Is The Outlaws A Motorcycle Club Born?

In Policing Gangs in America, Charles Katz and Vincent Webb describes every issue in American Gangs today. The ultimate goal of this book is how the gang officers work and the different kind of atmosphere they work in. Their job isn’t like other law enforcement jobs. It’s one of the more dangerous occupation in the Criminal Justice system. These gang officers focus on how they react to public gang issues.

Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs (OMCGs) is a contemporary issue that engulfs Australian society. What makes prosecution of such gangs so complex is the strong foothold that gangs have in organised crime and the façade that is worn in order to evade the eyes of the law. Various responses have been implemented in order to cease all violence and more importantly disenfranchise organised crime and prosecute those within the illegal syndicates. Legal responses put into act are: task forces and intelligence and lastly, targeting the organisation and membership. The non-legal responses on the other hand are, the media and the formation of political parties.

Duke Lee once said, “This town ain’t big enough for the two of us.” and it became one of the most iconic western saying of all time. The old west was full of outlaws, gangs, murderers, thieves, and lawmen who either broke the rules, or enforced them. Outlaws of the wild west influenced American culture in numerous ways. The three outlaws listed below are the most notorious and gruesome of them all. Take a journey through history and look at what these outlaws did for American society.

Devil’s Diciples Motorcycle Club, with “disciples” intentionally misspelled, is headquartered in Detroit, Michigan with chapters across the United States. It is a violent biker gang with around 250 patched members throughout the country; approximately 60 patched members being in Michigan alone. They prefer to keep their numbers small, making it easier to control them politically.

The documentary Crips and Bloods: Made in America (2008) focuses on conditions and causes of gang violence in Los Angeles, California, as well as the history and background of the main gangs that reside there. The information in the film is compiled from interviews of past and present members of the Crips and Bloods, which are the two main gangs that contribute to the violence in the area. The interviewees explain how the gangs work and the conditions under which these people live daily. There can be parallels drawn from the film to Elijah Anderson’s article titled “The Code of the Streets”, published in 1994, that discusses violence in terms of gang and criminal activity.

According the Australian Crime Commission1. (ACC), Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs are among the most detectable components of Australia’s criminal landscapes and because unlike other criminal organisations who try and keep themselves anonymous, OMCGs on the other hang maintain websites, openly represent themselves through gang patches, tattoos, leather and publicly fight amongst themselves.

Ray compares common values and stances between both outlaws and official heroes. Outlaws are often portrayed as people who are against a unified society. Ray even goes so far as to talk about outlaws “who worked to remain idle, unemployed, and unattached” (453). He also quotes a statement from a man who envies the poor and the criminals due to the amount of “freedom” that they have. Many people do not want to have so many responsibilities in their lives. They want the ability to think for themselves and have their own opinions without others influencing them. Also, due to having no responsibility, the outlaw hero is able to be freer in his adventures and throughout his life due to the

The documentary Crips and the Bloods: Made in America tells the dramatic story of the perpetual gang violence that runs the streets of Los Angeles, California. Gaining an inside look at how and why this violence is continued, the video focuses on the individuals that are affected by the gangs. Families are torn apart due to endless murders, children are taught to hate and act violently towards their neighbors, and people lose their soul to the gangs that they call their families. Of course every person must make a choice to engage in this sort of life, but sometimes these people are put into situations where there are no other options. In order to further think about what has caused and maintained the violence in the LA area, we can look towards Agnew’s General Strain Theory and the Labeling Theory.

Even though gangs provide a sense of support, the "values" instilled in members are horribly dangerous to society. Murders and drive-by shottings go unpunished more often than not in areas like the Henry Horner Homes. Gangs have become powerful enough that high-ranking members who are forced to face the law are protected by high-priced attorneys and investigators (163).

While they might sport the tattoos, the jackets, colors, and signs, often these members are only tangentially affiliated. According to much of the available literature, tattoos also serve as a badge of protection against coercion from other gangs (Jackson and McBride 1985). In the current study, tattoos signify a number of different and personal matters, only one of which gang membership and a warning to others.

The American west was filled with uncertainty and danger at every turn. Outlaws caused panic and instilled a sense of fear in the people of America. Two of the most prominent outlaws in American history are none other than Jesse James and Henry McCarthy. Outlaws have a lasting legacy that is used for inspiration and entertainment even today. Jesse Woodson James is perhaps one of the most talked about outlaw of the American west.

Visibility in school wasn’t any different, the Saints unlike the Roughnecks were able to get out of class, due to their clean “good boy” perceptions. Once the Saints were out of the sight of instructors, they could leave almost immediately with the help of their cars— strategically parked for an effortless escape. On the other hand, the Roughnecks, didn’t enjoy the same freedom, even if one managed to get out of class, downtown was too far away for someone with no means of transportation. Additionally, the Roughnecks, drew even more attention to themselves as they frequently made remarks to people passing by. Secondly, the demeanor of both gangs were complete opposites of each other, if one of the Saints was stopped by a police officer, his “demeanor was apologetic and penitent” (Chambliss, 2011, pg. 192). On the contrary, Roughnecks, didn’t have much respect for authority, and their animosity, enmity, and aggression was clearly obvious. Finally, society members, perceived the delinquent acts of the Saints less serious than delinquent acts of the Roughnecks. In their view, someone who showcases public drunkenness is committing a more serious crime than someone who drinks in bar.

These barbaric warriors are found in our society as street gangs. Although they have different appearances, weapons, and transportation, these two

“Sponsorship is mandatory, and only after acceptance may an inmate identify himself with a tattoo or patch” (Ralph, 1997, p.185). Most gangs utilize a “blood in, blood out basis for gang membership: A would-be member must stab a gang’s enemy in order to be admitted, and once in cannot drop out without endangering his own life” (Clear and Cole, 2000, p.260). Besides killing a rival there are other ways to enter the gang and receive acceptance. Those ways include, but are not limited to, assaulting an officer, doing drug deals, or “catching a cell” which means to go into a cell with members of the gang for which the recruit is trying to enter and fighting against them to determine if the prospective member can “hold his own”. These methods of entrance are what contribute to a large majority of the prison violence. The past prison experience relied on “the order and stability provided by the old inmate subculture (which) has been replaced by an atmosphere of conflict and tension, in which inmates align themselves into competing gangs and other inmate organizations” (Bohm and Haley, 1999, p. 351). The gang culture is also based on loyalty and trust of fellow members, such as a “united as one” attitude. This attitude has brought up confidence in offenders, but helped to diminish the effectiveness of the authority of the correctional officers. With the problem of gangs in hand, many states have

The stories of Wallace, Gamelyn, and Robin Hood are medieval legends written by Maurice Keen in “The Outlaws of Medieval Legend.” Keen depicts the popular legends of medieval heroes who became outlaws during the thirteenth to fifteen centuries. He also defines the term outlaw, which is, a person who puts himself outside the protection of the law. What their attitudes and why were these outlaws worshiped as heroes? The reason varies in each story. Keen maintains the main theme of outlawry. Wallace, Gamelyn, and Robin Hood all have negative attitudes toward both secular and religious authorities, as they fight against tyrants and oppression to become heroes of medieval people.