Canada - Hells Angels under pressure

[S.J.B.]

Hells Angels under pressure
Adrian Humphreys
National Post

Last month’s violence involving motorcycle gangs in Texas — where a brawl begat a firefight killing nine — is a sharp reminder of the unpredictable core of outlaw biker life.

The intense coverage of the incident, with the gritty, telegenic pageantry of the bikers, brought motorcycle gangs into the spotlight in the United States like little else before but it is something Canadians are grimly accustomed to.

Canada already had its “Waco moment” — several, in fact — that roused the public, police and politicians, shifting the biker gang image from freewheeling brotherhood of rogues towards that of a criminal cult: such as a purge in 2006 that killed eight members of an Ontario club and a war in Quebec by the Hells Angels offering a staccato of Waco-like moments as bombs and bullets killed 160 people.

While outlaw biker clubs in Canada have avoided those kinds of headlines recently, their landscape has shifted dramatically: Allegiances changing, new clubs starting, others collapsing.

Police monitor so-called “1%” clubs, a term emerging decades ago after a claim that 99 per cent of motorcyclists are law-abiding citizens. Outlaw clubs declared they were the one per cent who weren’t.

Read the full story here.

I would wager that the Hells Angels aren't actually under that much pressure from any other organized-crime groups anywhere in Canada right now. It certainly isn't comparable to the situation in Québec in the 1990s.

 

[my3rdeye]

If the police cant stop gangs who advertise on their vests and the side of their clubhouse how are they going to stop people who hide their criminal activities?