Hells Angels as the Menace for State Security - Book Report/Review Example

Hell’s Angels As The Menace For State Security Most people on this earth love and cherish environments that are characterised by peacefulness and tranquility. These environments have many social and economic activities by its inhabitants. Whenever there is a slight disruption of these systems people are forced to jump into action and exploit all possible means in order to restore the situation to normalcy. Law agencies play a crucial role in ensuring that human beings are comfortable in the environment, and that they carry on their routine activities without any disruptions. This is a similar case that happened in 1965, in California, the state’s attorney general was alarmed by criminal activities that were going on in Hell’s angels Motorcycle club. This prompted investigation under his authority and findings of it were to be useful in counteracting the problem, later on, he disseminated on the club to several agencies responsible for law enforcement across the state. In this report, the attorney cited all incidences of crime that had been discovered and urged the agencies to work in their best interests to ensure that the situation was well contained1. according to this report which was named “The Lynch Report” the members of the club were recorder to be 450 and all of them had a record of 874 felony arrests, a total of 300 convictions on the same and an alarming 1, 000 other conviction on misdemeanor. According to the report, these statistics would have been much worse except only for the nature of the criminals’ behaviour of intimidating their witnesses. This meant that the probability of cases that were not accounted for was high. The lynch reported cited various types of criminal activities which the club participated in, these activities ranged from terrorization of rural communities to stealing of the motorcycles and spare parts, in addition, there were comprehensive charges on attempted cases of murder, assault and cases of battery. This group of criminals also associated itself with malevolent destruction of people’s properties while at the same time engaging in drugs and other kinds of narcotics. in was shocking from the report that all of the convicts, both male and female had not taken a bath for a long time and that it was necessary for them to do so because of the foul smell that they exhibited. The report portrayed a very bad picture that showed an alarming menace of which serious state security intervention were inevitable. The situation had become unmanageable, habitual and was hurtful to those who fell victims. The criminals seemed to operate in organized groups roaming freely in highways in stripped down Harley-Davidson motorcycles that they snatched from innocent victims. In terms of outfit, the criminals were usually dressed to resemble pirates, having full beards and a ring on one of their ears, in addition their hair hang up to their shoulders and had sleeveless denim jackets that had skull embroideries on them, on their chests they had iron crosses and different kinds of swastikas perfectly fitting on their helmets. These criminals appear to be in between their 20s and mid 40s in terms of their age estimates. When they decided to strike, they would do it fearlessly at any part of the states without minding the presence of police. They resided in underground tunnels where they were the lords, this place was dark, rancied and very impenetrable. Driven by the motivation to find out the real information behind these criminal gangs, Hunter Thompson decided to carry out an investigation secretly. He followed the Hells Angel’s for almost a year, attending their rallies and participating in their activities, he notes that on several occasion, he drank at their bars and swapped home visits. This way, he managed to record their brutal acts and analysed their sexual caprices. At one point in time, Thompson became so involved in the activities of the Hell’s Angels, he found himself converted to the mystic of their motorcycles, in fact, he was very intrigued as he did put it himself, “I was no longer sure whether I was doing research on the Hell's Angels or being slowly absorbed by them.” Thompson says that his investigations about criminal activities of the motorcycle ended when one of the gang’s angles knocked him on the flow in the course of his investigations. In as much as the activities of the gangs are highly violent and dangerous, Thompson says that all the information that had been documented in the report was highly exaggerated and totally misrepresented the routine life of the criminals. Thompson notes that there was some kind of pleasure derived from the kind of amusement that was caused when the angels caused a stir. According to findings by Thompson, the membership of the gangs in the neighbourhood was 100 and not 450 as it was reported in the attorney’s lynch report2. The fact that it was hard to make convictions was much because of lack of a firm base in the complaints made and not due to intimidation of witnesses by the criminals. in fact, misdemeanor convictions that were reported was caused by police harassments, something that the attorney did not give attention to. The report by Thompson shows that the criminals play a relatively insignificant role in the total number of crimes in California, yet the report gave them a lot of publicity. Actually, this publicity had one main advantage; it secured the fortunes club of the club that was on the decline prior to the publication of the report. The report brought the attention of the whole country’s media to the angels, with a breakthrough in that strategy, the attorney and security agencies had succeeded. Thompson explains in this kind of a frightened and scared nation, the situation is normally characterised by an acute shortage of outlaws. The underworld where the criminals resided is very well known terrain contrary to the lynch report’s description of some kind of a weird environment. In his investigation, Thompson did not come across any kind of effective criminal incidents or some kind of organisation similar to Nazi ideology. In his description, Thompson presents a picture of men that are desperate, having no kind of status, if not for their motorbike, this people are immobile. He is able to trace the origin of these people back to the times of Okies, Arkies and hillbillies that changed residence and moved to California at the time of the great depression. Thompson says in his report that most of the angels are not educated. in addition, they are unemployed and do not have steady jobs, in fact according to his statistics, only one angel out of ten has a steady job. In the labour market, motor cycle outlaws have little or no demand at all, while the modern world requires knowledge and skills in order to survive by participating in meaningful activities, these skills are lacking in the angels. The good thing is that they are very much aware of it; they understand that with this kind of state, the future is bleak. They know that they are eventual losers in a world where the world is increasing having a demand for experts and specialists to run important system that facilitate human activities. It is this painful reality that hurts, driving them into activities that are outlawed and hurtful to themselves and other members of the public. The survival mechanisms for this angels is rather complicated, there are few with a fixed employment, other live on theft and other illegal engagement. There are those who are married and faithful while others depend on gang love. At one point in time, an angel is reported as saying, that they do not prefer attacking those outside their circles, instead they prefer to attack each other so that they can exchange fire for fire. The contributions made by Thompson towards understanding of the dark angels are important as it gives a different picture that most people have never dreamt or imagined. His report present a picture of men that have lost hope for life and the only thing they are left with is to fight against society systems, which they feel is the cause of their misery. Bibliography Thompson Hunter, S, “Hell’s Angels: A Strange and Terrible Saga.” California, Random House, 1966, Read More