Research and Rumination on Homicide

Today I went to the Bureau of Justice Statistics Web site to look at the relationship of assailant to victim, and found some other things besides. I also checked out the Center for Disease Control.

Mostly, We Lived
In the last year of reported data (2007) at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC FastStats site), there were 1.4 million emergency room visits because of assault/attempted homicide/homicide. Murder was the 15th most likely cause of death (behind heart disease (#1), cancer (#2) , and suicide (#11)).

There were 18,361 homicide deaths in 2007. 12,632 of those resulted from firearms use.

You have to say those emergency rooms are doing a good job: assuming that all the murder victims died in an E.R. (which they don't), that would still be a 1.3% death rate to overall visits for assault.  If you're dying, the paramedics and the E.R. are generally going to save you. Unless you go out afterwards and continue to do whatever got you there in the first place. The same of course is true with heart disease: can't do what you've been doing and expect to live a long life.

But Sometimes We Didn't
The BJS site is a little behind the CDC: most of their reporting ends at 2005.

Victim/Offender Relationships: 1976--2005.
All Homicides       1976-2005     100%   594,276

People kill their spouses about 7% of the time. Wives and ex-wives usually die of gunshot wounds.
They kill their boyfriend or girlfriend about 3.8% of the time. Boyfriends usually die of knife wounds.
They kill some other close family member about 8% of the time.

They kill "non-intimate family", friends, or acquaintances about 32.1% of the time.
It's more likely that these acquaintances will be male, and of age 18-24. This is also the age that uses guns the most. Gang violence has increased 800% (eightfold) over the reported thirty years.

The relationship was undetermined for 35.2% of all homicides in that time period.
That particular statistic "undetermined" is trending upward: no doubt caused by a variety of factors, including a lack of police manpower for apprehensions and for murder investigations. In 1975, 79% of all homicide cases cleared; in 2005, 62%.  That's a pretty strong correlation to the undetermined percentage, which has also trended up.

So at least 50.8 % of all homicides are committed by people that knew the victim. Arguments factor into most of them: that's how the homicide starts. That's opposed to homicide in commission with another crime--robbery, rape, and so forth. Mostly it's people getting mad and settling it forever. With a gun. Usually. The BJS says gun-related murder is trending downward, but I don't think the CDC believes it. That's why it's good to check more than one site for your stats. Each producer of stats has a vested interest. Each of them has a different means of getting their reports.

Strangers committed 13.9% of all homicides in that time period.
None of these figures add in 9/11, which according to Wikipedia, killed 2977 people.  If you add those into the total, the figure for "homicide by strangers" goes up to 13.95% . The Twin Towers, the Pentagon, and Pennsylvania--as awful and symbolic as they are--do not add appreciably to the number of murders that happened in the United States from 1975 to 2005.  But perhaps it's not fair to dilute that by 30 years.

Murder per capita, selected years:
1974--10.1
1980--10.7
1991--10.5
2001, including 9-11-- 7.1. According to the CDC, 20,308 people total died in 2001 of assault/homicide. Even if that includes the 9-11 deaths, then less than 15% of that years' homicides were from this frightening terrorist attack in three locations. Not even equal percentage to the number of intimate family homicides that same year.
2006--6.2
2007--6.1

According to the BJS, homicides clear more often than any other type of case. 
And that makes me wonder something else about police work. Big crimes are fascinating to us: they are discrete (separate) events. Crappy crimes like armed robbery or car theft are more likely to happen to us. They are more likely to impact our daily life.

We hold the loss of human life as the most important, but is it really the most important to us? A murder across town--does it affect us as much as having our handbag stolen? It takes forever to get a duplicate license, a new picture of our boyfriend or grandchild, to cancel our credit cards. A wallet costs more than $20.00 these days, and requires a trip to the store when we don't have our new driver's license yet. Plus we're anxious, angry, afraid, and maybe kicking ourselves for being careless.

But these crimes have a less successful clearance rate. I wonder if our society's dissatisfaction with policing comes from the difference of our moral expectations--and our real expectations. I wonder if our real expectation is to be spared inconvenience--not to worry about human life.

Doing More Triage with Band-Aids
And more than ever, a quick look at statistics shows us this: whichever we pick, the "life is precious" road or the "convenience is precious" one, we've underfunded our police departments. We've got mixed motives in our policing expectations, and a far from clear set of priorities. That's made us ambiguous at best and hostile at worst toward law enforcement and its officers.  "Shouldn't you be out fighting real crime?" they hear. Yet accidental injury (including drunk drivers and road war) is #3 on the CDC mortality statistics. Way above murder. Way above suicide.  It's life-affirming to write traffic violations. Why is that so hard to believe?

I believe law enforcement agencies have realized this societal ambiguity between life-affirming and convenience-affirming. The LEO on the street is inconvenienced and importuned by it and the agencies have internalized it. We now have a lot of bean-counting inside the agencies, which the police officers seemingly don't like and we don't pay attention to anyway. Statistics on robbery or loitering seem to figure more highly in "police performance assessment" and reportedly can be fudged by knocking down the charges to a lesser violation, or inflating the number of contacts. It's artificial. On some level, it's meant to appease. And get funding. Our ambiguity trends into our funding for the departments. The bean-counting is their fight back. It only works half the picture at best, and reinforces our ambiguity at worst.

As long as society at large fails to realize that police "productivity" is in direct but also inverse proportion from the stats, society will not get either the convenient or the life-affirming law enforcement response. The more crimes solved or prevented, the less need it seems we have for police. But prevention means placing resources before the fact. You can't go by need alone (crime is going up; case clearance going down), but also by the effect (crime is going down; case clearance is up). When law enforcement succeeds, we cut funding. It only makes sense in statistics, not in real life.

This is not what I was starting to look for when I studied homicide statistics. It's just what grabbed me. I was looking for stats comparing Bubba Terrorism to Islamic Terrorism.  Haven't found those yet. I got distracted.

Support your local law enforcement agencies. That's what I really have. Do it from the pocket--you get what you pay for. And do it with a smile. That would be life-affirming. Might even work on the convenience scale, too.

Cities, Crime, Detente: Sudhir Venkatesh

More on Cities, Crime, and Economics:

Colombia University's School of Social Studies gave a Conference on "Cities and New Wars" which is definitely a timely topic Sudhir Venkatesh spoke, (and so did Claire Cutler of Victoria, Canada).  With only two panelists, and two divergent sets of concerns, I don't think it was the best panel ever. However, each speaker was interesting in their own way. And I'm actually going to take them both, one post at a time.

But never mind Cutler now. Here is the link to the video, 55 minutes long. Professor Venkatesh spoke starting at minute two, and ended at minute 30 or so. That's plenty to start with.

The examples are set in Chicago. Nobody needs to think this is limited to Chicago, by any means.

