Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

WAsltiNGTON,DisClosEd As the old saying goes. there are lies. damn lies and statistics. Newly appointed State Pa rks and Recrea tion Director, Peter Dange rmond made a cameo a ppearance at the Hungry Va lley O RV Area Ad visory Committee meet ing last We~ n esd a y nig ht, a nd was fa irly well received . As we had p red icted , he has expressed a fa ir ly sinc ere desire to do well by us . . In his brief sta tement to th e crowd he admitt ed to ha ving strong en viron : mental leanings . He was quick to point out, however , that he has worked with , an d on behal f of, O RV enthusiast~ du rin g his tenu re as th e Director of Parks for the County of Riversid e , He sta ted further that he does beli eve that there is .a place for us withi n the p r ogr a m s of t he De pa rtm en t. Alt hough he assu red us that there is a p lace for us. he quick ly added that determi ning exactly which ORV uses and sites a re "app ro pria te" is still a p roblem whi ch he a nd th e Dep a rt ment staff m ust wrestle with . _ Wh.ether or not the appeara nce of th~ Di rector at thi s meeting ha d anyt hi ng to do with it is uncertain , bu t th e Depa rtmen t sta ff pers ons at th e meet ing see med more receptive to th e user comments than they had in th e past. In a recent co lum n here, we criticized t he staff for ign oring the wishes of the members of t heir own advi sory co m mi!tee, as well as user group represen tatives. Ther e were still some comme nts made by staff and ot hers, whic h make us u neas y that some of the elabora te p.la ns whic? the users rejected at preVIO US meetIngs will co ntinue to resurface. Staff has mad e the insi nua tion th a t. perha ps t hey nee d to buil d sma ll vers ions of th ese ela borate developments. to "show" us that th ey know what IS best for us. T heir th ink in g is now, after carefu lly selec ting represen ta tives from all kin ds of users, tha t they are not gelli ng a good cross-section of opi nio n. and m aybe sho u ld seek to ta ke a broade r opinion survey. Like a ny good bureaucracy , these staffers fail to u nderstand that we can th ink for ou rselves, th at we do n't need gove rn me nt to tell us what we like or sho uld like . We would be especi~ lIy leary of a ny a tt empt to ta ke a n opinion poll, after seeing how the BLM has used po lls. A qu est ion na ire can be de sgined to elici t a ny response you desi r~ , particularly if you p hrase th e qu esti ons p roperly and ask the righ t peopl e . BLM ha s fou nd that a major Ity of "desert users" want to protect the desert fro m motorcycles by asking pe rsons whose des ert experience by a nd la rge co mes fro m driving fro m L.A . to Vegas. At least our representatives on the advisory co m m ittee are holding tou gh against th e Department's plans 14 to overdevelop t he project into something wh ich will gu a ra nt ee high user fee~ , lots of ra ng ers . and co n tinuous ma intenance . a ll of wh ich will drain th e O RV fund so we will not have the mon ey to acquire new , desira ble sites. Mea nwhi le , back on t he Desert. the BLM continues to establish new "Area s of Criti ca l Concern ." At last cou nt t here a~e no w 77 of th em , as op posed to 50 m the Draft EIS whi ch was p rinted in February. The BLM Desert , Advisory Co m mittee will meet next in Riverside on August 7 a nd 8, and will be wor ki ng on what will be pretty close to the Bureau 's final draft. It behooves riders to attend this mee ting at Rain cross Sq ua re and kin d of look over th~ir sho ulders. If nothing else, this m ig ht keep them somewhat honest. O u r int elligence tell s us that th e la.test ve ~i ons of t ~e d raft are pret ty d iscouraging, Ve hicle "ope n area s" a re now down to about 2 .78 % of the desert , wit h the largest of these being a co uple of sand dune a reas wh ich are of pri mary use to du ne buggies. Left "ope n" to motorcycles at this po int, looks like pieces of Stoddard, R and, Jawb on e a nd Dove Springs, R ed M ountain a nd a fai rly la rge part of J oh nson Valley. Still unresolved by the Burea u sta ff is t?e q uest ion ~f wha t is an "existing" tra~l. T~e advI.sory com mittee began to~.t.ng with t~e I ~ea of classifying them as Identi fied tra ils. "Ide ntified," under their ini tia l definition, wou ld mea n that th ey were ident ified in ma ps, photos, or other inventories of wh a t is present ly in existence. O RV interests were ca utiously prepared to accep t some version of this "i dentified" de fini tion. No w: at the m~s t recent meet in g of the advisory com mittee, Desert Planning Directo r Neil Pful b sta ted tha t he defined :'identified" as " ide? tified as app rop riate or not appropria te for use ." This definition is, of course, anot her way of ca lling an area a "Class L" use area . Un less th e Bu rea u comes up with some better .•definitio~ for existi ng roads a nd trans: or a Cri teria for using a n " identified" classifica tion , we are going to have big problems. Rem ember t he follo wing dates for the Desert Planning Process so tha t you will b.e a ble to get yo u r inpu t int o BL M on time , T he "plan" will be com ple ted around Sept em ber I and sent to t ~e printer. Early in September , BLM W meet with represe ntatives of user Ill gro ups to b rief th em on the pla n's cont ent s. Plans will be ma iled t he last week of Septem ber , a nd the fin al 30 d ay com me nt period starts Octobe r I , 1980 , • C. N. Deepthroat Consider this : "About 95 percent of the illegal drugs smuggled in to the United States from Sout h America are " boated. flown an d transported in vans and trucks to cities across the U.S, by the motorcycle ga ngs ," " N a tionwid e , th ey wou ld appear to co ntrol up to 50 percent of all illicit methamphetami ne distribution ." "T he prob lem is