How the Bandidos became one of the world’s most feared biker gangs

[hack89]

The shootout is the latest and perhaps goriest chapter in a long history of violence involving motorcycle gangs in the United States. The Bandidos, like their more popularly known archrivals the Hells Angels, are frequent characters in that blood-soaked book. The group is generally considered the world’s second-largest biker gang, behind the Angels, with as many as 2,500 members in 13 countries, according to the Department of Justice.

But as both the Hells Angels and the Bandidos expanded, they grew from free-wheeling counterculture clubs into ruthless organized crime syndicates, according to academics who study the groups and prosecutors who pursue them in court. “The desire to dominate rivals temporarily decreased the power of the subculture’s core values among many clubs while increasing their reliance on organized criminal activities,” Quinn writes. “As the extremes of violence used in internecine warfare escalated, however, these activities could no longer be concealed by the milieu’s code of silence. It was only at this point that law enforcement agencies Žfinally began to take these clubs seriously.”

“They watch their ‘Sons of Anarchy’ and their little television shows. These guys all seem likable enough: that they are misunderstood, outlaws from the old days, and they ride motorcycles instead of horses,” he said. “Even cops think, ‘Oh they are just tattooed long haired guys who like to ride motorcycles.’ And the reality of it is they are long-haired tattooed guys who ride motorcycles and sell a hell of a lot of methamphetamine and murder people and steal motorcycles and extort people and beat people up in bars for no reasons.”

In fact, Cook says that Sunday’s shootout closely parallels previous battles between the Bandidos and Hells Angels. Citing police sources in Waco, Cook says he understands the shootout started because a smaller gang called the Cossacks — backed by the Angels — challenged the Bandidos for control of Texas. Several other bike gangs might have joined the battle, too, angry over recent killings by Bandidos members.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/05/18/how-the-bandidos-became-americas-most-feared-biker-gang/


Some more background on the biker gang shoot out.

[Kelvin Mace]

1. “Even cops think, ‘Oh they are just tattooed long haired guys who like to ride motorcycles.’

Yet, darken their skin color and let them walk down the street and suddenly cops see them as lethal threats that must be gunned down at first opportunity.

Funny that.

[TwilightGardener]

2. I thought biker gangs were pretty much over by the 80's.

Had no idea they still existed.

[Coventina]

3. That's un-possible! DUers assure us that they're fine upstanding citizens!

Who never have illegal weapons and never shoot innocent bystanders!

This is all an evil police plot to make them look bad!!!

[NuclearDem]

4. Leave the gangs alone!