Policing, or Not, in the Urban Ghetto
Venkatesh's topic was ostensibly "Policing in the U.S. Ghetto." However, it took a sharp turn into urban economic violence from the start. His contention was that the ghetto has a "city government within a city government." It is unofficial, shady, what we call extortion, gang wars, and the crack economy. The police are not the main security providers in these areas.

He describes drive-by shootings--that they have a definite sound sequence, a noise associated with "incoming". One of the things I noted was that children were growing up in the Robert Taylor homes with the same expectations of violence that we consider a feature of Beirut or Baghdad. That a mother's care includes an admonition to "get your ass down now."

He then describes the park/turf that was the proximal cause of this violence: a three-way gang war for the economic benefits of the park. This included sales territory for drug or weapons sales, but also "taxation authority" for the other activities around the park: food vendors, clothing vendors, prostitutes, car repair.
Before they were torn down, the Robert Taylor Project was truly ruled by an alternate authority than the City of Chicago. It's interesting to note that under-the-table businesses do have a huge tax bill, in the government that makes the place work (dysfunctionally or functionally, take your pick) and that with this alternate government, they also try to evade or avoid taxation through under-reporting of receipts.

The gangs have pride of place. Like a nation, they control specific territory. When two gangs contest turf, the sets of diplomats include community leaders such as pastors and activists. A summit meeting is called, several diplomatic activities through different intermediaries take place. The gangs eventually agreed to a division of the park for commerce and taxation. They also agreed to avoid certain hours for their activities, such as when children were out of school.

Mr. Venkatesh does note that the police came but did not get out of the car on several occasions when drive-bys or other violent/war-like events occurred. I don't think he was making a judgement, just underlining his theory that the City does not have primary authority in this area, even in security.

More Recent Data
The Robert Taylor Homes are long gone. This second video is from last year. Hat/Tip Second City Cop's "A Riot? Not Quite" post of August 16, 2009. And this one is perhaps more to the point.

1. You can see that the police car is the first presence, and that the police disperse the crowd--by getting out of their cars at great risk--only when the second police car shows up.
2. You can also see that the fighters don't disperse right away. They're defiant.
3. You can also see that if they were totally defiant, things could have taken a totally different turn. But two police officers in two cars cannot change a neighborhood in the middle of the night. They can only impose order for that time, that place, that minute.

It remains a question about how controlled the "rioters" were. I think not so very. .

What a riot! from Joe Gray on Vimeo.

But let's look at the other city, state, and national authorities. Their first job is to provide security, and they have, in some fashion. Governments also have tax authority--this goes hand in hand with having the "standing armies" that maintain the state. Yet this is equally compromised. No IRS or other local authority shows up to collect taxes--they send a letter once a year. The evasion or avoidance of taxes to the local authority--the gang--is even more prevalent for the government--because the first tax becomes "business overhead".

The place where (what we call) the legitimate state makes the most impact is in a kind of internal "foreign aid". This aid is a tied aid--to certain behaviors (live here, for instance). Like much foreign diplomacy, it does not succeed in changing many internal cultural values. It may not even seek to. Mostly it stops war from breaking out along the border. In the end, looking at the shadow economy, you almost begin to wonder: just who runs this territory? At what point does legitimate rule go to who claims it?

The U.S. claimed a lot of land by sending people to sit on it that were sympathetic to their government, their culture, and their folkways. Other parcels they bought: from Mexico (the Gadsden Purchase), from France (the Louisiana Purchase). Other parts were wrested away (e.g. the Republic of Texas fighting against the government of Mexico). At the time we brought all this territory under one aegis, we also allowed people to barter, make local arrangements, and didn't tax so much. Many customary activities then are now considered shadow economy by our own nation, state, and city. And yet we won't pay for increased security without increased taxation.

If we want the inner city claimed by the government we know, then the city has to have a presence in that area that can contend with the de facto government that really seems to run it. That means increased security, and establishment of taxation authority, and cultural interchange, and--gaining the consent of the governed.

Venkatesh doesn't necessarily lead where I did, but he has plenty to say. It's well worth picking up a book or two of his and giving them a good read. The one I am still reading (fascinating!) is:

Off the Books: The Underground Economy of the Urban Poor by Sudhir Venkatesh. It's not at every bookstore, but still readily available.

Introduciing Sudhir Venkatesh: The Ghetto Economy

Sudhir Venkatesh is the graduate student from the University of Chicago that made Steven Levitt's and Stephen Dubner's first Freakonomics book so interesting--he is the one who brought in the great gang information and even the gang accounting for Levitt to peruse (as he says himself) at leisure.

He is not strictly an economist, so his vision of social activity is quite different. Nevertheless, he has studied economic phenomena (such as drug accounting and unofficial business) within the inner city. His work is genuine field work of the old style. In short, he lived it first, developing long-term relationships, which gained him more access and longer times to formulate and test his theories. His work is therefore a little more personalized than Levitt's. It is also terribly important because is not a hit-and-run intellectual exercise. It is the long way around getting a graduate degree, and at some risk to his health, indeed.

I was lucky to find that C-Span spent an hour with Mr. Venkatesh in its "Q and A" program. The following video is 58 minutes long. It was spurred by his most popular book, Gang Leader for a Day, but introduces his work in general. All of the video I am finding with Professor Ventakesh (now at Columbia) seems to be an hour long, which is not optimal for blog readers, I know. So the transcript of the talk is here. And since Professor Venkatesh took the long way around his sociology degree, we have a lot of personal witness to life in the Robert Taylor homes in Chicago--including some mistakes he made as well as the mother lode of information. He spent seven years at it.

He discovered an entirely different kind of government in the inner city. An entirely different economy. And in Gang Leader for a Day, he was able to access the workings of what I would call America's fastest-growing conglomerate--the crime conglomerate.

In my studies of gangs and gang economics, I have run into two remarkable men who have accessed the ghetto in a long-standing relationship AND studied it with academic rigor. Mr. Venkatesh is one. He is, further, an ambitious scholar. Without his interest, commitment and compassion, we would never get a glimpse of what we see here. 

So I think it's very important to view his work as a series of large clues and insights. The raw material may lead, certainly, to any solution he suggests, or any emotion he invokes. It may also lead to other conclusions of your own. But very rarely do we get to access someone with such an involved history of the details, as well as economic and social studies background, to translate for us. It's strong work. 

Mr. Venkatesh has his own Web site.

Books by Mr. Venkatesh:

Gang Leader for a Day by Sudhir Ventakesh. Available, and featured above.

Off the Books: The Underground Economy of the Urban Poor. Available.

American Project: The Rise and Fall of the Urban Ghetto. Available.

There are also several documentaries noted at his Web site. Not all of them are about economics or gangs, but a good many of them are indeed on this very important part of urban life.

Crime and Insurrection: The Economic Causes

Today the Ann T. Hathaway blog features Paul Collier as an economist in the Crime and World Economics series. Normally, he's at Oxford University. Thanks to book publishing and the Internet, he can be here also. I did write him a fan letter once. He is very gracious.

