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Deadly White Waco biker clashes downplayed because of race?

By Askia Muhammad -Senior Editor- | Last updated: May 29, 2015 - 10:23:39 AM

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In this screen shot from a Twitter account, one user posted a cartoon from the Pittsburgh Post Gazette which points out the “Inequity in Profi ling” as Blacks protesting are labeled as “thugs;” and a mostly White gang feud that erupted in Waco, Texas, where nine killed, there was no mention of the word “thug.”

WASHINGTON - In what a Waco, Texas police sergeant described as the “worst, most violent” crime scene he’d seen in more than 34 years of police work, nine motorcycle gang members were killed, 18 were injured and another 170 were arrested and more than 200 deadly weapons were confiscated after a gun fight erupted over a simple parking space May 17. But the “kid-gloves” treatment the mostly White criminals received has left Black observers shocked all over the country.

Looking at the media coverage of the incident one could easily get the impression that it was just a routine disturbance. In one published photograph, members of one of three dangerous gangs sat calmly, while an armed sheriff’s deputy stood with his back to the offenders.

“I will tell you that in 34 years of law enforcement this is the worst crime scene, the most violent crime scene that I have ever been involved in. There are dead people still there. There is blood everywhere,” Waco police sergeant Patrick Swanton told reporters after the melee. But White bikers were not characterized as “thugs” as some Black demonstrators had been labeled when they simply sought to exercise their Constitutional rights to free speech and assembly.

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Investigators remain at scene of deadly biker gang shooting, May 19, 2015 Photo: MGN Online
And despite the fact that when police intervened to break up the brawl they actually anticipated would erupt, despite the fact that gang members actually shot at the law enforcement officers, none of the dead were killed by the police.

“I thought the media’s treatment of the biker gangs’ warfare—because that’s what it was, urban warfare—was absolutely outrageous,” Barbara Arnwine, president of the Lawyer’s Committee for Civil Rights Under Law told The Final Call. “It symbolizes every thing, single thing, that is wrong with the double standard and the hypocrisy of how media treats situations involving Black versus White.

“There’s this assumption in the treatment of Blacks and Blacks as criminals, and that they are going to engage in unlawful behavior. Whereas with the Whites, they treated it (as if) they were just in a brawl.

“You’ve also got something that happened here that did not happen in Baltimore,” Ms. Arnwine continued, “and that was, when the police arrived, they were shot at, yet not one person was killed by police, not one, in retaliation, despite being fired upon. And all the pictures of the bikers were sitting around, on their cell phones, while the police just stand around.”

Another published photo from the scene showed dozens of motorcycles parked in a lot. Among the bikes, at least three people wearing what appeared to be biker jackets were on the ground, two on their backs and one face down. Police were standing a few feet away in a group. Several other people also wearing biker jackets were standing or sitting nearby.

Sgt. Swanton said police were aware in advance that at least three rival gangs would be gathering at the restaurant and at least 12 Waco officers in addition to state troopers were at the restaurant when the fight began.

“At last count, we have 170 individuals that we have arrested and are booking or have been booked into the McLennan County Jail,” Sgt. Swanton told reporters. “Those individuals are being charged with engaging in organized crime in reference to the shooting at Twin Peaks, which is a capital murder. It’s a capital murder because of the number of victims that were killed in one episode here.” He did not explain the apparent gentle treatment for these killers.

“I will tell you that in the gang world and in the biker world, that violence usually condones more violence. Is this over? Most likely not. We would like it to be. We would ask there to be some type of truce between whatever motorcycle gangs are involved. We would encourage them to try and be a little peaceful and let the bloodshed stop,” said the sergeant. But there was no martial law; no national guard; no curfew imposed.

Not only did local law enforcement anticipate that the gathering—held at a local Twin Peaks restaurant which has since been closed by authorities—would turn violent, they knew of the criminal tendencies, as well as the ideologies rooted in racial hatred of the organizations.

“For a long time, I believe, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and their intelligence report—while I don’t agree with their likening for instance the Nation of Islam and some other Black organizations as quote-unquote ‘hate groups’—they do monitor and have been monitoring White-hate organizations in this country for a long time,” Dr. Jared Ball, associate professor of communications at Morgan State University told The Final Call, “and (they) have consistently noted that it’s Whites, usually associated with White-supremacist, anti-world majority, people, so-called people of color groups.

“Imagine if that had been a Mexican cartel that had come across the border and killed nine people in a shootout in a restaurant. This country would probably have been on lockdown by now. But because this was home-grown, White men, from the United States for the most part, you begin to characterize it in an entirely different way.

“This of course is just part of a chain of a White-supremacist society that can tolerate all kinds of hostility and violence from its own community, but sees even the slightest comparative acts from other communities as far more of a threat,” said Dr. Ball.

