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hells angels


antonio1998

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OP, would you like to elaborate (or might I regret asking)?

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you learn something new everyday.......

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Dont they raise alot of money for children in need? They may be bad but I would not put them in the 100% bad slot.

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The Hell's Angels whom I've had the priviledge of knowing in my life weren't vicious in the least. They were very respectful and nice.

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Hmmm... speaking of which........

Motorcycle club's origins clouded in wartime history, but all sides agree on one thing: Today's Hells Angels are no monks

By MICHAEL JAMISON of the Missoulian

Paratroopers were probably original Angels

VENTURA, Calif. - The hard-drinking, hard-riding, hard-fisted phenomenon of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club was kick-started not on America's highways, but in the world's deadly and bleeding fields of war.

The Angels have grown, in the past 50 years, to include three dozen chapters in the United States, a presence in 15 countries and a worldwide membership estimated in the thousands.

But before all that, before roving bands of unwashed malcontents began riding the wild West astride iron horses like so many gun-slinging outlaws, before they tore open America's fabric and sewed themselves into the tapestry of mainstream culture, before they bathed and broke out as businessmen, before all that, their name belonged to other Angels.

"Hells Angels" was a name long favored by mercenaries and soldiers, warriors and troops who risked all for principle, belief, freedom and individual rights - including the right to ride big Harley-Davidson hogs. The history of today's Hells Angels is obscured by the hazy exhaust of half a century of Harleys, and no one can see through quite to the beginning.

But many believe the original Angels were members of the U.S. Army's 11th Airborne Division, an elite group of paratroopers trained to rain death on the enemy from above, drifting in behind the lines of battle.

They called themselves the Hells Angels because they flew on silk wings into hell itself, bringing a brutal hope for peace with 20 pounds of TNT strapped to each leg. The nickname was a badge of honor, a mark of invincibility, a wartime emblem indicating the toughest of the tough. It was a totem to ward off the worst.

Not surprisingly, a handful of those original Hells Angels - along with many other returning soldiers who had awakened to the nightmare of war - found it difficult to settle into the half-sleep of the American Dream. After living on the edge so long, they found only a depressing fatalism and monotony in jobs, family, mortgages, college, suburbia and cookie-cutter houses with white-picket fences.

And so they rode. Motorcycles were cheap in the mid-1940s, sold as military surplus, and they offered a certain wild peacetime freedom not unlike the wartime skies of Europe. Soon, individuals gathered into groups, sharing weekends when they rode hard and partied harder.

But when Monday came, not everyone went home. Some stayed, turning the weekend motorcycle club into a surrogate family of full-time brothers.

Two of the first such fraternities were the p***ed Off b******* and the Booze Fighters, groups that established early the notoriety of the outlaw biker image. In 1947, at an American Motorcycle Association convention in the drowsy town of Hollister, Calif., the p***ed Off b******* rode in drunk, wild and destructive, landing as if behind enemy lines with a belly full of TNT. The local sheriff later described the scene as "just one hell of a mess."

Quick to control the public relations' damage, the AMA denounced the b*******, saying it was unfortunate that 1 percent of motorcyclists should ruin it for the law-abiding 99 percent. To this day, the 1 percent insignia remains a badge of honor, worn with pride by those who define themselves as not part of that milquetoast 99 percent majority who ride whining Hondas back and forth to the office.

But in the months following Hollister, internal tension among the b******* and Booze Fighters was mounting, and in 1948 b****** Otto Friedli broke from the club, splintering the group to create the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club in Fontana, Calif.

Through the late 1940s and early 1950s, the Hells Angels continued to ride with the other 99 percent, but already their reputation roared out in front.

That reputation crashed into the public consciousness in 1954 when Marlon Brando starred in "The Wild One," a Hollywood sensation inspired by the rumble at Hollister.

That same year, the original Hells Angels chapter merged with San Francisco's Market Street Commandos to spawn the club's second chapter, whose president crafted the intimidating winged death's head that remains the Hells Angels calling card to this day.

Chapters quickly popped up along the California coastline, but there was no organization among the groups, no single vision. All that changed, however, when Ralph "Sonny" Barger helped establish the Oakland Chapter.

Although Barger insists he is not the leader of today's international Hells Angels, he is widely considered so by law enforcement, and undoubtedly wears an unofficial crown. Today, Barger lives in Arizona. George Christie, longtime president of the Ventura, Calif., chapter, is considered Barger's second-in-command and likely successor.