This paper is based upon Professor Collier'a studies of civil wars across the globe, 1965-1999. Additionally he follows the economies of African states, which have had a good many civil conflicts. He wrote a most sensible chapter in a textbook I read,  based on these years of research:

"Economic Causes of Civil Conflict and Their Implications for Policy" in Turbulent Peace: The Challenges of Managing Internal Conflict. Edited by Crocker, Hampson, Aall. US Institute of Peace Press.

And of course he kept going. He has two books out for mainstream readers.
--
He found that the political language of civil conflict pops up everywhere. The reasons for grievance never correlated to actual conflict--in short, everyone complains, but it doesn't always lead to war. Some citizens in some countries have extremely good reasons to complain, and still don't have civil conflict. But research showed that civil war occurs only under consistent economic phenomena. These phenomena were:

1. Dependence on primary commodity imports. (they raise cotton, coffee, diamonds, oil, opium, et cetera, but not enough foodstuffs, or goods used at home).
2. Low national income.
3. The ability of the insurrectionists to finance their disorder.

Organized Crime
Collier says that "economic analysis sees rebellion as more of a form of organized crime." This is not a huge leap for us, because the legitimate government is at least titularly in charge, and creates a state-run justice system (see Thomas Hobbes post from last week). Furthermore, the disorder against life and property is, in a specific sense, against the stability that the state is supposed to confer.

Now he goes on to explain about the language of grievance versus the dry quality of economics:

Imagine, for a moment, that you are a leader of a rebel organization, needing to offer an explanation of your goals. What are the likely elements? Most surely, they will be a litany of grievances against  the government, for its oppression, unfairness, and perhaps victimization of some part of the population that your organization claims to represent. That is, your language will be the language of protest.  You will style your  rebellion as a protest movement driven to the extremity of violence . . . almost certainly, the government will have responded to your insurgency with an incompetent counterinsurgency campaign. "Almost certainly" because counterinsurgency is very difficult. . . . .

Rebellion is large-scale predation of productive economic activities.  . . . However, [the economist's] view is so at odds with the popular discourse on conflict that there is temptation to dismiss it as fanciful. The techniques of economics do not help its arguments: compared with the compelling historical detail produced by histories of protest . . .

In other words, grievance creates a story that can sway the emotions. But underneath it all, there's a way to grab capital and power for the "aggrieved" side, which doesn't sound as good no matter who says it.

Unlike organized crime, rebel movements need good international public relations and they need to motivate their recruits to kill. They need good international public relations because most of them are partially dependent upon international financial support. They need to motivate their recruits to kill because, unlike a mafia, a predatory rebel organization is periodically going to have to fight for its survivial against government forces. A rebel organization cannot afford to be regarded as criminal . . . Grievance is to a rebel organization what image is to a business.

While [grievance] is morally interesting to observers--is the cause just?--it is of no practical importance. .  . . The economic theory of conflict argues that the motivation of conflict in unimportant; what matters is whether the organization can sustain itself financially. . . . Regardless of why the organization is fighting, it can fight only if it is financially viable.

It is the feasibility of predation that determines the risk of conflict.

--
So, the question is, can you fund your war?

In Sierra Leone, Angola, and elsewhere, civil conflict is funded by portable, hideable, and valuable diamonds. In Iraq, the insurgency is funded by the very liquid commodity of oil. This has also been true in Chechnya and Dagestan, where Russia is fighting a secessionist movement with some Islamic connections. In Afghanistan, opium pays for terror and Taliban.

In Nigeria, insurrection is funded by oil. It is also funded by the Nigerian scams, diverted but legitimate income from oil companies, shippers, and the like--and by lawsuits. Mostly the oil.

Let's talk about the FARC in Colombia, which Collier (2001) says "has grown to employ around twelve thousand people. . . . The FARC earns around $700 million per year from drugs and kidnapping. . . ."

In Israel and Palestine, in Ulster, conflict is funded by the remittances of rich people living elsewhere.

Mexico
In Mexico, the drug war is taking on overtones of civil war, as police officers and innocent bystanders are massacred. More than one organization is downed only to rise again with new leaders. Each fights for regional control, ruining local stability. But as long as they are fighting among themselves, they are not as busy suborning national government. The civil conflict in Mexico is funded by purchasers of marijuana, cocaine, and methamphetamine. The U.S. is the biggest purchaser because of proximity. However, drugs such as heroin or cocaine sell for a much higher price in Europe, so some illegal trade via Mexico is going there.

The counter-insurgency is also funded by the U.S. in part. Agencies lend expertise and dollars to a huge effort to knock these cartels down. It would not be good for us to have a failed state with a long border adjacent to us.

The only thing missing is the language of grievance. Until that political language enters, it is states versus markets. And when grievance comes in, we'll call it civil war--but it's still states versus markets. The market is definitely strong enough to fund civil conflict in the Caribbean, Colombia, and Mexico. As we see.

--
It is interesting to note for funding civil conflict: the worldwide drug trade, as of 2003, earns an estimated 1% of world GDP. That's more than enough to tip toward civil conflict in states that do not have other industries--see condition 1 above. In states such as Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Jamaica, and Colombia, or in pockets thereof, these make up close to 100% of national or local GDP. These states are all failing.

Just as these things relate to world trade, they also relate to local trade. I'll talk about that tomorrow, using some of Professor Collier's principles.

Two articles below go international! Look beyond our borders to see what's universal!
The third and fourth feature Mr. Collier himself.

Related articles by Zemanta

• France's Sarkozy cracks down on crime and immigrants (reuters.com)
• Op-Ed Contributor: Jamaica's Bloody Democracy (nytimes.com)
• The Plundered Planet Podcast Series: Day 1 (oup.com) This is Mr. Collier on how poverty can be alleviated, conflicts wane, and a better world. 
• War Games by Linda Polman and The Plundered Planet by Paul Collier: review (telegraph.co.uk)

Steven D. Levitt on Gang Economics

I'm kicking off a World Economics Series, with lectures and maybe even book reviews of the economists that have important things to say, or in some cases, who are influencing our view of politics and economy and world affairs.

I'll start with a funny one, that provokes thought about local economics. It is also a study of gang economics, previously posted at Ann T. Hathaway.
This is Steven Levitt,  author of Freakonomics and Super-Freakonomics. He talks about the local aspect of international drug trade. By explaining it as a business, he also shows us just exactly what barriers we face. He also maybe missed a few.
The video, like many I am contemplating, is produced by TED.com. I hope you enjoy.

I am not always a fan of the Freakonomics blog, but other times I think they have a great thing going.

Mr. Levitt and Mr. Dubner also have a Freakonomics Web site, with Study Guides to their books.
The Freakonomics books are readily available.

Sudhir Ventakesh is the graduate student Mr. Levitt refers to as doing the field work. He has also written extensively, and I will feature him in another post.

Hemet Anti Gang Task Force Still Under Threat

I have an update/correction/amendment to a previous post. Then two announcements that are somewhat related.

