Blog #2 : Hells Angels Motorcycle Club
The first organized crime division group that has been selected is the Hell’s Angels motorcycle club. This group consists of 230 chapters in the U.S and 22 foreign countries, with over 3,000 current members. The clubs are consisted of men usually Caucasian, ranging anywhere from 20-60+ years of age. Many women are involved with these clubs mostly being one of the guys old ladies or wives. The Angels are spread all through the United States with their strongest numbers one the west and east coasts. Through the course of the clubs existence there has been some 5,000 total members. This the largest Outlaw Motorcycle Gang in the country. The Oakland chapter is considered the mother chapter of the club and still today is one of the most powerful and influential in the biker world. Hell’s Angels are known for being the biggest, baddest, and toughest and have built this reputation over the course of many years through various acts of violence and intimation. The Angels have many different enemies including the Pagans, Outlaws, Mongols, and Sons Of Silence. There are many other smaller biker gangs that conflict with the Angels but these are the major threats to the club.
The structure of the club is very simple, every chapter has a president, vice president, sergeant at arms, treasurer, and many other full members who carry out specific duties such as intelligence on law enforcement and rival clubs. The next level is called being a prospect, which means they are part of the club but are getting to know everyone in the charter before they are voted to full membership, which has to unanimous. Being a hang around is the first step for all of this process. They join the parties and hang out
with the charter and club members but are not recognized as being a member. Each
different charter follows the same set of bylaws that were made in the beginning of the club. Each charter has ability to activate new members. On major issues concerning the entire national club every head of each charter has a vote in the decision. So they are highly democratic in that sense. The symbol for the Hell’s Angels is called a Death Head, which is a skull with a motorcycle helmet with wings behind it. This is found on all club personnel and usually is on back middle part of the members “cut” which is their leather vest. This is their most prized possession and if lost or damaged would surely be followed with swift repercussions. Hell’s Angels is spelled on the back of their cut in red and white, with the area they are from on the bottom or which charter they belong to. The club owns the full copyright to their logo and name and don’t usually respond peacefully to anyone who is wearing their emblems without club permission. If a member has a tattoo and gets kicked out of the group, they will either burn or cut it of the individual.
The activity level in the club is very high. The club is first and everything else is second. Many members have regular jobs but on a blink of an eye will drop everything and tend to club business
In most cases the Hell’s Angels have been negatively marked by the media and all of the bad deeds they are involved in they are exposed for. Sonny Barger even stated in his book that they are never recognized for any of the good they do but exploited for all the bad they are involved in. From different member being indicted on gun or drug or murder charges to simple bar fights that get out of control, they get publicly slammed for. I’m sure that every bar fight in California was not related with the Hell’s Angels. An
example of a newspaper article about the Angels is from The Mercury News out of San Jose, California explaining how two members were recently acquitted of attempted murder in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. They allegedly were involved in a 2006 gun fight with the major rival group the Outlaws and after three days of deliberation were set free. They still might face conspiracy charges from another incident but that has not yet been determined. This is just one example of the negative illustration that the media paints about these guys. Another newspaper article comes from The Oakland Tribune and talks about the murder of the San Francisco chapter president Mark “Papa” Guardado, who was murdered September 2nd,allegedly by a member of the Mongols. The article talked about that there were over two thousand Angels that showed up for support and was one of the largest funeral processions from San Francisco mission district to a cemetery in Colma. It seems that all of their publicity has to deal with some kind of tragedy or serious crime and there are never articles about the toy runs they do for children or other acts they do which positively effect the community. Their public image will probably stay the same with the way the current media only shows and depicts tragedy throughout the nation.
References:
Bay Area Census- City Of Oakland Alameda County 2000 www.bayareacensus.ca.gov
Oakland Crime Statistics(CA). www.Cityrating.com copyright 2002
Oakland California Crime Reports, Crime News and Statistics, www.HelloOakland.com 2005/2006
Barger, Ralph. Zimmerman, Keith/Kent. “The Life And Times Of Sonny Barger And The Hell’ Angels Motorcycle Club” 2000 William Morrow, HarperCollins Publishers
United States Department Of Justice: Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs/ Violent Gangs www.usdoj.gov
California Department Of Justice: Organized Crime Report 2005, www.ag.ca.gov
United States Drug Enforcement Agency. www.usdoj.gov/dea C.S.U.S, Criminal Justice Class 139 Lecture: week 13-14 Outlaw Motorcycle Groups Professor Hernandez
The Mercury News. San Jose, California “2 Hells Angel Bikers Acquitted” written by Carson Walker: Associated Press 11/20/2008
The Oakland Tribune: “2000 Attend Funeral of Slain Hells Angel Leader” By Evelyn
Nieves Associated Press Writer 9/16/2008
