On Thursday, June 26, 2008 6:13:00 AM UTC-4, Greg Carr wrote:   
   > Hell's Angels find piece of heaven in Gulf Coast   
   > June 25, 2008 - 7:18PM   
   > Jeremy Morrison, Florida Freedom Newspapers   
   > CALLAWAY — The Hells Angels are at the gate and want to sell you   
   > officially licensed merchandise.   
   >    
   > Riding for more than half a century on its outlaw image, the infamous   
   > motorcycle club has arrived in Florida, and an ad featuring the club’s   
   > winged-skull logo has appeared in this newspaper calling for new   
   > members.   
   >    
   > “We just wanted to let people know we’re here; it’s no big deal,” said   
   > Paul Stevens said, who is organizing the Florida chapter.   
   > Stevens stressed members no longer are the stereotypical bikers   
   > terrorizing the paved landscape.   
   >    
   > “We are a political club; we are not a drug club. We’re not interested   
   > in the Hollywood persona,” Stevens said. “The time of the biker being   
   > a biker is long gone. We no longer have the drunk, drugged-up, crazy   
   > biker. It’s a totally different world.”   
   >    
   > (Greg-Uhhhhhh I'm no fan of HAMC but some of them are still as biker   
   > as they get. As for politics  they can learn from the BC chapters   
   > which have strong links to the New Democratic Party. Pietro Caledino   
   > is a school trustee in Burnaby and his nephew was a full patch member   
   > until he quit after failing along with a buddy to knock out a much   
   > smaller man in a casino fight caught on video. When he was running for   
   > MLA (an office he used to have) he rented his office from an HA   
   > associate.)    
   >    
   > Standing in his den Wednesday morning, Stevens talked of how the Gulf   
   > Chapter, the Hells Angels’ first sanctioned chapter in the state, will   
   > focus on riding their motorcycles, selling T-shirts and raising money   
   > for charities. Eventually, he would like to see the chapter grow to   
   > cover any state touching the Gulf of Mexico, possibly even stretching   
   > over the border and into Mexico.   
   >    
   > (The most HA has managed to raise is 75k for the Toy Run. On the same   
   > day 1.4 million was raised for breast cancer research in a fun run put   
   > on by non-criminals. In various HA arrests huge sums of cash and drugs   
   > are seized but they barely give anything in comparison to the   
   > charities they claim to support.)   
   >    
   > Bay County was strategically picked as the launching ground for the   
   > chapter. The area, with its heavy military influence and relaxed,   
   > beach feel, was viewed as a prime locale, Stevens said.   
   >    
   > “Panama City, the Bay (County) area, is perfect for what we’re doing   
   > here,” Stevens said, adding he eventually would like to see   
   > international gatherings of the club here. “We’ve got the Gulf of   
   > Mexico out there to go play; we’ve got the new airport. It’s a perfect   
   > spot.”   
   >    
   > Sales   
   > Rather than criminal activity, the new chapter will be making money by   
   > selling Hells Angels merchandise. More than a motorcycle club, the   
   > Angels also is a corporation with a variety of products emblazoned   
   > with the winged-skull.   
   >    
   > “It’s an engine to create money,” Stevens said of the Hells Angels’   
   > name recognition.   
   >    
   > Stevens hopes to open a storefront. Pinned up on his wall is a mosaic   
   > of biker-motif artwork. Some of it is destined for T-shirts. A couple   
   > of photos showing women up against a wall and wearing the club patch   
   > are the beginnings of a wall calendar.   
   >    
   > “This is the start of girls wearing my patch, in their underwear,   
   > local girls,” he said. His wife also is looking into making Hells   
   > Angels swimsuits, he added.   
   >    
   > Also on the wall is a Congressional Medal of Honor and a couple of   
   > dinner invitations from President George W. Bush. The biker is a   
   > longtime Republican and said he encounters a lot of politicians that   
   > respect the Hells Angels.   
   >    
   > (Greg-Good luck getting one of them to go public with that.)   
   >    
   > “Everyone else is playing games, while people high up are saying,   
   > ‘Keep going, buddy,’” Stevens said.   
   >    
   > Heyday   
   > While he concedes the biker club has had its darker moments, Stevens   
   > said a lot has changed over the years. He should know; he’s been   
   > around awhile.   
   >    
   > “The woman we all called Nana was the woman who sowed the patches for   
   > the Oakland Hells Angels,” Stevens said, describing growing up amidst   
   > the club’s Northern California heyday of the 1970s.   
   >    
   > In the years since, the Hells Angels have evolved and now count   
   > “doctors and lawyers” among their members. The Gulf Chapter is taking   
   > this new-day thinking a step further, opening its ranks to women.   
   > Since running an ad proclaiming “all races & sexes welcome,” Stevens   
   > estimates roughly half of the two dozen respondents have been female.   
   >    
   > (Greg-In England there are documented cases of women flying HA patches   
   > so I guess this chapter is doing it in the US. I'm sure the Outlaws MC   
   > will have great fun peeling them off them. I'm sure when the Pagans MC   
   > reads this they will fall over laughing. They forced the  Philadelphia   
   > HA chapter to disband a few yes back. The Halifax chapter collapsed   
   > yrs ago and they killed off their own Laval chapter. There was a HA   
   > member, Anthony Benesh III,  in Texas trying to start up a chapter but   
   > he was killed off by a sniper. Oddly my post about that has   
   > disappeared.)   
   >    
   > “We’re kind of like a pilot program,” he said of the chapter’s   
   > inclusion of women, adding that other races are not common in Hells   
   > Angels’ circles, but also not unheard of. “There are some black   
   > patch-holders. I know two of ’em.”   
   >    
   > (Greg-While there are certainly Blacks in HA none of them are full   
   > patches. I dare Mr.Stevens to post a picture of a Black man wearing a   
   > HAMC patch. I can imagine the bikes revving up in California and North   
   > Carolina of full patch HA members who have done hard time with Black   
   > convicts coming to Florida to pull them.)   
   >    
   > Bikers interested in joining the Gulf Chapter will need to stick it   
   > out for seven years before they are eligible for the skull logo aback   
   > their jackets.   
   >    
   > During that time, prospects will be sized up.   
   >    
   > “The seven years is important because it helps us weed out people,”   
   > Stevens explained. “It helps people weed themselves out.”   
   >    
   > (Greg-Seems like a decent plan. Ten would be better.)   
   >    
   > The first Gulf Chapter patches, or rockers, are sewn onto the back of   
   > Stevens’ cut-off jacket. He points to the Hells Angels rocker riding   
   > across the shoulders. There is no apostrophe in Hells; it’s plural,   
   > not possessive.   
   >    
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
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