Hemet, California Update
In late March, I posted that the Vagos Motorcycle Club were under some suspicion for attacks/ambushes on the Anti-Gang Task Force of the Hemet, California Police Department. As of this posting, a $200,000 reward is still being offered.

Shortly thereafter, a four-state crackdown on the gang commenced, netting at least one meth lab, and numbers of weapons, drugs, and people in violation of parole.  On April 22, 2010, the Los Angeles Times reported that one or more white supremacist groups (neo-Nazi gangs) are also being considered for these crimes targeting law enforcement. A crackdown on Neo-Nazi groups took place in Riverside County, California, where Hemet is located.

The investigation continues, so Hemet PD is not confirming which group or groups they feel is responsible. Anyway, their alliances with other local, state, and federal law enforcement means that they are pushing forward on anti-gang work. I hope they do get everyone who tried to ambush them.  This cannot be tolerated.

Vagos MC Post Up (Finally)
The Vagos MC bibliography and notes is finally posted. It was difficult to find good news articles to make a history of sorts--references to articles suggesting long history do exist. Unfortunately the newspapers are not keeping deep archives on the Web for our use. I am sure that budgetary pressures provide a reason. Nevertheless, this represents a regrettable loss of good information.

News Articles Posted As Needed
Because of this, I am now going to cut-and-paste newspaper articles that seem important in gang information and place them somewhere on the gang page posts. I hate when this stuff gets lost. These won't become a daily posting on the main blog page, however. I will also reference them properly. And of course I won't get them all.

Urban Terrorism and a Response, in Riverside County, California

Chilling reports:
Right now, the Vagos are in the news for practicing urban terrorism against the police of Hemet, California. They are suspected for placing a pipe in the headquarters of the Hemet Gang Task Force and pumping in a lot of natural gas. Two officers, the first in for the day, realized this immediately and averted fire and explosion. (H/T Sergeant Says for the link.) A zip-gun booby trap was placed on a gate to the PD parking lot. An officer missed taking a head shot by eight inches. Only the poor condition of the gate (and luck) saved him. Then on March 5th, a car belonging to a Gang Task Force member was booby-trapped with a bomb.

The Vagos remain the top suspect for all three of these incidents. Certainly the style of the crime argues for some machining or inventing experience. I hope they get the shop, the makers, and everybody involved.

You have to believe that Hemet's Gang Task Force has been making large strides against the gang. But this response to their effectiveness is absolutely unacceptable to all of us. For those who tolerate the gang or their apologists, (I have seen a few sites), it's time to reconsider your affiliation.

Police Response
On March 17, a Riverside County-wide law enforcement operation targeted 100 Vagos and arrested thirty of them. Arrests were also made concurrently in two other states.

On March 19, an unidentified caller called 911 and stated that a Hemet PD car would be blown up in the next 48 hours. This threat has not so far materialized.

Best wishes to the Hemet Police Department 

and to all Law Enforcement.

Somewhat Related Business
This post announces the addition of a new entry on the gang page and the Sidebar--for Motorcycle Clubs.  I have one going on the Vagos (not quite constructed) but felt there had to be some groundwork laid first.

For those who are interested, I post on gang insignia, some representative news stories, and video or educational sites that show how to recognize gangs, the way they communicate, the modes and methods of their trade, and the threat they pose. I do it to help the law-abiding and maybe even law enforcement.

I am sure that the Hemet PD needs no help from me, but others may be able to use these reference pages to good effect. Because if things get too hot for them in Riverside County, they may go somewhere else.

The IOS: Still Bangin' on the Block: er, Blog

The Insane Original Scholars started claiming turf in November 2009, and announced its presence in Ann T.'s territory on 12/4/2009. Now 15 posts are specifically gang "links and notes" pages, all stored in the month of August, in a good order for reading through. I think they take from two minutes to an hour to read, depending on how many links you try. And lots of pictures, which sometimes explain more than words.

Because of other posts besides "links and notes", there's a total of 21 posts on gangs under the "gang category". Posts to come:
Folk Nation
People Nation
Feliciana-13
18th Street
Gang Wars, Central California (N-14 v S-13) as an exemplar of other gang migrations/conflicts
more Prison Gangs such as the Aryan Brotherhood and the Texas Syndicate
Motorcycle Gangs: I got a story or two on the Bandidos
A lot more on Gang Economics, which leads to studying--

International Crime
I've moved somewhat to international crime to help me understand the gang economics.  International crime (bigger than gangs) will be posted in the month of September, eventually in a good order for reading them. I don't have enough on those yet, but they'll be about international finance, small wars, drug trafficking, human trafficking, and weapons trafficking.

Yes, they will relate to terrorism: it's the same set of markets. Since I am not applying for a government grant, I prefer to analyze terror as an economic factor rather than something distinct and previously unknown.

This is Ann T. Hathaway blog's 101st post.  I started in September, so that's where the insane part comes from. I still want to blog memoirs and poems and entertain, so that anyone stopping by can browse and relax. We can't  be intense all the time. But I also want to give back, for all the insights and interesting things I have read by people with "Difficult Jobs." Maybe the IOS will  keep me off the streets . . . or get me back on them. . . . which I also want.

Still taking requests, notifications, corrections, and amplifications,

Thanks to all my readers and commenters, followers and lurkers: glad you stopped by.
Ann T.

Anti-Gang Community Measures: 5 Points, and Nine Lessons: UPDATED

Since my last discussion of anti-gang measures was mostly critical, I thought I'd post one that I thought had potential. Can't offer any happy endings, just maybe some hope.

Toronto Star Video, 2008: A Native American community in Alberta, Canada is featured in this video. The article that related to it is here (from July 20, 2008). It gives further background to what you watch.

I particularly like this video because it's beautifully shot, but not glamorous. The ex-gang member is  formerly of the Redd Alert Aboriginal Gang, a prison gang that (according to one reference--which may not be good) does not require gang service post-prison. (However, that gang is active in Edmonton area, so . . . ) He is given voice, but not authority within these eight minutes. The mother, the construction crew, the Royal Canadian Police (RCMP) local, the elderly lady, they're equally powerful, if not more so.

According to Intertribal Times, August 18, 1998, Hobbema has 12,000 people, and the RCMP reports the town/area has thirteen gangs. That's a lot of potential conflict.

There's five good points and at least eight lessons in this video:
A. The gangs came in because oil money came to the community. But the period of investment in resources is always short. The "boom" money was sucked out of the people instead of left in the bank.

Lesson 1: In international relations, there's a growing voice that says conflict occurs when there is something to gain. Small wars and gang activity don't occur when there's no money, they show up because there is money.

Lesson 2: We need to teach people how to invest. In underdeveloped countries, the World Bank (as a lender to said country) has the resource company undertake this. The oil company subcontracts this job to somebody who knows how. But we can do this in underdeveloped or blasted parts of developed nations, too. IMO, the legislation should be aimed at lenders--foreign and domestic.

