Hells Angels are moving into my area for the first time. I have a generally negative view of them, but have some friends who feel otherwise. I would love to hear your experiences related to the Angels specifically, but “1%” clubs as well.
They will not get involved with you if you don’t approach them. Don’t do business with them. These guys are not messing around.
However, I have had numerous experiences with people in the group you mentioned. I lived in a neighborhood where they had a clubhouse and it was much quieter and had less crime during their time there.
I worked in a kitchen at a restaurant they frequented for private parties close to that clubhouse. They smoked so much hash. This was decades ago. They tipped very well, were polite to the staff, and never caused a scene (we had a separate entrance in the back they used).
I have been aquatinted with people who were in different states of involvement with them. They had different outcomes. Some fine (tangential to crime not really involved) and others who fared worse. The fared worse guys were like useful pretty criminals who they took advantage of because they wanted to be associated with that group and wouldn’t take the hint to get lost. I’m not discussing specifics.
Finally, if you’re life their neighbour and they ask you to come over for a beer just say you’re busy. If a guy shows up from out of town and you run into him in the driveway don’t ask why he’s there. They won’t involve you in their business but might notice if you seem curious.
Sir/madam, you just touched on one of the most important rules for living a happy life. I like to call it “See something? No you didn’t.”
I grew up and primarily have lived in the south, and my dad and I would go out in the woods when I was a kid. From my very first trip he told me “Son, while we’re out in them woods. If you see someone else out there, just turn around and go back the other way. Don’t say nothin, don’t wave, just go the other way.”
To this day I live by that. My partner “it sounds like the neighbors are building something out of wood at 2am.” Me “not my problem”. Partner “I think I heard gunshots.” Me “wake me up when you hear screaming.”
My ex’s parents were in one. They’re some of the dumbest people I’ve ever met, so it just kinda confirmed to me that biker gangs are for terminally stupid people who think the vroom vroom sounds cool and that leather vests are badass.
Their members feel like boys the size of men, incapable of realizing that the public view them as a moronic nuisance, and not cool or tough.
fag /faɡ/
noun: fag; plural noun: fags
A person who owns or frequently rides a Harley Davidson motorcycle.
(South Park)
I really wish we could of made that the official definition after the episode.
The biker gangs in my area are typically just a few steps down from the KKK. They won’t outright do anything awful, but they are generally not nice folk.
I live in an area where the Pagans have a pretty sizeable presence but no real competition so we don’t exactly have turf wars or anything going on. They definitely have their criminal activity going on, but by and large it’s out of sight and out of mind unless you go looking for it or are unlucky enough to live next to them or something. In general if you keep your nose out of their business they’ll keep out of yours. They can even be pretty reasonable at times, I have a friend lived basically next door to a bar they used to hang out at a lot, and after last call all the bikes leaving at like 2AM made a bunch of racket. His dad pretty much just politely asked their leader if they wouldn’t mind leaving the other direction where there weren’t really any houses instead of going by the residential areas, and that was pretty much the end of it, never really had a problem with them again, and a few years later they ended up finding a different bar to hang out at.
Don’t get me wrong, they’re bad dudes, you don’t want to get involved with them, but if you don’t do anything outrageously stupid you’re probably not going to have a problem with them. That said, out of an abundance of caution if you can, it’s probably best to just avoid them and the places they frequent altogether.
Pretty much everyone around here knows a few pagans or knows someone who does. Some of them think it’s cool, and those people tend to be idiots. Otherwise it’s just kind of a fact of life, everywhere has their local troublemakers, ne’er-do-wells, assholes, and criminals, it just happens that some of them around here wear denim vests.
Also for what it’s worth, I live in the suburbs, so probably not exactly the epicenter of where the worst of their activities take place.
Yeah, I guess our area used to be like a biker “neutral zone”, and we never had really any biker activity. For some reason the Hells Angels are setting up shop suddenly. I can’t imagine it’s for any good reason.
Imagine the intersection of the mafia and a bunch of college football players. Its a very tribal mentality. If you’re nice and polite, treat them with the respect you would treat anyone who has the power to fuck your life up (but dont kiss their ass… imagine how nice you would be to someone from the IRS who just has “some questions” about your last return) and dont put your nose in their business, they will more likely than not be perfectly fine.
But disrespect to one is disrepect to all, as a group they ARE involved in organised crime to some degree and while some of them are regular guys, some are cold blooded violent people.
Just be warned though, if you have a job or may apply for a job that involves security clearances. Having 1%ers phone numbers on your phone or as Facebook friends can throw flags.
Thanks, that’s interesting about the security clearances. I am hoping to work in infosec, but I’m already not planning on getting any kind of clearance. For one, I’m not doing any spook work, and for two, I don’t like the idea of serious background checks.
I’m in the UK and Imo they’re not good people. I know several tattooists who have been threatened/had their place trashed by them when they’ve opened a shop in my city.
I also went to a Hells Angels bar once when a music event was being hosted there and they were awful people. Charged more for drinks if they didn’t like the look of someone, one guy threatened me because a glass fell on the floor and smashed (it was nowhere near me) and made me clean it up. I’m a small woman, I was scared, so I did it and left 😬
So, I have very limited experience with 2 of them. One was Banditos. I was the bouncer at a dive bar on the weekends as a second job. This was 20 years ago. Banditos started hanging out there, and honestly they were pretty cool. They were loud, and drank a lot, but they never caused me any problems, and helped me solve a couple of problems in my time there. Some of them were local FOP which seems a little gross, but they never bothered me.
The other was black pistons I think? I don’t remember. My friends dad was in it, and she and I got to hang out at their clubhouse some. That was almost exactly like you would think it was.
I only hung out there like 2 or 3 times with her. It was a shitty looking trap house in the hood. There was Nazi memorabilia all over the place. There was a bar in the middle of the living room. Middle aged white dudes drunk and geeked on meth. Lots of guns.
One night one of the dudes showed up with a black crackhead prostitute from the neighborhood. I know she was from the neighborhood because she said she had been there a few times before, and I heard them talking about “seeing her around”. Anyway, she was running around naked half the night doing Hitler salutes with those chuckle-fucks. Drinking whiskey, and smoking, probably meth. The whole situation was incredibly off putting.
FOP? What’s that?
Fraternal order of police
They are mostly racist tweaker assholes
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Hell’s Angels lived next door to me 25 years ago. Always doing meth and taking about weird stuff.
I lived close to their “national hq” in my country for years, and apart from the occasional loud motorcycle they were absolutely unnoticable. I wouldn’t even have known they were there had someone not pointed it out to me.
As others have said, stay out of their way and they will stay out of yours.
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Eh, thanks but I’m not moving just because of this. I don’t think it’s a positive development, but neither do I expect drastic changes. This has always been an area they would have been comfortable in, honestly (history of illicit economy, rural hills, etc).
I’ve always wondered, in the colder regions of the world in winter, what do motorcycle gangs do?
I guess the answer is sell drugs and punch people?
Wear an extra layer?
You must not have experienced a Chicago/New York winter before
I used to work at a restaurant owned by some shady folk back in the day. They don’t want heat or attention so by and large they don’t fuck with regular people. They’d all hang out and gather at the restaurant, but it was always very social and never saw any violence or anything… Mostly they were running scams etc.