Under Barger's guidance, the Hells Angels chapters came together, hammering out bylaws, codes of conduct, patches, colors, tattoos and club houses. And the myth of the outlaw biker grew. There were tales of mayhem, violence, destruction and, in the early 1960s, accusations of rape in the oceanside town of Monterey.

That high-profile rape case, historians believe, marked the beginnings of what law enforcement now calls an international drug trafficking syndicate. In order to pay legal bills, the legend goes, the Hells Angels made a few drug deals, selling methamphetamines and entering for the first time the world of big-money narcotics.

Whether that version is true, few know for certain and none will admit - proof, perhaps, of the motto "three can keep a secret if two are dead." What is known is that the Hells Angels' defense, however financed, was successful and the rape suspects were acquitted.

It was the first in a long string of high-profile accusations, arrests and acquittals - suggesting either the Angels are slippery or that police like to arrest them despite flimsy evidence. Many believe the truth involves a bit of both.

Regardless, in winning the Monterey rape case the club also won over popular culture, which set the Hells Angels on a pedestal as icons of freedom and resistance to "the system."

The rape acquittals also caught the attention of the California attorney general, who began what would in just a few years become one of the longest running cat-and-mouse games ever played between law enforcement agencies and an established and easily identifiable group.

Infamy bred notoriety, and in the mid-1960s "The Nation" magazine sent a young Hunter S. Thompson off to write about the Hells Angels. Thompson returned to the bikers after completing the article, riding with the Hells Angels for a year while researching his book, "Hell's Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gang."

At the same time, Hollywood had discovered the bikers. Barger starred next to Jack Nicholson in "Hell's Angels on Wheels." Rock stars such as Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead struck up friendships with the bikers, which Garcia admitted was a bit scary, because the Hells Angels were, as he put it, "good in all the violent spaces."

That was proved beyond doubt on Dec. 6, 1969, when the Hells Angels were hired as security for a Rolling Stones concert at Altamont Speedway outside San Francisco.

That night, at the height of the Angels' bare-knuckled stardom, the crowd surged in waves and the Hells Angels braced against it. An irresistible force swept against an immovable object, Mick Jagger sang "Sympathy for the Devil" and everything came unhinged.

An 18-year-old Stones fan named Meredith Hunter rushed the stage, was beaten back, rushed again, was pushed back, pulled a gun, and shot a Hells Angel in the arm.

Barger, interviewed for a recent History Channel special, said that when Hunter fired, "people started stabbing him. The guy killed himself by pulling the gun and shooting it into a crowd. And to me, that's just part of everyday life in the Hells Angels - somebody shoots you, you stab him."

One Hells Angel was arrested for the killing, but later was acquitted, despite the fact that the entire incident was captured on film.

Now, with their bad-boy reputation squarely in place and undeniably earned, the Hells Angels began to emerge as a more sophisticated outfit.

They incorporated, trademarked the infamous death's head and opened chapters around the world.

Their boldness irritated law enforcement, and in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the government tried to pin an official organized crime designation on the group, attempting to prosecute the Hells Angels under laws originally designed to combat the Mafia. The alleged violations of racketeering, influence and corrupt organization laws, however, were never proved, with two hung juries unable to come to a decision on 38 of 44 separate charges.

The $15 million federal prosecution resulted in two mistrials, which prosecutors decried as a miscarriage of justice, while Barger threw a no-holds-barred bash for the jurors.

Despite the verdict exonerating the motorcycle club, police here and overseas continue to consider the Hells Angels a wealthy corporation with a global drug distribution network.

For their part, the Angels continue to deny all charges, and in 1998 happily celebrated their 50th anniversary. The Angels, who Christie admits are "not monks," nevertheless insist that if they were as bad as police allege, they would've been jailed and disbanded years ago.

Their argument goes something like this: with such easy prey (Hells Angels do, after all, advertise their affiliation with emblazoned colors) police must be incompetent investigators or simply working under mistaken assumptions, and they're willing to give police all credit due.

Or perhaps it is as Christie's club members say - cops chase Angels because Angels are easy to chase. Finding real criminals is much tougher, and would require investigative initiative beyond pulling over every biker wearing the infamous winged death's head.

Today, both sides agree much of what the Hells Angels were is as far gone as the origins of their name.