B.It took an atrocity to get people of good will fired up against the gangs.
Lesson 3: We excuse the behavior of those we love. Everybody else minds their own business. Then we see, collectively, that it is a dead end. When the community mobilizes correctly, the places to hide start to dry up.

C. Prosperity brought a housing boom. The bust emptied the buildings back out and made them habitat for criminal activity. Volunteers are working to take down 29 abandoned houses. It's enormous work, and they've only removed three.
Lesson 4: You can't have abandoned property and expect to win.

Lesson 5: In international relations, the ideal is "sustainable development". You don't spend your capital on casinos, for instance, you spend it on schools, on clinics or hospitals of the right size (not huge). Things like that. Everybody knows this, but it's still hard to learn.

D. Graffiti abatement/other anti-gang measures make a constant fight, but you have to fight it.
Lesson 6: You can gain strength from a higher power, but you still need a paintbrush and some paint.

E. The time to get the kids is before age 13. You have to give them an alternative by age 12, or else they won't believe you. They won't listen. Or, they're already in ("blood in, blood out") and they can't get out.
Lesson 7: School programs have to interest the younger set, give them skills, but also contact with interested people.

Lesson 8: It takes the family, but it also takes the community.

Lesson 9: Taking Lesson 3, the hesitation of individuals and the community, Lesson 6, the combined response of the ideal and the practical, and Lesson 8: the community response--the addition of a goal-oriented team/task force in law enforcement can't do anything but good.

Anyway, that's what I get out of this video--be happy to post other rules people have gleaned out of this.

Well-Meaning vs. Well-Aimed: (part 1) The Anti-Gang Message

Looking at our messages to at-risk youth, based on my investigations so far: We're walking without brains; we're leading with weakness. We'll never win like this.

Example: It's rude, I apologize, I find it necessary to say anyway.

In Crips v. Bloods, part 1, the documentary I found shows former/inactive gang members working as anti-gang counselors to new or potential gang members. The strategy means these gentleman hang around and participate with the kids at a Neighborhood Center.

I don't call into question their sincerity, or the sincerity of their employers. But this approach seems to me as fragile as an eggshell.

Well-meaning?
These counselors are saying the gang didn't work for them, and gave them a harder life. They lived through decades on the streets; they succeeded in surviving prison. But quite frankly, they don't look successful at anything else. Are they employed there solely as a terrible warning? If so, is that the crowning punishment of their life?

Who is going to listen to a self-professed loser?  What teenager believes he will get old? (Why would he want to?) How is hanging out with someone who made bad choices going to help a youth make good choices?

They have to offer an alternative, and these men can't even offer a good game of one-on-one.

Well-aimed?
That said, I wouldn't shove them aside. The real value of these gentlemen is as interpreters and teachers of those who don't understand gangs and gang activity. They cement alliances or transfer information about the neighborhood (not primarily social causes, but nuts and bolts). That would mean they educate the interlopers:  law enforcement, teachers, social services professionals and any business leaders who want to locate in their area.

Law enforcement, social services, and business leaders would have to value them as "fixers". (Something higher than a "snitch" or a "horrible warning".) And they would have to be able to wield that power in the neighborhood. No interloper can confer that value on someone who has no personal power left. So you have to get the right guy.

In this program, the unspoken messages have killed the stated message. Of course, I'm not there. But that's how it reads. We mean well. You know what they say about the road to hell.

Chilling with the I.O.S (Insane Original Scholar)

Today I will introduce my gang series, consisting of Links and Notes entries--a set of annotated bibliographies. I have nine so far, and expect to have more than twenty when I am done: some on topics, like economics, some on individual street, prison, or motorcycle gangs. I'll just keep posting them in my August month under the gangs category, in the best order.

Each has pictures, illustrations, and videos I’ve carefully culled out of hundreds. It includes my random thoughts toward a theme, working my way as I go. Links will soon show up on my sidebar.

I’m sure there’s a vast well of secret handbooks and rules in the gangs. I’m equally sure there’s an underground lake of law enforcement information that never gets shared. Official redaction as aggressive graffiti: it’s pitifully easy to guess at the turf war between law enforcement agencies, seeing what’s missing out of these reports.

The public gets information that either creates panic or talks down to them. Many law enforcement presentations aim for middle-class voters with children--educated people, but that education isn’t trusted. We get a recipe, not a way to back up our instincts.

A few sites are giving bona-fide information, and I’ve tried to collect them in one place. A few are giving out strange or anonymous information, but what sits between the lines seems valuable. So it's the good out of the larger, mostly non-academic pile on the Web.

A good presentation often gives glamour, even to painful subjects. I don’t think it’s wrong to show what makes gangs attractive—it’s one key to understanding their persistence. But to counteract the glamour, I tried to pick examples that were realistic, as raw an example as I could find from pre-presented material.

For scholarly purposes, I looked past glamour, doubletalk, disgust or humor and tried to see what’s lying underneath or inbetween. That’s the approach I recommend.

This information helps me understand political economy and a significant set of subcultures in the U.S. and around the world. Maybe it will be useful or insightful to others.

I eagerly look forward to corrections, amplifications, requests, in fact anything that advances the streetwise, all-eyes, tell no lies, Web-u-lized, intellectual turf of the I.O.S.

Photo above, AP, Chicago, 2009. After-school fight that ended in the homicide of Derrion Albert.

New Investigations

I've been thinking a lot about the way that our words don't cover the need. I get this from my “Difficult Jobs” blogroll (and I read their blogroll after that). I see this vast disconnect between international knowledge and local knowledge when it comes to application. Two of a hundred examples:

Example A: How does the knowledge of international anti-terrorism translate to law enforcement on the curbs of a beleaguered neighborhood? We know crime and terror are related, but what kind of tools or training apply from the international to the local? What discourse helps?

Example B: Public schools know that they’re on the front lines for preparing a work force. When a teacher faces thirty students, half or more that don’t know how to read, and tries to teach Shakespeare or mathematics, how does international competition for jobs come in?
I don’t mean the teacher should talk about offshore labor; I mean, when these kids fail, they’re in a bad position to capture a prosperous adulthood in a healthy community.

Or put it another way: How can the long view be inserted into the particulars?

It seems to me, that for first responders, this disconnect from the international to the local feels like a two-tier system. The locals have the drudge end, working with not enough tools. And I read this in some blogs or accounts:

1. sometimes the venting of accumulated frustrations,
2. sometimes a report of how a policy isn’t working (immigration, for instance)
3. sometimes an attempt at self-education in political science or international issues,
4. most often national/international programs that dribble down according to one priority or another, change every four or eight years, become paper-wasters.

So, instead of despairing over the general, I thought: study something. Figure it out. Try to connect them. I picked gangs, because by and large, they are a significant inner-city employer, a dangerous feature of the schools and neighborhoods.

And I am right back where I started. Gangs are international, but they are also relentlessly local. So I have to think about it some more. I have to do more research.

