Nine Criminal Bikers down..... how many to go?

[Zuljin]

But there are people in jail to this day who are not in either gang. Just being in at Twin Peaks that day is not a crime, but it's being treated that way

 

[Owly055]

But there are people in jail to this day who are not in either gang. Just being in at Twin Peaks that day is not a crime, but it's being treated that way

That's somebody's story anyway........This happened long enough ago for innocents to have been sorted out. There obviously is video. There are consequences for holding somoene without cause for an extended period of time......... There is a "process", arraignment, public defenders, etc. There is a "day in court", and a potential for lawsuits...... If you were writing this 24, 48, or 72 hours after the incident, I would be inclined to believe that it was quite possible that a few innocents were still being held. At this point I find it nearly impossible that they are willfully holding people they aren't confident of getting a conviction on. The law enforcement community are not known for being mental giants, but that would be stupid beyond what even they are normally capable of.

Law enforcement is under pretty heavy attack in the press lately......... with justification in many cases....... shootings and beatings of "innocent" people, corruption, and other abuses of power. I only put "innocent" in quotes because they in a number of cases are only "innocent" of any immediate provable crime. Many of us do not like LEOs much....... I don't have that problem locally.

We have an excellent sheriff & department, though one or two officers are obsessive and "over zealous", and we have what are probably the best troopers in the US in terms of having a good attitude, and being reasonably tolerant and friendly..... You don't go away from a stop pissed unless you are a real jerk here in Montana......In my experience.

24 miles to the north of me is another sheriff who is dishonest and corrupt, and who I was forced to threaten with legal action if he didn't desist in harassing a lady who was a close friend of mine. I didn't have to specifically "threaten"....... I simply let him know that she had been advised to document everything, and made it very very clear that he was overstepping his authority. I've never met the sheriff, but I know the judge and the county attorney, and it's clear from the way I'm treated up there, that the policy toward me is "be nice"............. I made it pretty clear that if you F with me, I'm going to F with you, and I have the resources to do it. I'm about mid way between two county seats, and the local sheriff is a neighbor (about 10 miles away), and I've been friends with him and his family for over 30 years. As a business person, I know all the "movers and shakers" in both counties, and that doesn't hurt. They know I'm honest, and that I don't drive drunk, or engage in domestic violence, etc. They know I take responsibility when I see a situation, call in when I see smoke, an accident, a crime, flag traffic when there's an issue like a wreck or livestock on the highway... until they get there.........Being a "good citizen" goes a long way.

Back in '11 I stopped on the highway during the massive spring floods, and cut up and with help of other motorists removed a downed tree that was blocking most of the highway.....I had a chainsaw in the pickup... Meanwhile a highway department official ranted and raved at us about how what we were doing was illegal, and we were required by law to wait for the highway department crew to get there from 20 miles away. Oddly enough he never came closer to me than the length of my chainsaw bar, and I had a lot of difficulty making out what he was saying over the sound of the saw at full throttle........ somehow it seemed that every time he began his ranting, and I turned to listen to him, the tip of the bar ended up near his crotch, and my finger slipped to full throttle.....and I went into "selective hearing loss". The sheriff arrived in due course, and I was subjected to a "tongue in cheek" lecture in front of the HWY dept guy about "respecting authority"......I apologized and pointed out that I couldn't really hear him over the saw. We laughed about it over a beer a couple of days later.

These are basically good people........ If you don't get along with them, it's your own fault............ I have met the other kind, but never really had problems with any of them anywhere.

H.W.