aware that members of other motorcycle clubs are claiming that there were plans to meet with the Bandidos in Waco, TX on May 17, 2015. This claim is not true.
3) All weapons in possession of members the Bandidos were legally owned and carried.
4) Members of the Bandidos were not aggressors, did not start the altercation, did not strike first, were not the first to pull weapons, and were not the first to use weapons. The majority of the Bandidos took cover, and all involvement in the altercation by members of the Bandidos was in self-defense. Texas law allows people to defend themselves with the same amount of force that is exerted against them, and a few members of the Bandidos acted in accordance with these laws. In fact, members of the Bandidos involved in the incident did not even have time or opportunity to get off of their motorcycles before police came in.
We pulled up in the shopping center from the service road from I-35 and saw police vehicles. I know some have said that they did not notice many marked vehicles, and perhaps they entered from another area where they weren’t prevalent, but we saw at least 8-10 marked police SUV’s and the armored vehicle parked in the shopping center parking lot.
When we pulled into the Twin Peaks parking area, we looked for a spot to park and noticed a couple of Cossacks standing at the corner of the building towards where Don Carlos and the rest of the shopping center was.There was no parking available, so we ended up parking in the shopping center’s general parking area, between an area where many police cars were located.
When getting out of the car, I saw a line of about 8-10 bikes pulling into the parking lot from the same entrance that we had pulled into. We let them pass before crossing the driveway and made our way up the sidewalk between Don Carlos and Twin Peaks. When getting to where the sidewalk stopped and walking in the median between the two parking lots, I noticed the bikes had stopped in the middle of the drive, and there was a large group of Cossacks and others wearing their black and yellow patches, lined up at the edge of the parking area, blocking the parking spaces.
Not exactly sure what was happening, I continued to walk forward, and noted that the Cossacks were lined up and bunched up, and were about 3-4 people deep. There may have been 50 or more there.
The next thing I saw was shoving and punches started, with most Bandidos still on their bikes and the bikes still running. I noticed brass knuckles on at least one of the Cossacks up front. At least 6 immediately behind them started swinging some type of stick or expandable batons. And in the very back, I saw at least one Cossack, a bigger guy with short dark hair, holding a pistol of some type.
About that time, I heard two shots, and initially I thought they were the type you see on movies, where someone is trying to break up a fight by shooting into the air, but the report from the shot was short, like it was fired into someone.
I looked around to see who had shot, and then shooting started from inside the group and from behind me somewhere. I took cover behind one of the vehicles in the Don Carlos parking area, looking towards Twin Peaks to see if anyone was following to shoot. The bigger, dark haired Cossack with dark hair was running back and forth from the door to Twin Peaks and back towards the crowd.
I could not tell if he was firing his pistol due to all the shots ringing out at that point, but he had it pointed out towards the group. At that point, a group of police officers came up from the parking area with M4s or similar rifles with what looked like a suppressors on them, yelling at everyone to get on the ground. I complied, got prone on the ground, and they made their way forward.
Shots were coming from the front of Don Carlos also, so I tried to turn my body in a way I could see if anyone was coming from that area as well. Eventually the shooting stopped. The police came, frisked me, taking my knife and throwing it in a pile of other knives on the curb beside Don Carlos. I do not know how many knives and such were there, but they were all thrown in a pile, so cross contamination of evidence is extremely possible.
After being frisked, we were told to go sit in the parking area with our groups. We were then frisked again, placed in flex cuffs, loaded into vans, and transported to the Convention Center. One at a time, we were taken back to give a “witness statement.” We were then put back in the room and waited for information.
We were then all taken into another room in small groups, information was gathered on booking forms, and then we were taken to Mclennan County Jail and placed in holding cells. This happened around 4:00 a.m. They fingerprinted us, photographed us, and changed us into jumpsuits, without ever telling us what we were being arrested or detained for.
Then they moved us over to the Detention Center and put us into holding cells again. One at a time, they called us out and had us stand in front of this guy who they said was a magistrate, who told us we were under arrest for Conspiracy to Engage in Organized Criminal Activity, a First Degree Felony, and my bond was $1 million.
I asked why I was under arrest and why my bond was so high if I did nothing, no one could say I did do anything, and I had never been arrested, and he said that we could address that later. The time from when I was detained at the scene until I was told I was under arrest was around 18-20 hours.
At the scene, as well as at the convention center, I noticed officers wearing Mclennan County sheriff’s department identifiers, DPS uniforms, DEA jackets, ATF jackets, and of course Waco PD uniforms. There may have been others, but those I witnessed with my own eyes. Some were in plain clothes, with ballistic vests with the identifiers.
I had a pistol in my car. If I were going to cause a conflict, or if I were going somewhere knowing that it would be a dangerous situation, I would have carried my pistol with me. Why would I have left it in my car? It was a setup, but it surely was not one by Red and Gold.
-Eye Witness Testimony from a Waco Biker
Special thanks to the Bandido Nation for allowing me to write this. Love and Respect….
-Amy Irene White, the Wicked Bitch
The Wicked Bitch