Image: An Art Print, "Frustration" by Brooke Sajer, at the Minerva Union. Ms. Sajer, this is gorgeous.

In the City of HotWinds, Explosive Developments

Life is getting exciting where I live.
1. Yesterday, they arrested someone for (allegedly) throwing a Molotov cocktail four blocks from my condominium. He was protesting, but he didn't stick around long enough for anyone to read his placard. He was apprehended, but now they won't say what his issue was. (Maybe ambivalence.)

2. Five days before, Maryland police arrested (thank you very much) 19 members of the Royal Lion Tribe of the Latin Kings for (allegedly) throwing Molotov cocktails at a house in a Hot Winds satellite city called Rockville. In the spirit of interstate cooperation, NYPD also arrested a few of those 19 up in their city.

The article at the Washpost looks like it was longer, and then butchered to fit. It therefore makes no logical sense. While my guess is that this house was bombed over drug distribution, or perhaps consolidation of leadership, the article does not say.

3. But, apparently the spirit of interstate cooperation is alive-n-well for the gangs, too, since the new improved Maryland chapter of the Latin Kings recently visited  LK headquarters in Chicago and New York.
Marylanders, felicidades! We're all hooked up. The state flag is even the right colors: Yellow, black, and red. I wouldn't be surprised if it started showing up on the street in decorative apparel.

Haitian Gangs--Chimeres/Ghosts

I've been trying to work up a starting bibliography for understanding gangs in Haiti. Not a post. A collection of notes and sources, as always, to help people get what they need to know. Updated January 24, 2010

For the most part, this doesn't follow the usual run of American-based posts. That's because Haiti has been underserved by its own country in documentation (whatever documentation is now lost, too) and underserved in terms of access to the internet. likewise, the symbols of the gangs seem less widespread, although there are certain, almost corporate-style borrowings from American culture.  So far I've seen little graffiti and no tattoos, a lot of weapons. This is not really gangland as American understands it. It is a failed country.

So, less Web-based bibliography that's gang related. But we do have some:

News and Dated Reports:
2003
2003, December 29, St. Petersburg Times, FL--post-Independence Day conflict in Port-au-Prince. A little on Aristide's Lavalas Family (the Cleansing Flood) and the ties of organized crime to the gangs.

2007
Overseas Security Advisory Council, 2007 Crime and Safety Report. This is a comprehensive but easy-to-read report on the kidnappings, home invasions, and gang activity in not just Cite Soleil but also Martissant, a slum in the southern part of Port-au-Prince. Since it is in common web space, it is the decommissioned report (less recent). The site is security-access only. LEOs might be able to register into the site.

2010:
Post Earthquake;
2010, January 15-AP--"Haitian gang members profit from disaster and confusion"
Backgrounder on Security/UN Presence/Police Efforts in Haiti
1. A post on MINUSTAH and the quake.
2. Crime, Police, and Keeping the Peace
3. Security Update

Videos:
These two are in English and can't be embedded. The rest are in Haitian creole or French are only linked for those who can translate.
Documentaries:

--"Ghosts of Cite Soleil" (filmed 2004; released 2006) The reference to chimeres or ghosts refers to the fact that these young men don't live very long and are invisible to the law.

At their Web site, you can view a trailer. They refer you to an unnavigable sales site. If you wish to purchase it, Amazon and the i-Tunes store seem to have it available. Go there instead.

The review at American Prospect suggested that the documentary is unparallelled in access but completely without a context for improvement of the situation. I think access is worth more than a predigested lesson. Anyone can get the context from reading an article or two. In this review, the aid worker in the film is said to behave incomprehensibly.  What he really means is that there is some inappropriate romance going on, that the film is about two young brothers (one names 2-Pac) and one young aid worker and that the documentarist is also young. And aid workers have baggage like everybody else.

--"Haiti, Kidnap Capital of the World." 2006, uploaded in 2008: Journeyman Pictures, 12:46 minutes. This is a very instructive backgrounder, but I can't embed it. In English/Discretion advised. It does have a slightly preachy/horrified tone, but the facts are shown. Amorel, a gang member and his satellites (T-Block, others) views of birth clinics, gang extortion, prisons, talk of rapes, kidnapping rings, gunfights, and allegations against Minustah forces, especially those troops from Jordan--

The Jordanians are quartered in terrible terrain--the heart of Cite Soleil slum--according to the documentary. The UN HQ where those troops are stationed get hit with 1000 rounds per day . The UN does admit 25% of its troops are also corrupt.  I wondered if the placement of the Jordanians was more to do with the state of the Brazilian troops and Caribbean connections. The report does not go into which troops are corrupt and why the Jordanians are in Cite Soleil. The more you know, the more questions you have.

--2006, "Commandant Bibi" puts down his weapons. In Creole.
--2007: 7 minutes, in Creole. Evans Ti Couteau, notorious gang leader, arrested. News anchor, then ETC gives a press conference while keeping his hands folded on top of his head for three minutes, then the prison view, then police spokesman.

Web Sites:
Creole Dictionary--at Haitisurf.com. Another one, at kreyol.com, has been compromised.

Dieciocho--18th St. Gang in El Salvador, U.S. part 2

The Diez y Ocho (Ten plus Eight or Eighteen) is one of the two major gangs in El Salvador and also in the United States. The other is Mara Salvatrucha.
This series is from BBC. Except for the Norteno music, which is Tex-Mex, it seems free of exaggeration. In South and Central America, Mexico is seen as a prosperous nation and is a significant cultural exporter, so maybe they really are listening to Tex-Mex in El Salvador.
As in all docu-video, there is a little playing up to the camera. But mostly we see this trade is run by poor kids in El Salvador.

Video 1: Gang Initiation

Video 2: The flip side of immigration. When parents emigrate and leave their children behind, the children make their own families. An economy that rents to them, tattoos them, that protests when they are robbed too often, that buys weed from them.

Video 3:
You don't do what you sell.

Video 4

Video 5

Drug Cartel Leader Killed

This is kind of an update on a previous post about Drug Trafficking south of the U.S. Border. Dec 18

Arturo Beltran Levya was killed in a raid on his home in Cuernavaca, Mexico. The Army of Mexico, its Navy, and the DEA all participated. According to CNN, the Navy of Mexico was the deciding factor.

From the story by the Christian Science Monitor: "Why it matters"

Beltran Leyva split with Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, seen as Mexico’s most powerful drug kingpin and the head of the Sinaloa Cartel, in early 2008. The Beltrán Leyva organization is said to be allied with the Zetas, a criminal ring founded by Mexican army turncoats who are especially strong on Mexico’s Gulf Coast. Beltrán Leyva’s organization also maintains a strong presence in Sinaloa and Morelos, the state south of the Mexican capital, where Cuernavaca is located.

It matters mostly, initially, in the Gulf region of Mexico, where lesser members of the organization will fight to gain power over the vacant spot in the trade.

