That bikers' donnybrook in Waco: a Texan reports......

 

There is little question that if the people of the political right needed help in enforcing their will upon the public legions of motor cycle gang members would be eager to help.

 

You may recall that recently, two such gangs engaged in mortal combat in Waco, the Texas city of the Branch Davidian fame. They scheduled some sort of pow wow in town and at a restaurant featuring poor food and scantily clad girls appropriately called 'Twin Peaks'. Undoubtedly, that was a big draw in itself.

 

Anyway, things went from cordial to brutal resulting in 9 dead and several more critically injured.

 

Now most Americans don't spend much time pondering motorcycle gangs. They are a thing of the past with the odd remnant of the Hell's Angels tamely touring about.

Moreover, the trend has been hijacked by iterant doctors and lawyers who spend their leisure time roving around the countryside on expensive and well heeled Harley Davidson bikes. Well, that's what most of us thought. After all, they often come through town in their leathers and aviator caps, eat at the most expensive restaurant, talk like they learned English at a British public school and then ride back home to the big city.

 

Not so in Waco. Many of these lads are abut the same age as your recent safety deposit box thieves who burrowed through a few meters of poured concrete to get their hands on all sorts of diamonds and jewels. Many are veterans from the Vietnam War era sporting medals, walrus mustaches and equally white hair.

They are big, did not learn English at any sort of public school and verging on criminally insane. They deal in drugs and among them yielded over a thousand weapons ranging from pocket knives to sten guns, The police were waiting for them when the gangs arrived.

The reported nature of the melee was a battle over turf and the right to add a region of Texas spelled out in letters on their jackets. Judging from the published mug shots, the gang members were Caucasian with some Hispanic mixed in. The news of curse went viral and the BBC took visible joy in reporting it with extreme schadenfreud.