The war of rhetoric between the Angels and police has been spun by popular culture into a complicated web of conflicting myths. And as those myths have emerged, the Hells Angels have become a self-fulfilling prophecy, carried into tomorrow by sheer inertia, like a Harley riding high in the curve, barely holding on, relying on a wisp of friction to keep from blowing over the top and into quiet nothingness.

So far, friction has served them well.

(Information for this article came from interviews with George Christie and members of the Ventura Hells Angels, conversations with law enforcement officers, the History Channel, and "Hell's Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs," by Hunter S. Thompson. )

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The name "Hells Angels" was believed to have been inspired by the common historical use, in both World War I and World War II, to name squadrons or other fighting groups by fierce, death-defying names such as Hell's Angels or Flying Tigers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hells_Angels#History

The colors and shape of the early-style jacket emblem (prior to 1953) were copied from the insignias of the 85th Fighter Squadron and the 552nd Medium Bomber Squadron.[11] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hells_Angels#Insignia

In March 2007 the Hells Angels filed suit against Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group alleging that the film entitled Wild Hogs used both the name and distinctive logo of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Corporation without permission.[18] http://news.findlaw.com/wsj/docs/disney/ha...y30806cmp2.html

Edited by acidhead
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The membership of that organization has both

decent folks as well as criminals. The Rolling

Stones seem to always be the focus of blame

for hiring the Angels as security for Altamont;

however, they hired them on the explicit

recommendation of The Grateful Dead. The

Dead, when they saw the bedlam happening

with the crowd and performers, decided not

to appear and ran off like curs.

Also incidentally, Meredith Hunter is not as

innocent as he's sometimes made out to be.

Non-Angel witnesses also saw him approaching

The Rolling Stones on stage with a gun.

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the hells angels are a vicouse biker gang

WHAT?! Since when?

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the hells angels are a vicouse biker gang

Gonna come and say that to my face? Do you need to hide behind a computer with a tough sounding name little doggy or are you gonna try to bite? I'll show you how vicious I can be and I don't need to hide behind the brothers to do it.

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i guess it's the same as any gang.....you get some bad seeds, but the majority are perfectly fine.

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i guess it's the same as any gang.....you get some bad seeds, but the majority are perfectly fine.

apart from being insecure enough to need the gang in the first place....

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apart from being insecure enough to need the gang in the first place....

I dont think being in a gang makes you insecure at all..... i find that statement alittle niave.

Just because you maybe in a gang doenst mean you need them...

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I dont think being in a gang makes you insecure at all..... i find that statement alittle niave.

Just because you maybe in a gang doenst mean you need them...

Then why be in it?

Im sure not everyone in a gang is insecure. But in my experience, with the few 'gangs' that i am familiar with, there seems to be 3 or 4 dominant and confident members and the rest are more like lapdogs, its the latter group who i would consider insecure.

I've had gangs start fights with me, but only when ive been by myself or with one other friend... That's what makes me think they are insecure, they would not dream of an equal fight. Plus the need to hang around in groups of 10 or 12 surely suggests that they each only have 1/10 or 1/12 of a personality.

Its not naive but of course its selective and subjective experience. Its just that in London (where im from,) the gang culture is mostly borne out of a sense of fear, fear of other gangs, poverty, the police etc... Its understandable but it still means that insecurity and fear are the route causes, not comraderie and loyalty like it is presented.

edit: but to return to the OP, the HA are notably different in circumstance and philosophy to street gangs in London

Edited by Wyvernkeeper
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  • 4 weeks later...
Then why be in it?

Im sure not everyone in a gang is insecure. But in my experience, with the few 'gangs' that i am familiar with, there seems to be 3 or 4 dominant and confident members and the rest are more like lapdogs, its the latter group who i would consider insecure.

I've had gangs start fights with me, but only when ive been by myself or with one other friend... That's what makes me think they are insecure, they would not dream of an equal fight. Plus the need to hang around in groups of 10 or 12 surely suggests that they each only have 1/10 or 1/12 of a personality.

Its not naive but of course its selective and subjective experience. Its just that in London (where im from,) the gang culture is mostly borne out of a sense of fear, fear of other gangs, poverty, the police etc... Its understandable but it still means that insecurity and fear are the route causes, not comraderie and loyalty like it is presented.

edit: but to return to the OP, the HA are notably different in circumstance and philosophy to street gangs in London

I guess the best way to put it about 81, is they are no angels.

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the hells angels are a vicouse biker gang

And you base this (rather blunt) statement on what.....? (BTW: it's VICIOUS :tu: )

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