It will then matter next to the Caribbean, Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, and Texas--as shipments get erratic, fought over by crooks, or resumed. Refugees from the battle will be heading this way via land--they will be refugees with guns and money and involvement. Last of all, it may affect drug traffic in Mexican Mafia but more likely Texas' Mexicanemi gang, and to Florida, as supplies get erratic, etc. etc.

We're lucky Mexico wants DEA input, and works with ICE (immigration), because it helps us coordinate our own intelligence and actions. They're lucky to have us too. As the quote from the CSM points out, their army has turncoats, all because of the greater money and force of the drug cartels.

A little more on Mexico's fight against drug trafficking

The Vagos Motorcycle Club--Links and Notes

This is not a post, but a collection of sources and references on the Vagos Motorcycle Club. Updated May 19, 2010.

The triangular patch reinforces the 'V' of Vagos. The 'devil on wheels' is said to indicate Loki, the Norse god of trickery. That and the green color reinforce the primarily whites-only original make-up of this gang. The name sounds vaguely Hispanic until you remember the word 'vagabond'--moving around. There are hispanic members and a thriving community of Mexican members in the Tijuana area. No doubt this is convenient for marijuana and meth-amphetamine trade.

They are also known as the 'Green Nation', and wear green touches on their gear. Their number is 22. (V is the 22nd letter of the alphabet.) Both Germanic and Celtic imagery are used.

Motorcycle Club versus Motorcycle Gang
The Vagos maintain they are a motorcycle club, not a gang, and have a history of suing law enforcement agencies that treat them as an outlaw group. (See news entries below) and motorcycle gang introduction here.

Graffiti--Fake. 

The graffiti motifs I found for the Vagos come from Grand Theft Auto gaming--a fictional hispanic street gang in LA at war with a fictional Grove St. gang.  The first one is found on Fotolog, the second on Grand Theft Wiki. If you do more research on the Vagos, you will run into this confluence of reality and fantasy.


News:
2010
--(2010, April 26) "Street brawl points to new outlaw mc rivalry." Silicon Valley Mercury News.
--(2010, March 31) "Vagos Motorcycle Club report that they are not a criminal gang." Valley News, Volume 14, Issue 13.


--(2010, March 22) "Outlaw motorcycle gang member sentenced to prison on coercion, weapon charges". The Oregonian. "The final case in a multi-year prosecution of the North Valley Chapter of the Vagos Motorcycle Club" which is headquartered in Grants Pass. The trial is from an incident in 2007. A total of six members of the club convicted it appears for an inside-the-gang dispute.

--(2010, March 18) "Gang Crackdown: Vagos MC targeted in police raids." Christian Science Monitor.
A good article. Raids in four states (including 70 locations in California) netted a meth lab, weapons, and drugs. A little gang history is included in the article.
--(2010, March 17) Northwest Harley Blog, "'Green Nation' busts on St. Patrick's Day"

2008
(2008, August 8) Northwest Harley Blog, ' Vagos MC meeting in Grants Pass." Discusses previous conflicts in Grants Pass as part of the history of the Vagos.
(2008, July 14) "Vagos: Ogden members say they're "a bunch of clowns." Brain Bucket Magazine. This goes with the video above.

Photos:
More images of insignia, posters, and bumper stickers at Vagos Motorcycle Club Group (Photobucket).
Northwest Harley blog for Vagos jacket picture.

Quotes: none so far.


Video:
Nothing here is really documentary quality. Hence more notes.

Uploaded by MRGarimus, October 12, 2009. This is almost ten minutes of a Vagos biker parade in Reno, Nevada 2009. Music for about three minutes. After filming five minutes of the parade, the vidder then takes a brief glance at waiting associates/tourists/and police helicopter practicing surveillance. After the six minute mark, the parade footage resumes at a different location, presumably the post-parade cavalcade to a second event.

This video shows some range of motorcycle customization for the gang. Most notable to me were the wings on each side of the handlebars (Valkyrie wings? sex trophies is one legend) These are mostly black or bronze, one silver, one red, one blue. There appears to be a consistent hand sign flashed (forefinger and middle finger, extended horizontally or up, most times with the palm toward the body--(the 'V' for Vagos). Also, there appears to be a standard (though not uniform) style of helmet reminiscent of WW2 era storm troopers. Most are black and some are green. At the end, I at last saw a green bandanna gang tag.

Uploaded by sylmacaligirl, 29 seconds, showing the uniformity of insignia--a closer look at people--in the Tristate Vagos Chapter.

A newsreel by the Standard-Examiner (Standard.net) in Ogden Utah, about a chapter of the Vagos at one year old. They started with six members and now have significantly more. One member smiles in the parking lot of the pool hall and says, "This is heaven on earth."

Web Sites--Social Networking Sites:
MySpace Green Machine MC-SoCal--music tracks, some videos, messages, and an e-mail portal.
North Sac Vagos
Gang Green Crew 22--a blog by ganggreencrew22 on MySpace, dated April 12, 2008. An entry/press release about suing law enforcement over 2008 raid. And other posts.


Web Sites:
Gang Identification Task Force--White Prison Gangs-Vagos

Vagos MC NYC Web site. They have a history , a guestbook and a shop, too. In the shop is a shirt which has the motif and slogan "22 Wrecking Crew." Of course V is the 22nd letter of the alphabet. The slogan is banded with a diamond shape in which spiderwebs (a prison tattoo motif signifying 'time') is included.

Wikipedia, Vagos Motorcycle Club

The Pagans MC

Videos:
These are from The History Channel's 'Gangland Series'. Uploaded to YouTube by permanentlockdown on August 1, 2009. This episode brings in how much of a business the gang really is. A little on the methamphetamine trade. Two former gang members were interviewed. One, Jimmy DeGregorio , is a former "meth cooker" and "president" of the Pagans. The other one, "Denny" was an enforcer. Both of these informants were betrayed by the gang, which seems to be the main way informants are made.

You can order the Gangland video series from the History Channel here or at itunes. This is from Season 4.

Part 1:
Jimmy D. "The motorcycles and the brotherhood. Everything else comes after that."

Part 2:
The leadership of Fred "Dutch" Birhans in the mid-Sixties completed the transformation of the club into a gang.  The self-reported rise of Jimmy D., the methamphetamine trade.

Part 3:
The Mafia tries to shake the Pagans down for methamphetamine street tax.
"Diamondback" One-percenter patch in diamond shape signifies a chapter president.
The 'Mother Club' is like the Board of Directors and apparently numbers 13.
ARGO, NUNYA. Ar, go eff yourself, none ah ya business.

Part 4:
The Norse Myth of Surtar, the ruler of Hell as their motif.
Smaller gang, more intimate networking. But betrayal still occurs.
Mid 1990's Federal investigators build their case.

Part 5:
The end of the fight for Philadelphia between Hell's Angels and the Pagans.

