Thursday, May 21, 2015

when the gangbangers are white, it doesn't hit "our" dopamine receptors the same way...,


themarshallproject |  If you thought violent biker gangs were a relic of the Altamont era, Sunday’s shootout at a Waco, Texas restaurant might have come as a shock. A long simmering beef between the Bandidos and Cossacks boiled over into gunfire. When police arrived at the scene, gang members shot at them, too, leaving nine bikers dead, 18 people injured, and 170 suspects in police custody. Over 100 weapons have been confiscated. 

The scale of this incident dwarfs a typical urban gang confrontation, says Harold Pollack, co-director of the University of Chicago Crime Lab and an expert on gangs and guns. We talked to Pollack about why biker gang violence typically gets so little attention. He believes the Waco incident confounds our expectations regarding the race and geographic location of people who perpetrate crime, causing us to see biker gangs as more of a “curiosity” than a threat. 

How does the shootout in Waco differ from the gang violence you study in Chicago?
I have never encountered a gang incident in Chicago remotely like this. The number of perpetrators involved — not to mention the nine deaths — far exceed the typical urban gang-related shooting. Maybe there was some gang incident in Chicago like this decades ago. But this sort of pitched battle? I’ve never heard of anything like it. If these biker gang members were non-white, I think this would cause a national freak out.

One of the shocking parts of this incident is that after the police arrived, there was a gunfight between the gang members and the authorities.
Urban gangs and criminal organizations very rarely get into gun battles with police. They certainly have access to powerful weaponry. Police around the country periodically capture large caches of AR-15s and other weapons in cities. Yet when they break down the door to a gang safe house or a drug location in a city, whatever weapons might be piled on a mattress in the adjoining room are left where they are. They aren’t picked up and used to attack the police. The people who do attack police are typically cornered individuals or people with serious mental health problems.

These biker gangs have a long history in organized crime. They began with restless, traumatized veterans returning home after World War II. Today, biker gangs still act as a sort of private militia that police can’t always control, patrolling festivals and other events. Why don’t we pay more attention to them?
Geography may be part of the answer. There are not a lot of outlaw biker gangs in gentrifying Brooklyn and other key media centers. Of course, the number of deaths is lower overall with these groups. You don’t have the daily deluge of homicides the way we would in Chicago. But I do think that our views about urban crime are so framed by race and inequality in a variety of ways. When criminal activity seems unrelated to these factors, it doesn’t hit our national dopamine receptors in quite the same way. People tend to view these motorcycle gangs as a kind of curiosity.

10 comments:

woodensplinter said...

The Apocalypse Now/Wild One pivot off Marlon Brando is an astonishing little piece of crate-excavation/liminality. Very, very nicely played sir!

CNu said...

lol@what it do....,

rohan said...

Did you see this from round your way? jessejholland is nothing more than a race baiter who isn't even good at
race baiting and has embarrassed himself by writing about a subculture
that he doesn't understand. Bikers rarely involve civilians in any of
there criminal activities and have never burned down city blocks. Most
of their crimes are committed quietly in the criminal underbelly of this
country and involve people that choose to participate in that
lifestyle.



If anything we should be thankful that they are offing each other
instead of innocent kids sleeping inside a house and getting wasted by a
stray bullet from a drive by. The fact that 9 people died Sunday
proves only one thing, Bikers have good aim, gang bangers not so much.
http://www.jocosob.net/2015/05/exploitation-of-biker-violence-by-race.html

CNu said...

lol, that simple po-bucker makes a strong case for military intervention. OMG's "choose" to participate in the "criminal underbelly" of this country and differentiate themselves from "civilians" primarily because they hold themselves outside and above the law. Oh, and they shoot better than boys in the hood.

Ed Dunn said...

Wondering her opinion regarding ObamaCare?

Ed Dunn said...

What is interesting to me is Eric Holder Fast and Furious - looks to me we see what is really going on here with these motorcycle gangs, Texas and Mexico....make you wonder why Eric Holder was criticized by the GOP and what's really going on here...

Ed Dunn said...

I just got a clue - Twin Peaks, Breastaurant....interesting....

CNu said...

Po thang..., in another article I read this morning, she had given her skripper name Oddissie Storm. This is a shame, like she hadn't even learned the ropes of the Twin Peaks tail-selling game before SHAZZAM!!! and she's pregnant.

CNu said...

Check out the owners http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3088301/Revealed-party-hard-multimillionaire-breastaurant-owners-ignored-police-warnings-not-host-biker-gathering-turned-bloodbath.html

CNu said...

lol, between Seymour Hersh putting the lie to situation room "heroics" and these tens of thousands of Tier 2 career criminal militia men in Texas alone, this has been an extraordinarily tough couple of weeks for the perceived America..,

Master Arbitrageur Nancy Pelosi Is At It Again....,

🇺🇸TUCKER: HOW DID NANCY PELOSI GET SO RICH? Tucker: "I have no clue at all how Nancy Pelosi is just so rich or how her stock picks ar...