Human Garbage and the Waco Massacre

[Vashta Nerada]

"They wanted to arrest everyone that they could as a crowd control measure," said former Travis County prosecutor Mindy Montford. "I'm sure it is advantageous for law enforcement, but I'm not sure that is the right thing to do."
http://www.statesman.com/news/news/crime-law/experts-question-high-bails-in-waco-shooting-after/nmL2S/

The words from this prosecutor expressing dismay at the $1 Million bonds set for each person swooped up in the mass arrest, may also describe the shoot-first-ask-questions-later mindset of the SWAT team when they opened fire on the crowded steak house.

[Vashta Nerada]

Waco spokesman spars with CNN over info that cops killed bikers.

http://www.breitbart.com/texas/2015/05/20/waco-police-blast-cnn-for-spreading-information-that-may-have-been-incorrect/


"According to a law enforcement source, preliminary information indicates that four of the bikers killed were killed by police gunfire," CNN wrote in their article.
http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/18/us/texas-biker-gang-brawl-shooting/index.html

After Waco Police Sergeant Patrick Swanton blasted media for their lack of cooperation, CNN host Ashleigh Banfield challenged Swanton on his rebuke.

"I heard you earlier calling out the TV network, saying that four of those who were killed were killed by police gunfire and you were quite clear in suggesting those autopsies aren't done yet and that that can't be finalized detail," said Banfield. "That's preliminary information that actually a law enforcement source gave to CNN that four of these people — but I want to make sure. And by the way, we double-checked it. Once you finished your news conference, we went back to that law enforcement source and that source is standing by that prelim information suggesting that four of those people were killed possibly in a hail of police bullets."

Swanton lashed out: "What it's important that you understand is that's not fact. What you'll get from the source that's releasing information, which is Waco police and Texas [Department of Public Safety], is fact. Is there a possibility that more were killed by police? Yes there is. Is there a possibility that less were killed by police? Yes there is. It's not fact, and that's what you're going to get from us."


...but Swanton's and the DPS "facts" are themselves being shot full of holes, like this memo "leaked" to stir cops into a frenzy:

WACO, Texas (CNN) — Texas law enforcement officials are investigating what they say are new threats against officers from biker gangs in the wake of a recent shootout in Waco.

Members of the Bandidos biker gang who are in the military "are supplying the gang with grenades and C4 explosives," according to a bulletin issued Thursday by the Texas Department of Public Safety and reviewed by CNN.

The bulletin warns of plots targeting high-ranking law enforcement officials and their families with car bombs. The bulletin is based on unsubstantiated information from an informant who claimed to have obtained it from Bandidos and Black Widows motorcycle gang members.



The memo may be real, but the threat -- and the "gang" police say made it -- are pure fiction:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Every_Which_Way_but_Loose_%28film%29

[Vashta Nerada]

Every patch I saw....Bandidos, Mongols, Cossacks, etc... are 1%'ers.  You do understand what the means, don't you?

CMA was not represented there.  (Christian Motorcycle Association)

Having said that, it is a very strange set of circumstances where someone got their foot rolled over so started a riot...?  There is still more to this story.  And very real civil rights issues...

I regret to say that the CMA was among about a dozen groups at the meeting to discuss upcoming legislation.  Hope you didn't have any friends caught up in this.

Other clubs that belong to the umbrella group include the Christian Motorcycle Association, Bikers Against Child Abuse, Legacy Vets and Vise Grip, a club that builds and rides pre-1970 custom Harley choppers.
"Most of the clubs that were present there had nothing to do with the shootings," she said. "They didn't do anything but go to a meeting."

http://www.scpr.org/news/2015/05/23/51924/they-re-not-gang-members-bikers-protest-mass-arres/ 

[Jammie]

Have you ever watched COPS? There is one state where police brutality is evident even when they know they're being taped. Can you imagine the things they feel free to do when they think no one is watching? This story actually doesn't surprise me.

Brietbart~I had an internet friend who thought the things they said were Gospel. It's funny that they would report on another media source possibly not having all of the info correct.