Motorcycle Clubs--An Intro

This is a short discussion with a little additional reading. It's really just a start.
(Slightly updated, May 18, 2010).

They come roaring through your town in a tight formation of custom-modified bikes, wearing jeans, extreme hair, and insignia. Are they a threat to your neighborhood or a group out for a weekend's amusement?
Or is it even that cut and dried?

"Saturday Night, Sunday Morning"

Painting by David Mann, available at Segal Fine Art/Motorcycle Art

No helmets, no road grit, no hangovers. Looks like fun.

David Mann's art frequently compares bikers to Vikings, knights, free-booting pirates, mountain men, cowboys, war veterans, and independent truckers. He captures the biker myth: a combination warrior, outsider, loner, and self-sufficient man.

Other artists focus on the tradition, American craftsmanship, or the family aspects of this lifestyle, American scenery, and the romance of the open road.

Motorcycle Clubs (MCs)
Any group of people interested in talking about motorcycles and riding together, planning activities and meetings around motorcycling may be called a motorcycle club. Many of them are enthusiasts of certain brands of bike, a group built around their profession, or the clientele of a particular motorcycle shop.

Further Reading:

--The Blue Knights Official Web site. (a law enforcement motorcycle club).
--Patriot Guard Riders will, at the request of a military, firefighter, or law enforcement family, attend a funeral or memorial service in order to guard the family and service itself from demonstrators. F8 and Be There blog has photos  of them safeguarding a firefighter's funeral in Missouri.

--An article on the Red Knights (a fire fighter's motorcycle club) The founding Massachusetts chapter is shown below. They had originally gathered around a particular motorcycle shop.

--A guide to finding a registered MC in your area at the American Motorcyclist Association
(The 99-percenters)
--Wikipedia, 'Motorcycle Clubs'

Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs (OMGs)
According to the U.S. Department of Justice Gang Unit, motorcycle gangs are a significant security threat:
Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs (OMGs) are organizations whose members use their motorcycle clubs as conduits for criminal enterprises.

"OMGs are highly structured criminal organizations whose members engage in criminal activities such as violent crime, weapons trafficking, and drug trafficking. There are more than 300 active OMGs within the United States, ranging in size from single chapters with five or six members to hundreds of chapters with thousands of members worldwide. They pose a serious national domestic threat and conduct the majority of criminal activity linked to OMGs, especially activity relating to drug-trafficking and, more specifically, to cross-border drug smuggling. Because of their transnational scope, these OMGs are able to coordinate drug smuggling operations in partnership with major international drug-trafficking organizations (DTOs)."

They are transnational, mobile, and have affiliates in most localities.

USDOJ lists the following seven as Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs. They are considered a threat to national security, and may have other, smaller gangs affiliated with them. 

The Bandidos

The Black Pistons

The Hell's Angels

The Mongols

The Outlaws

The Pagans

The Sons of Silence

The Vagos

Further reading:
Wikipedia, Outlaw Motorcycle Club. The footnotes are fantastic on this article.
Dulaney, William. (2005, November).A Brief History of "Outlaw" Motorcycle Clubs. International Journal of Motorcycle Studies.
Blog post on the Las Vegas Bike Fest where Vagos and Hell's Angels were there to be consumers, not warriors, at Anneli Adolfsson's blog. Several pictures of motorcycle painting as well.

Back to the Mystique
Thompson, Hunter. "The Motorcycle Gangs: Losers and Outsiders." The Nation, May 17, 1965.
From this article, Thompson went on to write his book The Hell's Angels. Some of his points are:
a. the Department of Justice grossly overestimated the number of motorcyclists involved;
b. that police and press over-reaction served to popularize and consolidate the gangs, the Hell's Angels first;
c. that motorcycle gang members were too independent to organize into strict hierarchies and in fact, could just ride away any time they wanted,
d. Motorcycle gangs are about a certain lifestyle. Criminal activity was not the lifestyle, but crimes were sometimes committed (randomly by random members) to pay for the lifestyle;
d. crimes committed by motorcycle gangs were not committed as a 'gang activity', but the network of individuals (many of them young, ex-cons, and with few job skills) allowed them to find others who would commit crimes with them. In short, one or more gang member might be involved in a crime without it having gang sanction.

What is particularly interesting about this set of claims is that it forms the bulk of an unchanged apologist literature today. The 'bumbling loser' tag has been dropped, but the 'outsider' label lives on in the American imagination. Further, it forms the basis for claims in modern criminal trials for the defense. Thompson's article perfectly describes the theme against which modern law enforcement and prosecution must contend.

The 1947 Hollister Riot / The One-Percenter Motorcycle Club

Both Hunter Thompson and all of the Wikipedia articles refer to a sensationalized bike rally in Hollister, California, during the 4th of July Weekend in 1947. The small town was overwhelmed by the large number of bikers who turned up, but the riot appears to be a product of sensationalized journalism from Time, Newsweek, and Life magazine. The American Motorcyclist Association ostensibly put out a press release saying that "99% of all motorcyclists are law-abiding". Although there is no record of this press release, the term "One-Percenter" has passed into legend. It signifies outlawry and occasionally, the failure to register one's MC with the AMA.

The 'pro bro' refers of course to loyalty within the OMG. It can also stand for the subordinate place for women in the OMG, extending to criminal practices.

Further reading:
Wikipedia, List of motorcycle club patches. Actually this has no illustrations. It is more a dictionary of slogans and terms often found on motorcycle club insignia.

Legal Case, 2010: The Difficulties for Law Enforcement
People v. Memory, (California Court of Appeals, Third District, San Joaquin, CO54422, 2010, March 5 filing) where it was argued that prosecutors had said the Jus Brothers Motorcycle Club was a gang, and introduced gang paraphernalia into the trial. The original conviction was overturned because the word 'gang' and the 'gang-type evidence' was viewed as prejudicial.  Although I do not have legal training, it looks like the prosecutor would have had to prove them a gang first, instead of 'gang-like.'  Of course it is crime that makes the difference between the two, and that the crime be 'organized' by the gang. When does association create organization?

The appeal presentation includes the narrative of the crime. Most importantly, the relationship of smaller gangs to a dominant gang (in this case, the Hell's Angels) is explored. According to the defendants, smaller MCs are supposed to interact with larger ones, network with them, and assist if ordered to do so. In my view, that sounds like organized crime rather than diminished responsibility, but the appeal judges didn't see it that way.

So the language of motorcycling as a sport, industry, or recreation is irretrievably mixed into many of the distinctions between an MC (legal) and an MC (outlaw). Even if the distinction is crystal-clear in reality, its romantic ethos has apparently made it far more complicated.


Transnational association, below: Three thousand bikers (these from Holland) from across Europe show up for 'Gentleman Gerry' Tobin's funeral in September of 2007 in the UK. He was shot in Stratford-on-Avon. Three men were charged.  BBC photo essay

Photos: Segal Fine Art, Motorcycle Shows . com, Billy Hell RC blog, BBC.