one where 95 percent of all the drugs tra nspo rt ed in th is cou ntry are transported by ou tlaw motorcycle gangs . All of the methamphetamines that are produced in this country illegally are produced in fact ories run by outlaw motorcycle gangs ." Who is saying these terrible things a bo u t motorcyclists? None other than U .S. Representative Robert S. Walker (R- PA) who has a bill in the congr essional hopper, based on th e above "d a ta ," that if passed would exp ress .t he "sense" of Congress that the president should establish a federal st.rik~ forc~ in each U.S . judicial district to Investigate and prosecute "outl aw" motorcycle gangs_ And the gangs, of course. are the key to this coun try's drug problem. Right. And all these outlaw mo torcycl~ts then .store .their drugs in lit tle plasti c baggies , stick them deep into the bowl s of their gas tanks , go to New Orleans, hang around cemeteries and even tu ally .g~t blown ~way by a passenger riding along In a pickup truck . Walker would probably bel ieve th at on ~ t?o. It wou ldn't be surprising, just as It IS not su rprising there is evidence that some of Walker's "testimon y" conce~ing the role motorcycle gangs piay In the drug trade was manu fact ured by the congressman himself, or at best gotten seco nd ha n d , ' For what .reason ? Of :,11 th e press ing matt ers faci ng the nation - like the econom y and energy - why would a congress man m ake a big deal about outlaw moto rcycle gangs? T he answer is simple and strikes at the chord of t he wa y the government works . The 1980 elections. W alk er is up for reelection this year and wha t better .subject to promote d uring his ca m p aIgn tha n a "hometo wn" issue like ou ~law gangs. The Pagans M.C. moved Into Walker's district (based in the La ncaste r , PA , area ) and to the ~verage law- abid in g citiz en , thei r man In W ashi ngt on is working to rid them of wha t Hunter T ho m pson once ca lled "the.menace ." Yet . any pol itical ga ins Walker may make by. sensation ali zing th e Pagens presen ce IS at t he expense of the entire motorcycling .com m un ity. By calli ng for the creation of a fed eral strike force to invest igat e cr ime com m itted by what your ave ra ge law en forcement type would perceive to be an outlaw motorcycli~t boils down to hanging an ope n h unt ing seaso n sign over every person who rides a motorcycle as a means of transport a tion or sport. The crux of House Concurrent Resolution 220 is narcotics, according to Walker. After the Pagans were seen in his district, Walker purportedly began investigating outlaw gangs. Largely based ' on the evidence obtained d uri ng hea rin gs Walker says he held Oct. 12, 1979, in h is Task Force on Welfare Reform of the House Republican Research Committee ]' Walker deduced that these outlaw~ . were the sole ca use of drug abuse in the coun try . However , neither the task for ce or th e Republica n Rese a rch Comm i~tee are standing and offi cial groups In Congress. The committee i$ an ambiguous part of Capito l Hill and ca n be used by Republican congressmen for whatever purpose they want. Now consider th is, Walker sends ou t cop~es of the testimony he received during the one d ay hearing in report , style: !Jsually, testi mony is presented ver batim . There are hardly any direct quotes in Walker 's testimony and as it turns ?ut, th e hearing was never transcribed at all. Official hearings are always transcribed word for word . O ne of th e witnesses Walker sa id testified at his hearing is named as "Joh n Anderson , a former gang member ," Anderson , it seems "testified by telephone." This also i; u.n hea rd of in official congressiona l CIrcles, In addition , there is not one quote in his testimony, only statements beginning with " he told , he also confirmed, he said." This Anderson character spills the beans in the ' testimon y, telling how motorcycle ~angs murder, rape and operate just like t.he ~afia , I,:,terest inglyenough. a publication titled Pennsylvania Illustrated ra n an article last year about a form er Pagan named Jack Anderson , who after a long and illustrious ca reer as an outlaw gang member tu rned in form ant. Sound fam iliar? But that 's just the begi nning. On July 12, 1979 , ju st three months to th e d ay befo re Walker held his hearing, th e ABC news show 20 120 ran a piece narrated by Geraldo Rivera on the Ba nditos M .C . Walker must have been glued to his television set that night as a woman told of her experiences with the gang, Quoting from the ABC transcrips of the show, when asked whether she ever prostituted herself, th e woman r~plied: " I' ve been doing that - well, sin ce September 1968 , since I c~awled on the back of a motorcycle WIth the first Bandido I met." In the report fro m Walker's hearing, under th~ ~ame "Ma ry,. a victim ," appears this Item: "Accepting th a t first ride is her first mistake , her first step into what ca n be considered a white slavery market ." On th e 20 120 program , t he wom en stated tha t, "W hen I left , I had been picked up and beaten for five days and nights .. ." In the testim ony, " Ma ry" said, " I was bound with tape a ro u nd my wrists, elbows, knees and ankl es, and them m y wrists an d ankles wer e bound for five d ays" ," In the television program , the woman said , " I've seen them beat them .. .bum them with cigars all over th eir bodies." In the testimony, " Ma ry" said, " I witnessed girls beaten and tortured .. .and then burned all over thei r bodies with cigars," And finally, the woman on 20 120 mentioned that gangs got income through women working in "top less clubs and any kind of clubs, prostitution.. .' In the testimony, " Ma ry" reports that women work "in bars, as topless dancers or waitresses and sup.plement their income through sellmg drugs and prostitution," .

• Cover