[patric]

Brietbart~I had an internet friend who thought the things they said were Gospel. It's funny that they would report on another media source possibly not having all of the info correct.

Brietbart is pretty far right, so its a surprise they arent giving Waco PD a pass on this (like the liberal bastion CNN did).  Maybe it was too over the top for "smaller government" advocates.

[Vashta Nerada]

Have you ever watched COPS? There is one state where police brutality is evident even when they know they're being taped. Can you imagine the things they feel free to do when they think no one is watching? This story actually doesn't surprise me.

Brietbart~I had an internet friend who thought the things they said were Gospel. It's funny that they would report on another media source possibly not having all of the info correct.

Waco PD Put Everyone in 'Harms Way,' Not the Bikers
http://www.breitbart.com/texas/2015/05/24/twin-peaks-biker-waco-pd-put-everyone-in-harms-way-not-the-bikers/

The biker's account is that the altercation became a knife fight and several men were stabbed. He said when one of the bikers in the fray pulled a gun, the SWAT team opened fire with automatic weapons. He claims that multiple sources told The Aging Rebel that all of the nine dead were killed by police.

On Wednesday after the shootout, Waco police released information that "1,000 weapons" had been found at the scene of Sunday's shooting. After the story received wide exposure, the police department significantly revised that estimate and stated, "We stand corrected." Waco PD later reported they had counted 118 handguns, one AK-47 rifle, and 157 knives. In addition, four of the nine dead had no criminal records in Texas.

Breitbart Texas reported that one of the dead bikers was a 65-year-old Vietnam veteran who had received a Purple Heart and had no prior criminal record.

[Vashta Nerada]

The lawsuits begin.



Lawsuit claims police fired "thousands of rounds" during Waco shootout
http://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/wacotrib.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/8/eb/8eb01748-fffd-11e4-a4eb-83f98935a085/555e497a47bc9.pdf.pdf


Stuck behind bars: Families await biker releases as lawyers claim innocence
http://www.wacotrib.com/news/twin-peaks-biker-shooting/stuck-behind-bars-families-await-biker-releases-as-lawyers-claim/article_63f9bff8-acff-5af9-8c45-ac34254aa123.html


Attorney seeks to replace judges, demands immediate release of clients
http://www.wacotrib.com/news/twin-peaks-biker-shooting/biker-attorney-seeks-to-replace-judges-demands-immediate-release-of/article_25fcfaf1-0ad7-51fb-9993-1620f6630db6.html

Austin attorney Adam Reposa alleges in motions filed Tuesday that the charging documents filed against his clients, and the 168 others jailed in the chaotic melee, are legally insufficient.
After the shootout, in which nine were killed and 18 wounded, Reposa said officials "commandeered" the Waco Convention Center as a makeshift holding area while they tried to sort out the magnitude of the event.

But officials failed to call in judges, whom he said could have magistrated the bikers, gotten a sense of how many merely were in the wrong place at the wrong time and "helped provide adequate due process," Reposa charges.

In seeking to dismiss the charges against his clients, Reposa alleges the identical arrest warrant affidavits filed in all 170 cases fail to allege the elements of an engaging in organized criminal activity case, paints all defendants with an overly broad brush and rely on nothing more than "guilt by association.".

[Jammie]

Brietbart is pretty far right, so its a surprise they arent giving Waco PD a pass on this (like the liberal bastion CNN did).  Maybe it was too over the top for "smaller government" advocates.

You're right. Actually, Breitbart is so far to the right that you can't rely on their reporting.

I watch CNN because I like a lot of the stories they air. (Examples are~The Hunt with John Walsh, Forensic Files,  the upcoming show on the 70s, etc.) I've often read that they are very liberal, but their reports seem to be pretty in line with the three major networks so I'm not sure that's true.

How interesting about the 65 year old vet! It makes you wonder how many others involved have never had problems in the past. We get a lot of bikers up this way and some are pretty rough/mean looking and once you start talking to them, you may discover they're actually businessmen, doctors, etc. They just like to dress the part, grow beards, and play biker a couple weeks a year.