“It’s so clear that we are people that they don’t relate to, respect, and we’re not people. That is once again, shows the difference in the racial dynamic in our country in how we treat Black versus White, and it’s also a testament to White privilege,” attorney Arnwine said.

One possible explanation of the gentle treatment from police toward these largely White biker gangs may be symmetry of views concerning race and ideology. “One of the most compelling, but unexplored explanations may rest with (an) FBI warning of October 2006,” Sam V. Jones wrote recently for Thegrio.com, “which reported that ‘White supremacist infiltration of law enforcement’ represented a significant national threat.”

“White supremacist presence among law enforcement personnel is a concern due to the access they may possess to restricted areas vulnerable to sabotage and to elected officials or protected person whom they could use as potential targets for violence,” reads the highly redacted report. “The primary threat from infiltration or recruitment arises from the areas of intelligence collection and exploitation, which can lead to investigative breaches and can jeopardize the safety of law enforcement sources and personnel.”

Indeed, Dr. Ball pointed out, a White Texas sheriff who had run afoul of right-wing hate groups was recently murdered, at his residence. “SPLC almost exclusively reports that these incidents—in terms of organized violence against police, targeting police, particularly in their homes is coming from these White groups, the patriot groups, these anti-Constitutionalist groups.

“They’re the ones who pose the threat, but that doesn’t get the kind of coverage, again I think because if the bogeyman, so to speak in this country is going to be sort of locked and set in blackness, then you can’t tolerate coverage, media representation, or symbolism that is going to reflect the reality, which is that the real problem in terms of many of these issues are organized White terrorist groups, or anti-U.S. organizations.” Some of these groups refer to themselves as “sovereign citizens,” not subject to the laws of the United States.

But publicly, Black groups are defamed by law enforcement officials—such as reports that the Crips and the Bloods had organized to murder police in Baltimore, after the brutal death of Freddie Gray in police custody. Demonstrators were outraged that Mr. Gray, whose only “crime” was “making eye contact” with a White police lieutenant, and then running away. His spine was 80 percent severed at his neck. He died a week after his arrest.

“I believe West Point a couple of years ago, put out a study that said the greatest threat to national security was not Muslim terrorist groups, so-called, but were White, home-grown White, anti-state, anti-police, anti-U.S. hate groups,” Dr. Ball said. “My point is that the general orientation is always that Black and Brown and Muslim organizations are the greatest threat to the Western World, when in reality it is usually those most affected by capitalism and imperialism within the White community that are the greatest threat. That is, it’s poor White people who are disaffected and hostile and organized and militarized in levels that none of these other groups are, that pose the greatest threat.

He “of course noted that the media coverage was quite unlike what it would have been had it been a so-called Muslim, so called terrorist group or some Black organization, and I would include Latinos in that as well.”

Ironically, Texas politicians potentially poured gasoline on the fire, passing legislation after the biker shootout and slaughter that would allow licensed handgun owners to openly carry their firearms in a shoulder or belt holster in public. “Well, the (Waco) shootout occurred when we don’t have open carry,” Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott said of the law he promised to sign. “So obviously the current laws didn’t stop anything like that,” the governor said.

“If it had been Black people they would have been stormed, gassed,” Ms. Arnwine, who was on the ground in both Baltimore and Ferguson, Mo. said. “Just think about it, just a couple of days ago Black demonstrators in Ferguson were maced, they were pepper sprayed, for demonstrating, not for doing anything illegal, but for demonstrating.

“They went after the leadership, they arrested people. This just shows the attitudes unfortunately are still racially biased. And there is still this notion when it comes to the Black community, that you’re trying to control people. You’re trying to police people, instead of any notion of protection or service.”

“I was disturbed by that also,” Ron Hampton, president of the National Black Police Association told The Final Call. “This whole idea of calling Black folks ‘thugs’ and biker gangs ‘biker gangs’ is a continuation of the criminalization and the negative comments that are made about Black men and Black youth, as well as Black women when they have encounters with the criminal justice system.

“We didn’t see the word ‘thugs’ used, not once was it used. And not only were they involved in the shooting and killing people and injuring folks, but the police department seized over 200 guns, firearms, there in Waco.” But police did not “denote something negative, like calling Black men and women in Baltimore who were rebelling against a racist police department and its practice, calling them thugs,” he said.

“The predetermined function of media in this country, is to drive the national will in really one singular direction,” said Prof. Ball, “driven by those in power, and they’re not interested in showing the White violence or threats of violence, particularly organized against the state. They’re far more interested in the sort of day-to-day drama of Black suffering, in the colonized setting.”