Nearly 200 people have been arrested in Texas on charges stemming from a wild biker gang shootout that left nine dead and 18 injured Sunday. All of the 192 people face charges of engaging in organized crime and were in the process of being booked by Waco police Monday morning, the department said in a statement.When I first heard about this, my initial thought was "Damn, this is like a real-life episode of Sons Of Anarchy".
Meanwhile, Twin Peaks, the “breastaurant” where the violence began around lunchtime Sunday, has been ordered shuttered for a week “due to the ongoing danger it presents to our community,” police said. The restaurant, featuring scantily clad female waitresses, was aware of the biker meetup and refused to cooperate with police, authorities said.
The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission is investigating the franchise, one of several found around the country. Twin Peaks corporate headquarters is “seriously considering revoking” the Waco franchise’s agreement after the bloodshed, a spokesperson said.
Police recovered some 100 weapons from the blood-spattered parking lot after the massive shootout, which began with a “push or a shove or with somebody looking at somebody wrong” inside the restaurant’s bathroom, Waco police Sgt. W. Patrick Swanton said Sunday.
Police officers were on scene after learning of the gang meetup and were able to open fire when the melee began. The nine killed belonged to two gangs, the Cossacks and Bandidos, and no police officers were reported injured.
“We are not horse playing,” Swanton said. “So many rounds were fired from bad guy weapons here. It is amazing that innocent civilians were not injured here."
No murder or weapons charges have been announced, though police continue to pour through the complex, carnage-filled scene, in a shopping plaza off Interstate 35 about 100 miles south of Dallas.
The Bandidos are considered a “Tier 2” threat, on par with the Bloods, Crips and Aryan Brotherhood, according to a 2014 gang assessment by the Texas Department of Public Safety.
Then I saw the photo at the top of this post and thought, "Damn, this is exactly like a real-life episode of Sons Of Anarchy". Note that these gang members, who exchanged fire with the cops, are allowed to mill about as if they weren't just involved in a massive shootout that left 9 dead and 18 critically injured. That one guy is on his iPhone 5c, probably updating his Yelp review of the restaurant they just shot up ("The chicken wings were unusually dry today!") and the cops, many of whom were just shot at by these morons, literally have their backs turned to the suspects!!!
The worst part of all of this is that the local cops had intel on this biker meetup for weeks, and instead of telling the restaurant owner to not allow 200+ gang members from rival sects to have Sunday brunch at his this establishment, allowed the meetup to occur and sat idly in the parking lot just waiting for sh*t to jump off, which, to the surprise of nobody, it did. And yes, the possibility of retribution has the city on high alert, as gang members will undoubtedly try and get back at each other for those dry chicken wings.
I hate stating the glaringly obvious, but didn't we just watch weeks of peaceful protesters in Baltimore and Ferguson get their heads busted wide open for merely asking that cops be held accountable for their actions? Didn't we read thinkpiece after thinkpiece about how all of black America needed to be ashamed about the actions of these "violent thugs and rioters", and how absentee fathers, lack of personal responsibility, deteriorating families, a nihilistic culture, Democrat-run cities, and Rich Homie Quan were to blame for all of this?
I'm waiting on the 10,000 word analyses of white-on-white crime, personal responsibility, the lack of white fathers, Republican-run cities, how Hollywood glamorizes the thug culture of bikers, and how poor policing lead to this massacre, which miraculously didn't injure any innocent bystanders (that we know of yet) in a busy shopping center. I also can't wait on Conservatives to call on President Obama to condemn the actions of these thugs, and demand that white America take some accountability for this.
I won't hold my breath.
Most of the blame thus far has been put on the restaurant that hosted this Gang Brunch. How typical.
Question: Is the media giving these gang members a free pass? How would this have played out differently if the 5 gangs involved had mostly black members?
