Motorcycle enthusiasts downplay outlaw culture

Monday, April 29, 2002 | 11:09 a.m.

The violent deaths of three in a Laughlin casino early Saturday morning cast a shadow over all motorcycle enthusiasts -- an unfair judgment, Harley riders said.

"This is just a small percentage of the motorcycle riders out there," said Tony Cook, general manager of four Harley-Davidson dealerships in the Las Vegas area.

"Nobody has any control over them. These few individuals really aggravate you."

With the booming biker culture, in which a "RUB" -- rich urban biker -- can spend $25,000 or more on a Harley to ride on the weekend, a dangerous minority can travel within the larger biker culture largely unmolested. Police investigators said biker gangs have become skilled at manipulating the media and appealing to public opinion.

On Saturday three people were killed and 12 injured when members of the Hells Angels and Mongols motorcycles clashed at Harrah's in Laughlin, police said. The melee came during the annual Laughlin River Run, an annual gathering of motorcycle enthusiasts.

The Mongols and Hells Angels, which both refer to themselves as "motorcycle clubs," have been fighting for years and are known to police investigators who call them violent gangs.

"These are outlaw motorcycle clubs," Metro Police Lt. Vince Cannito. "They call themselves the one-percenters, they are fringe society members."

The gangs often fight over who the true "one-percenters" are, turning the police saying that just "1 percent" of motorcyclists cause a problem into a badge of honor.

Steve Tretheway, a 25-year veteran of the Arizona Department of Public Safety and a nationally cited expert in biker gangs, said the celebration of outlaw culture throughout the biker community has made it easy for the dangerous "one percenters" to camouflage themselves.

Biker gangs, with the help of a compliant media, "have mainstreamed themselves," Tretheway said. The "colors," black leather jackets, denim and heavy boots -- once badges of gang membership -- are now cool, Tretheway said.

"It's a tough image," he said. "Looking bad is looking good."

Cook and riders who turned up to support a veterans charity drive Sunday that was an offshoot of the Laughlin River Run stuck to a frequent refrain: The good works that riders do outweighs the violent actions of a few.

But Cook said "outlaw" bikers also participate in charity runs, in part to help camouflage illegal activities.

"I think these Hells Angels and these Mongols do some charity stuff, and it might be a smokescreen," he said.

The image of the biker carrying a teddy bear on a charity run is part of the legitimization of the outlaw world, Tretheway believes.

"That's what the public sees," he said. "One day a year the guy carries a teddy bear on his bike. What about the other 364 days?"

He said one gang member was celebrated by local media in Arizona for contributing to a major national charity gathering toys for young people. The same gang member was later arrested moving a large load of narcotics.

He said studies in Arizona in the 1990s found that 85 percent and 87 percent of the Hells Angels had arrest records.

"That's not normal," Tretheway noted.

But most of the riders are ordinary working folks who want to help out, Cook said.

"That's no smokescreen."

The bike riders who crowded Cook's Harley dealership on Eastern Avenue Sunday agreed. The bikes' throaty growls attract attention, but the riders are regular joes and janes, they said.

Tony Heinemeier is a member of the Harley Owners Group and has attended numerous "runs," including four times to the Laughlin annual event, and to the annual pilgrimage to Sturgis, S.D., where hundreds of thousands of bikers attend.

"I have never seen anything like what happened Saturday," he said. "I've never seen an actual altercation like this."

Heinemeier, a Marine Corps veteran and now a corrections officers at the Southern Desert Correctional Center in Indian Springs, called the Laughlin violence the "absolutely unnecessary" actions of a "stupid" minority.

"I have a low tolerance for gang members," he said.

Tretheway noted that "most motorcyclists are law-abiding."

"Some clubs sit on the fence," he said. "Some are law-abiding."

What is troubling to Tretheway, who spent 19 years as a police specialist including time as an undercover agent, is that the criminal minority and their lifestyles would be accepted by the general public -- even by "a small police culture."

Tretheway, who now works with a multistate agency that assists law enforcement throughout the Rocky Mountains, said he knows that few of those who ride Harleys and dress the part are dangerous. Even many biker clubs that might look indistinguishable from dangerous gangs are, in fact, made up of law-abiding citizens.

But, he said, there has been a resurgence of dangerous motorcycle gangs. The Hells Angels have had a rebirth becoming more sophisticated, media-savvy are now engage in huge criminal enterprises, Tretheway said.

"It's a different image," he said. "It's money. It's power. It's glitz. ... How people can buy into it all mystifies me."

Tretheway is concerned that charities serve as a smokescreen for some of the hardcore outlaw bikers. But Las Vegas riders at the Harley-Davidson dealership Sunday say the charities are what their lifestyle is all about.

Some of the groups and causes in Southern Nevada that benefit from motorcycle-related events include a toy drive for police to give away at Christmas, the Foundation for Positively Kids, and the Injured Police Officer Fund.

Harley Owners Group members participated in the "run" to Laughlin Thursday and back Sunday in an effort to promote the Ride to the Wall Foundation, a group raising money to help out veterans.

The centerpiece of the effort was the Paul Revere and the Raiders concert Friday evening before the violence scarred the Laughlin River Run.

Revere, who rode back from Laughlin with other riders Sunday, was selling CDs to benefit the Ride to the Wall Foundation. He plans to ride his motorcycle to Washington D.C. to participate in Memorial Day observances with other riders this May.

"Motorcycle riders are a bunch of good guys," said Revere, who added that he's been on many similar runs. "This kind of thing has never happened before."

The crowd at the concert had been positive and supportive of the Ride to the Wall cause, Revere said.

"The majority is by far, by far good folks," he said. "I don't want it (the Laughlin incident) to be a black eye for the people who ride motorcycles."