Hells Angels

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The Hells Angels is a motorcycle club formed in 1948 in Fontana, California, where the local chapter remains active. The club takes its name from the movie Hell's Angels, directed by Howard Hughes, and based on the Royal Flying Corps. The club is estimated to have 2,000 members and prospects in 189 chapters in 22 countries around the world.

1 History
- 1.1 Altamont
2 Canada
3 Hells Angels vs. Disney
4 Future of HA
5 References
6 See also
7 External links

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History

The Hells Angels outlaw motorcycle club is viewed by many as the epitome of the outlaw biker counterculture of the 1960s. The Hells Angels have been purported to take in large sums of money from illegal activities such as prostitution and drug trafficking, but the club itself claims that these are individuals within the club that are involved and not the club as a whole. In rural areas of the United States (especially the U.S. South and Southwest), it has been claimed that the Hells Angels have been heavily involved with the production and distribution of methamphetamine.

The HAMC (Hells Angels Motorcycle Club) still professes to be just a motorcycle club. (See Hells Angels - UK.)

The club has gained the moniker of an "outlaw biker" organization. Many activities they are involved in can be seen as illegal and in as much the club has been criminalized in some countries. The Angels claim their membership consists mostly of relatively law-abiding citizens who have often been victims of media sensationalism, and can not resist presenting themselves as a "1% Club", a phrase that got its start because the American Motorcyclist Association used to claim that 99% of motorcycle riders were law-abiding.

The Hells Angels Chapter, Oakland, has been particularly infamous, partly due to its connection with Ralph 'Sonny' Barger, whose autobiography, Hell's Angel: The Life and Times of Sonny Barger and the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club was a national bestseller. Sonny Barger has spent over a decade in prison, wrote biker-related fiction after his release, and settled down finally as the eponym of his own brand of beer.

The HAMC also organises a number of motorcycle runs all over the world.

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Altamont

Perhaps the most notorious event in Hells Angels history involved the 1969 Altamont Concert—partially documented in the 1970 film Gimme Shelter^[1]—featuring Jefferson Airplane and the Rolling Stones. The Angels had been hired as crowd security for a fee which was said to include $500 worth of beer. A shoving match erupted near the stage during a rendition of the song "Under My Thumb" (not, as is commonly thought, "Sympathy for the Devil"), resulting in the stabbing death of Meredith Hunter, by an Angel, Alan Passaro. Passaro was later acquitted on grounds of self-defense.

After the concert, and critical media attention given to the HAMC, Sonny Barger went on a local California radio station to justify the actions of the HAMC and to present their side of the story. He claimed that violence only started once the crowd began vandalising the Hells Angels' motorcycles.

In the sixties, during the Vietnam era, the group offered its "services" to the U.S. military in its conflicts abroad. Although they were never taken up on their offer, many who previously idealized the group as a counterculture began to see this alliance with the government as a betrayal. Antagonism between the Hells Angels and anti-war counter-culture groups manifested itself in physical violence when members attacked demonstrators at the Vietnam Day Committee march in Berkeley. Six members of the John Brown Brethren, a small, violent contingent of antiwar activists, attacked the group in San Francisco, California, killing four members.

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Canada

In the province of Quebec, Canada, the Hells Angels have gained immense notoriety. Police claim that the club controls much of the organized crime in the province. Criminologists believe that the 1970s Royal Commission on Organized Crime (CECO: Commission d'Enquêtes sur le Crime Organisé), formed to combat the Montreal based mafia, allowed the Hells Angels to flourish by greatly reducing would-be competitors. Before the commission, the Hells Angels were reputed to be the thugs of the Montreal mafia, but in the power vacuum left in the wake of the commission, the Hells Angels managed to effectively gain control of much of the crime in the province. In the years following 1994, biker wars in the province have resulted in more than 100 deaths (including a child killed by an exploding car bomb), 84 bombings, 130 reported cases of arson, and 9 missing persons. In the fall of 2001, The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and the Sûreté du Québec conducted major raids in many different locations of the province. Many high-ranking members were arrested along with prospects and other associates. The operation was codenamed Printemps 2001 (Spring 2001).

Despite the continued growth of Hells Angels clubs in Canada, both in Quebec and in Ontario, various law enforcement agencies continue to crack down on the organization. While some consider Canada to be the unofficial home to a new modern Hells Angels movement - one based on the original tenets of the club (i.e., protection for those who cannot protect themselves) - the organization continues to face opposition from police forces and other elements of Canadian society.

In March 2005, Route 81 - the official store of the Hells Angels - opened an outlet in Prince Edward Island to join existing outlets in Moncton, Halifax and Toronto. The numbers 8 and 1 correspond to where the letters 'H' and 'A' fall within the alphabet.

In January 2006, Operation Husky resulted^[2] in the arrest of twenty-seven suspects, including five 'full-patch' Angels from across Eastern and Central Canada.

Media speculation has suggested that this operation, an effort conducted by a combination of agencies including the RCMP, the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) and the Sûreté du Québec may result in the end of the club's presence in Canada. Some familiar with the inner-workings of the Angels suggest that a new effort focusing on modernization of the club - with a concentration on education and harm reduction - may help restore the image of the Hells Angels among an aging law enforcement community that finds it easy to target biker clubs. In some parts of Canada, it is illegal to wear symbols identifying yourself with a motorcycle club, while symbols of identification and recognition among other groups (i.e., Bloods and Crips) are permitted because of a failure by law enforcement to recognize the credentials and identifying symbols of gang culture.

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Hells Angels vs. Disney

In March of 2006, the Hells Angels sued Walt Disney Co. for allegedly engaging in trademark infringement. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court of California alleges that an upcoming Disney film entitled Wild Hogs^[3] uses both the name and distinctive logo of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Corp. without permission. The movie, tentatively set for release in 2007 and starring John Travolta, Tim Allen and Martin Lawrence is described on the Internet Movie Database as "a group of middle-aged wannabe bikers look for adventure out on the open road, where they soon encounter a chapter of the Hell's Angels."

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Future of HA

The legacy and future of the Angels remains shrouded in secrecy to all but a few citizens of Montreal (both Old and New). In the process of creating new avenues of protection for the security of the city, several new splinter organizations have been established, including WISH Montréal and an unauthorized chapter of the Opus Dei Security Service.

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References

Author Hunter S. Thompson traveled with the club in the 1960s and his adventures are chronicled in the book that made Hunter Thompson's reputation as a counterculture journalist, Hells Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs.
The Hells Angels enjoyed a special relationship with Ken Kesey, the history of which was told by Tom Wolfe in his book, The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test.
During the late 1960s and early 1970s many biker exploitation films featured Hells Angels lookalikes. Usually considered better than run of the mill was Hells Angels on Wheels (1967) with Jack Nicholson and members of the Oakland Hells Angels.
A documentary, Hell's Angels Forever, produced by the club has a soundtrack featuring Jerry Garcia and Willie Nelson.
A soundly-based recent documentary about the club was produced in 1999 for The History Channel (A&E Network): In Search of History: Hell's Angels includes an interview with Sonny Barger.
The Road to Hell : How the Biker Gangs are Conquering Canada, Julian Sher and William Marsden, 2003
Police claim a victory over bikers in Thunder Bay CBC News, Thursday, 19 Jan 2006
http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2006/04/11/biker-war-sher.html?ref=rss