[patric]

How interesting about the 65 year old vet! It makes you wonder how many others involved have never had problems in the past. We get a lot of bikers up this way and some are pretty rough/mean looking and once you start talking to them, you may discover they're actually businessmen, doctors, etc. They just like to dress the part, grow beards, and play biker a couple weeks a year.

Im thinking Waco is going to be sued into bankruptcy.   Where is the ACLU in all this?

[heironymouspasparagus]

I regret to say that the CMA was among about a dozen groups at the meeting to discuss upcoming legislation.  Hope you didn't have any friends caught up in this.

Probably an artifact of the coverage...in all the vid's I saw there were no CMA. 

Nope, no friends in that mess!  I don't have friends!  I don't ride with a club or association - used to go with ABATE, but don't now - am not a "joiner".  Closest I get is working with Salvation Army when I get a chance.

[heironymouspasparagus]

Have you ever watched COPS? There is one state where police brutality is evident even when they know they're being taped. Can you imagine the things they feel free to do when they think no one is watching? This story actually doesn't surprise me.

Brietbart~I had an internet friend who thought the things they said were Gospel. It's funny that they would report on another media source possibly not having all of the info correct.

I have been to Dallas quite a bit in the past - have watched DPD in action on many occasions.  Glad I wasn't involved, so still have all my teeth....

[Vashta Nerada]

EXCLUSIVE: First Interview With Bikers Involved in Twin Peaks Shooting
http://www.kcentv.com/story/29213297/exclusive-first-interview-with-bikers-involved-in-twin-peaks-shooting

WACO -- KCEN got an exclusive interview with the first bikers to speak publicly after the Twin Peaks shooting, capturing the moments right after their release from jail after being arrested for the May 17th shooting that left nine bikers dead and 18 more injured.

Waco Police had said the 170-plus bikers arrested were part of criminal motorcycle gangs. However, William English, 33, and Morgan English, 30, say otherwise, and that they had come to the sports bar for a friendly meeting between motorcycle clubs, and they weren't even inside the restaurant when the brawl broke out.

The husband and wife from Brenham who celebrate their four year anniversary in September, have never spent more than a few days apart, but were forced to spend 16 of them away from each other, and away from the world.
"He's my rock, he's my everything and not having him there was so hard," said Morgan English, suspect and biker wife arrested in the Twin Peaks shooting.
Strength is the only good thing the English's say has come out of their time in jail.

"This whole thing is a sham," said William English, suspect and member of the Distorted Motorcycle Club. "I'm kind of upset that we had to pay to get out of jail when we did nothing wrong."
Mr. English said he was at the wrong place at the wrong time. English said he came to twin peaks on that Sunday afternoon for a monthly meeting of the Confederation of Clubs to talk about legislation coming out of Austin for Motorcycle Safety Awareness Month, but he didn't make that meeting before violence did.
"We didn't even get to where we could see around the corner of the building when firing started," said Mr. English. "We heard 2-3 distinct small arm fires, and we took off around to the back side of the building and after that I started hearing rapid succession of assault rifle fire."

"All the sudden I see a sea of people running towards me and we run around the building," said Ms. English.
The couple says they never saw the melee, they were just trying to keep stay away from it. Mr. English is a former marine.
"He grabs me and pins me up against the wall. He just had me completely shielded and protected," said Ms. English.
"I was trying to hear where the shooters were so we didn't run into the gunfire," said Mr. English.
After it calmed down, law enforcement stepped in.
"There was someone just a couple guys down from me shot in the stomach and we're worried about him but the cops kept saying get down, get down," aid Ms. English. "You have all these guns in your face, you're gonna listen."

Next came the body search: being one of the few females arrested, Morgan says this was one of the worst parts.
"It was just violating having to be searched in front of all these men," said Ms. English.
She said her and her husband had no weapons except a pocket knife and a vest ornament considered a chain.
"That was one of the 300-some weapons right there," said Mr. English.

http://www.breitbart.com/texas/2015/06/01/waco-twin-peaks-shootings-two-weeks-later-more-questions-than-answers/

[Vashta Nerada]

I have been to Dallas quite a bit in the past - have watched DPD in action on many occasions.  Glad I wasn't involved, so still have all my teeth....

Witnesses: Texas biker shootout dominated by sound of semi-automatic gunfire
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/06/06/witnesses-texas-biker-shootout-dominated-by-sound-semi-automatic-gunfire

WACO, Texas –  First came a few pistol shots, several witnesses said, then a barrage of rifle fire during the shootout last month at a Waco restaurant favored by bikers. But authorities still have not said how many of the dead and wounded were the result of police fire.

Police have identified only one assault weapon, a semi-automatic gun that fires high-powered ammunition, among the firearms confiscated from bikers, and that was found in a registered owners locked car after the shooting ended. But several witnesses — at least three of them veterans with weapons training — told The Associated Press that semi-automatic gunfire dominated the May 17 shootout that left nine dead and 18 wounded.

"I heard, 'pop, pop,' small caliber, and then a rapid succession of shots from what sounded to me like an assault rifle," said William English, a former Marine and Iraq war veteran who was approaching the front door of the Twin Peaks restaurant for a meeting of biker clubs.

It's remains unclear exactly what triggered the gunfight. More than 100 of the 170 people arrested, mostly bikers and family and friends, are still in custody and cannot give their accounts. Six witnesses interviewed by the AP describe a melee that began with a few pistol shots but was dominated by semi-automatic gunfire.

Waco police have declined to release detailed reports from that day and say they are still awaiting ballistic reports.

Steve Cochran, a Navy veteran and member of the Sons of the South club, pulled into the parking lot facing the patio minutes before the shooting began. He was to help set up for the meeting of the Confederation of Clubs and Independents, a group that advocates for biker rights and motorcycle safety.

"I heard one pistol shot. All the rest of the shots I heard were assault rifles," said Cochran, who took cover behind a crane about 30 yards away. He walked the shooting scene with the AP several days later, showing what he saw and his vantage point.

Cochran said he heard suppressed rounds fired by assault weapons, which are still audible but sound different than a handgun firing.

Police have said 18 officers, four state troopers and more than 200 bikers were at Twin Peaks at the time. Video viewed by the AP indicated that the fight began outside, where the SWAT team was positioned.






Two weeks after the fight between rival outlaw motorcycle clubs, cops won't answer even the most basic questions about what transpired.
http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2015/06/what-waco-police-wont-reveal-about-the-shootout-that-killed-9/394892

"Despite police reports that the fighting and shooting began inside the restaurant and spilled out, closed-circuit footage of the restaurant seen by AP and reports from the restaurateurs indicate the shooting began outside, which is where the police already were."

"Police were already surrounding the restaurant in force, ready for action. How and why they began firing on the bikers and what happened before then should not necessarily be trusted merely from their mouths."



Because the local Police, who immediately reviewed the footage yet continued to mislead the public about the impetus of the confrontation and gunfire, the owner/operator of the Twin Peaks franchise shared video with reporters from the Associated Press.
The video suggests that Sunday's deadly gunfight began outside the Twin Peaks restaurant, except for one round fired by a biker on the patio who then ran inside.

http://theconservativetreehouse.com/2015/05/20/breaking-cctv-video-of-twin-peakswaco-shooting-shared-with-ap-reporters-gunfire-began-outside-bikers-running-for-cover-police-entered-restaurant-with-assault-rifles

[patric]

I would be among the first to argue against excessive civil awards, but I sincerely believe those who were peaceful bystanders that got swooped up in the Waco dragnet, and held on $1 Million bonds (essentially denying them bond) should sue for that same $1 Million.

[Vashta Nerada]

Police have identified only one assault weapon, a semi-automatic gun that fires high-powered ammunition, among the firearms confiscated from bikers, and that was found in a registered owners locked car after the shooting ended.

Caught by the media: