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Jonathan"s Journey
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PIC OF THE DAY
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USA - Quick summary of knife laws
OFF THE WIRE
by Carl Donath
After following rec.knives for a while, it became obvious that a quick summary of knife laws would be handy. Here's what little I've been able to glean from my reading.
My goal is to find the clear portion of what is flat-out legal and easily summarized. I realize most states confuse the issue unmercifully; I'll let others figure out how to push the limits.
WARNING: This document is created from hearsay and whatever laws I could find. For legal advice, ask a lawyer. I could be lying. I only provide this to try to slightly improve the general lack of information on this subject. YOU are responsible for your own actions. If you don't know exactly what the laws are for any state or locale you are in, GO FIND OUT. (http://www.ncsl.org/public/sitesleg.htmis a good start, containing pointers to all state legislative sites.) I haven't updated this for a while, so consider it a cursory guide.
Use this as guidance: kids have been suspended for mere posession of nail clippers.
Canada
Airlines
Summary: No knives or sharp instruments of anykind.
by Carl Donath
After following rec.knives for a while, it became obvious that a quick summary of knife laws would be handy. Here's what little I've been able to glean from my reading.
My goal is to find the clear portion of what is flat-out legal and easily summarized. I realize most states confuse the issue unmercifully; I'll let others figure out how to push the limits.
WARNING: This document is created from hearsay and whatever laws I could find. For legal advice, ask a lawyer. I could be lying. I only provide this to try to slightly improve the general lack of information on this subject. YOU are responsible for your own actions. If you don't know exactly what the laws are for any state or locale you are in, GO FIND OUT. (http://www.ncsl.org/public/sitesleg.htmis a good start, containing pointers to all state legislative sites.) I haven't updated this for a while, so consider it a cursory guide.
Explaination
State (hyperlink goes to detailed explaination)- Summary:
- Max length:
- Specifically illegal:
- Relevant laws:
- Quirks:
- Local restrictions:
Basically, I want to answer the question "I'm flying to state X tomorrow, so which knife can I take?"
Size limit, measured the most unpleasant way possible. Some may permit longer in certain cases, but I won't suggest anything longer if it's in a gray area.
Specific styles which are explicitly forbidden.
Switchblade= Push a button/lever, it does the rest.
Gravity knives = Opened by gravity or centrifigual force. Butterfly knives (balisongs) included.
A quick pointer to roughly where the relevant laws are (ex. Penal Code 642)
Dark humor points (ex: a 1" lockback in a pocket is illegal, but a 15" Bowie swinging free is ok)
City/county restrictions.
Use this as guidance: kids have been suspended for mere posession of nail clippers.
US Knife Law Summary
- Ballistic knives (automatic blade throwers) are prohibited.
- Switchbladesmay not be transported/mailed across state lines unlessthe recipient intends to use it for military use.
- Possessing a knife in a federal facility is prohibited unless it is a pocket knife with blade under 2.5".
State Knife Law Summaries
Arizona- Summary: Generally clear. Illegal to carry "deadly weapon, (except a pocket knife) concealed."
- Max length: None apparent.
- Relevant laws: ARS book
- Summary: Anything capable of ready use as a stabbing weapon is illegal. All concealed knives are a felony (except non locking folders).
- Max length: chaotic
- Specifically illegal: Switchblades, gravity knives, exotic conceal methods (pen, lipstick, whatever)
- Relevant laws: PC 653K, PC 12020(24), California Laws, Commentary (apparently removed - someone know where?)
- Note that interpretations by cops and judges are wildly varied. Police have actually told law-abiding citizens to break the concealment laws, and a judge has deemed a blunt-point knife (Spyderco Mariner) a stabbing weapon.
- Quirks: Pens may be illegal (potential stabbing weapon).
- Local restrictions:
- Los Angeles
- Three inch limit for open carry without a good explanation.
- Summary: Sounds normal.
- Max length: Cutting edge under 4 inches
- Switchblades: Are legal to carry with a Dangerous Weapons Permit (DWP) only. Good luck trying to find a police station that has an application.
- Gravity knives: Same
- Relevant laws:
- Local restrictions: Some police chiefs don't want to give out DWP's
- Summary: A "common pocketknife" is OK. All "concealed weapons" (knives included) require a license.
- Max length: None apparent.
- Relevant laws: Chapter 790
- Local restrictions:
- Atlanta: A blade over 3" that LOCKS is illegal.
- Summary: Generally OK.
- Max length: None apparent.
- Specifically illegal: automatics & throwing stars.
- Relevant laws: Statutes mentioning "knife"
- Summary: OK for "normal" knives. Don't try to conceal any bowie, dirk, switchblade or butcher knife.
- Max length: None apparent.
- Specifically illegal: none apparent.
- Relevant laws: 97-37-*
- Quirks: Threatening actions with a knife in the presence of less than three people may be acceptable.
- Summary: any folder 4" or less is OK.
- Max length: 4"
- Relevant laws: State Laws (search for "knife")
- Summary: "Penknives" are OK. Anything else is borderline illegal and may require a concealed weapon permit.
- Max length: None apparent.
- Relevant laws: MD Statues Crimes and Punishments § 36, § 36A-O
- Quirks: You may carry a "weapon as a reasonable precaution against apprehended danger", but it's up to a tribunal to decide the reasonableness/appropriateness of posession.
- Local restrictions:
- Cecil, Anne Arundel, Talbot, Harford, Caroline, Prince George's, Montgomery, St. Mary's, Washington, Worcester, Kent, and Baltimore Counties have special prohibitions regarding children under 18 carrying knives. See § 36(a)(3).
- Summary: Nothing over 3.5"
- Max length: 3.5"
- A longer blade maybe legal, but it's subject post-fact to a judge's decision.
- Relevant laws: Statutes mentioning "knife"
- Statutes may refer only to concealed knives.
- Quirks:
- A "knife" is defined as having a blade over 3.5". A pocketknife under 3.5" is not a knife.
- Local restrictions:
- Linconln
- Switchblades are illegal.
- Summary: General folders OK. Single-edged fixed blades may be.
- Max length: Under 18 may not possess knife with 5" or longer blade, or 10" or longer overall. No other apparent limitation.
- Specifically illegal: gravity knife, switchblade knife, dagger, dirk, stiletto, or ballistic knife "without any explainable lawful purpose" (i.e. an ill-defined exemption). Manufacturers and sellers are not exempt.
- Relevant laws: 2C:39-3.e 2C:39-9.d 2C:39-9.1 (Statutes, search for "knife" or "knives")
- Summary: If it looks like a weapon, it's illegal.
- Max length: 6" (?)
- Specifically illegal: Switchblades and gravity knives unless hunting or fishing with permit
- Relevant laws: Penal law
- Local restrictions:
- New York City
- Must be under 4"
- Summary: Generally OK.
- Max length: None apparent.
- Specifically illegal: switchblades, belt-buckle knives
- Relevant laws: NRS 202
- Specifically illegal: switchblade, springblade knife, gravity (butterfly) knife, or similar weapon;
- Relevant laws: Search Statutes for "knife"
- Summary: 3" or less OK. Don't posess anything "designed to cut and stab another".
- Max length: 3" measured from where the handle ends, not where the sharpened edge begins.
- Specifically illegal:
- Posession of a dagger, dirk, stiletto, sword-in-cane, bowie knife, or other similar weapon designed to cut and stab another.
- Concealed carry upon one's person of the above-mentioned instruments or weapons, or any razor, or knife of any description having a blade of more than 3".
- Relevant laws: Title 11 Criminal Offenses § 11-47-42
- Quirks: Children under 18 may purchase the above weapons with written parental permission.
- Summary: Folders under 4" are OK.
- Max length: 4"
- Specifically illegal: Switchblades, gravity knives (probably)
- Quirks: Fixed blades are probablya no-no.
- Summary: Folders under 5.5" OK.
- Max length: 5.5"
- Specifically illegal: Switchblade, throwing knives, daggers (in general), bowie knives, swords and spears.
- Relevant laws: Penal Code 46
- Quirks: The one state people associate with Bowie knives explicitly forbids them.
- Summary: Don't conceal a dirk or bowie knife. Don't take a dangerous weapon (esp. bowie knife or dagger) to church.
- Max length: None apparent.
- Specifically illegal: Switchblades.
- Relevant laws: 18.2-308, search statutes for knife or knives.
- Quirks: 3.1-370: your knife must be cleaned daily.
- Summary: Anything over 3" is in a gray area.
- Max length: 3"
- Specifically illegal: switchblade, springblade knife, gravity (butterfly) knife, concealed dagger/dirk
- Relevant laws: Statutes mentioning "knife"
- Relevant laws: 134.71 (1)(a)9, 134.71 (1)(g)1, 134.71 (1)(h)1 (relating to pawn brokers), 941.24 (switchblades)
Canada
- Summary: Careful; the country is getting antsy about weapons.
- Specifically illegal: a knife that has a blade that opens automatically by gravity or centrifugal force or by hand pressure applied to a button, spring or other device in or attached to the handle of the knife.
- Relevant laws: Annual Statutes Of Canada, 1995 Chapter 39 (Bill C-68)
Airlines
Summary: No knives or sharp instruments of anykind.
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Why cops lie...
OFF THE WIRE
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How to get a warning, not a ticket
OFF THE WIRE
If you get stopped by a policeman or trooper, a ticket that jacks up your car insurance bill is the last thing you want. Here's how to avoid one.
When you see flashing lights in your rearview mirror, take a deep breath. The next few minutes could make all the difference when your next insurance bill arrives.
State troopers and police officers have 100% discretion. They can write you a ticket, or they can give you a warning. They can write down exactly what their radar gun shows, or they can write down a number that will lower your fine and reduce the number of points on your license.
If you have been pulled over, your immediate fate is in the officer's hands -- and so are your future insurance premiums.
A speeding ticket that qualifies as reckless driving in your state is the single worst traffic violation you can inflict on your insurance bill, according to data gathered by Insurance.com, with premiums rising an average of 22%. But knocked down to 14 mph or less over the limit, that hit falls to 11%.
Of course, the best way to keep your insurance from going up at all is to keep the ticket off your record in the first place.
To increase your chances of a receiving a warning rather than a ticket:
Anything above 80 mph is de facto reckless driving in Hawaii, North Carolina and Virginia. That threshold is 100 mph in California and Minnesota. A few mph one way or the other means the difference between a fine and losing your license to suspension.
If you were polite and honest and you kept your hands on the wheel, but you still got a ticket, remember that the law and statistics are on the officer's side. According to the National Transportation Highway Safety Administration, 32,880 people died in traffic accidents in 2010. Speeding caused 32% of those deaths.
The National Motorists Association estimates that less than 5% of drivers go to court. Spokesman John Bowman says not fighting a ticket is a mistake. "Drivers will almost always come out ahead," he says, "either with a full dismissal or at least a lower penalty."
You can also go for deferred adjudication, a deal that prevents the conviction from appearing on your motor vehicle record.
But once the conviction is on your record, there is little you can do to lower your insurance rates except shop for a different insurance company, says Penny Gusner, a consumer analyst with CarInsurance.com.
"Insurance companies rate tickets differently," Gusner says, "and while your current one may raise your rates 10%, another one may not raise your rates on just one minor offense or surcharge you only 5% for it."
A minor ticket might not warrant an increase in your premium. But you could lose your good driver discount, and in some states that could bring a 20% increase in your insurance bill.
If you get stopped by a policeman or trooper, a ticket that jacks up your car insurance bill is the last thing you want. Here's how to avoid one.
When you see flashing lights in your rearview mirror, take a deep breath. The next few minutes could make all the difference when your next insurance bill arrives.
State troopers and police officers have 100% discretion. They can write you a ticket, or they can give you a warning. They can write down exactly what their radar gun shows, or they can write down a number that will lower your fine and reduce the number of points on your license.
If you have been pulled over, your immediate fate is in the officer's hands -- and so are your future insurance premiums.
A speeding ticket that qualifies as reckless driving in your state is the single worst traffic violation you can inflict on your insurance bill, according to data gathered by Insurance.com, with premiums rising an average of 22%. But knocked down to 14 mph or less over the limit, that hit falls to 11%.
Of course, the best way to keep your insurance from going up at all is to keep the ticket off your record in the first place.
To increase your chances of a receiving a warning rather than a ticket:
- Make it an easy stop. Pull over quickly, turn your interior lights on and keep your hands in sight on the wheel. When an officer approaches a vehicle, says Iowa State Patrol Sgt. Scott Bright, he or she will be looking at how many people are in the car and where their hands are.
- Be respectful. If you were looking for a way to ensure a ticket, being argumentative, angry or rude is a great way to do it. "There is no guarantee that a driver will receive a warning based upon behavior," says Colorado State Patrol Capt. Jeff Goodwin, "but it certainly helps to be respectful and less confrontational."
- Save the excuses. Law enforcement officers have heard them all, so save your sob story. Answers to any questions should be brief and noncommittal. (For example, if the officer asks if you know why you've been pulled over, say no, legal experts advise.) Don't argue. This isn't a court.
Discretion matters
Here is why you should bite your tongue.
"Every year," says Goodwin, "the CSP (Colorado State Patrol) issues many more warnings than citations."
In 2010, the Chicago Sun Times looked at the tickets written by the Lake County Illinois Sheriff's Department and found huge differences among officers. One officer issued only warnings, while another was responsible for 90% of the tickets written.
Perspectives often change as troopers gain experience.
Anything above 80 mph is de facto reckless driving in Hawaii, North Carolina and Virginia. That threshold is 100 mph in California and Minnesota. A few mph one way or the other means the difference between a fine and losing your license to suspension.
If you were polite and honest and you kept your hands on the wheel, but you still got a ticket, remember that the law and statistics are on the officer's side. According to the National Transportation Highway Safety Administration, 32,880 people died in traffic accidents in 2010. Speeding caused 32% of those deaths.
When to fight, when to shop
Once you've been stopped for speeding, several outcomes are possible: a warning, a ticket that cuts you a break or a full-fledged, license-denting traffic violation. You still have options even after the officer has handed you the ticket and told you to have a nice day.The National Motorists Association estimates that less than 5% of drivers go to court. Spokesman John Bowman says not fighting a ticket is a mistake. "Drivers will almost always come out ahead," he says, "either with a full dismissal or at least a lower penalty."
You can also go for deferred adjudication, a deal that prevents the conviction from appearing on your motor vehicle record.
But once the conviction is on your record, there is little you can do to lower your insurance rates except shop for a different insurance company, says Penny Gusner, a consumer analyst with CarInsurance.com.
"Insurance companies rate tickets differently," Gusner says, "and while your current one may raise your rates 10%, another one may not raise your rates on just one minor offense or surcharge you only 5% for it."
A minor ticket might not warrant an increase in your premium. But you could lose your good driver discount, and in some states that could bring a 20% increase in your insurance bill.
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BABES OF THE DAY
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PIC OF THE DAY
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CALIFORNIA: SB-435 - Clearing Up The Misconceptions
OFF THE WIRE
This is the future – WE WILL BE HUNTED AND HARESSED. All the BEACH CITIES in Ca do this already – so when funds are low – and they’re looking for ways to raise them – and the general public don’t care – we’re a TARGET. I see it as 2 sided – there’s dipshits that crank their pipes at 3am – get up to go to work and let the bike idle for 10 minutes with straight pipes. You know what? I don’t like that shit either – I barely sleep as it is. I coast my Thunderheader to the main street before 8am – I coast in late at night – some people are Fucking Stupid – and we’re all going to pay the PRICE........
ML&R
Screwdriver
After they originally put out somewhat incorrect information, I provided this to the MRF last month, and they are supposed to be running it in the current MRF Reports. Feel free to distribute as you see fit.
~Tony~
ABATE, of California
SB-435 - Clearing Up The Misconceptions
January 7, 2011
Due to the many false reports and misconceptions about SB-435, it looks like it is time to clear the misunderstandings and false impressions people have concerning SB-435 and ABATE of California’s role in shaping this bill. Contrary to all of the rumors, ABATE of California did not roll over on SB-435 and in fact, was the only major SMRO to oppose SB-435 until June 28, 2010 when it was heard in the Assembly Transportation Committee. At the hearing, last minute resistance was offered by other groups who showed up to testify in opposition, and a few other groups and individuals continued to oppose the bill as it made its way back to the Senate and Governor’s desk, where it was eventually signed.
So let’s look at what happened with SB-435, and how things really transpired. SB-435 was first introduced on February 26, 2009, by State Senator Fran Pavley, (D), Agoura Hills as a bill to institute biennial smog checks for motorcycles. After vigorous opposition to SB-435 by Jim Lombardo, ABATE of California’s lobbyist, SB-435 was turned into a two-year bill and allowed to pass out of the Senate with the provision that Senator Pavley amend the bill and remove the smog check language. In Senator Pavley’s own words, “ABATE’s lobbyist killed my smog bill on the Senate floor.” Accordingly, the record reflects several amendments, which were offered by the bill author before she amended it from a smog check bill into an EPA noise label match-up bill.
The bottom line here is that California’s motorcyclists will not be burdened with a unwarranted and restrictive smog check bill, thanks to the determined efforts of ABATE of California. Once again – NO SMOG CHECKS for motorcycles in California thanks to ABATE of California and Jim Lombardo. Moreover, in the final version of the bill, which was signed into law, all motorcycles currently on the road up to model year 2013 are grand-fathered in. That is a huge concession that ABATE of California was able to achieve on behalf of the over 800,000-registered motorcycle owners in the state. Just guessing, I would estimate that this will save the average owner with after market pipes at least $600 to $1,000.
On June 28, 2010, the version of SB-435 that passed out of the Assembly Transportation Committee is the one which basically was signed into law by the Governor. With just a few weeks prior notice, ABATE of California was able to mobilize to meet the threat posed by the amended bill. The amended SB-435 called for imposition of the 1983 EPA noise label match-up language that has been in effect at the Federal level for 27 years. In addition, it called for a $300 fine, a moving violation, a point on a driving record, and it would have allowed any law enforcement officer, including meter maids to cite motorcyclists, even if the motorcycle was parked. One of the amendments ABATE of California was apprehensive would be offered was the imposition of SAE J2825, developed by the AMA & MIC.
Incidentally, both the AMA and MIC were lobbying to get SAE J2825 introduced into SB-435, and that is a bullet that California’s motorcyclists were able to dodge. In a test performed by ABATE personnel certified in the J2825 testing procedure, virtually every after market set of pipes failed the test, which leads those of us in ABATE of California to have little faith in J2825’s objective standards. Moreover, J2825 would have led to roadside testing and every county and city with officers equipped with db meters would be pulling over and citing motorcyclists given the sorry state of the budget in California. ABATE of California urges all SMRO’s to take a hard look at J2825 before signing onto that program. ONE MORE TIME -- SAE J 2825 will lead to increased roadside checks! Is that really what we need or want?
While we dodged a bullet with J2825, SB-435 as amended contained plenty of anti-motorcycling language and as written, the bill would have affected all motorcycles from model year 2000 forward. Through the efforts of ABATE of California through our lobbyist, Jim Lombardo, several concessions were achieved that removed the most unfriendly and anti-motorcycle language from the bill. Through the joint efforts of ABATE’s Jim Lombardo and John Paliwoda of the California Motorcycle Dealer’s Association, the effective date of imposition of SB-435 was rolled back to 2013, and all motorcycles currently on the road are grand-fathered in. Additionally, due to ABATE’s efforts, violations were changed from a moving violation to a fix-it-ticket, it was dropped to a $50 fine from $300, and it is a secondary violation, meaning that it can’t be the primary reason for an enforcement stop.
As can be plainly seen, the final version of SB-435 was substantially altered by ABATE of California and while we would like to have seen the bill die in committee, we did not enjoy the same support against an anti-noise bill that we did against a smog check bill. Furthermore, the co-author of SB-435 was the Chairwoman of Assembly Transportation Committee, and we knew going into the bill hearing that we simply did not have the votes to kill this bill. While there were some in the ranks of the organization that wished to pursue a hard line stance, the vote from our Political Action Committee determined that we would pursue the course of seeking to modify the bill and in this we were successful given the concessions that were achieved. Had we followed a hard line approach and simply hoped we would defeat SB-435 in committee, we would today be facing a far different reality today than we are.
While there is much Monday morning quarterbacking going on regarding SB-435, ABATE of California is confident that we achieved the best possible outcome for the California motorcycling community that was possible given the difficult circumstances we faced. Two last items on the topic of SB-435 are that this bill is likely to have the unintended consequence of driving up the fair market price for pre-2013 used motorcycles due to the fact that they are grand-fathered in. Another consequence that other states facing similar legislation should be aware of is the 2013 date, which was extended to allow the manufacturers to comply. While we still have two years before SB-435 goes into effect, other states facing similar legislation will not have the same grace period if this legislation should come up in their respective states after January 2013.
Anthony Jaime
Executive Director
ABATE of California
This is the future – WE WILL BE HUNTED AND HARESSED. All the BEACH CITIES in Ca do this already – so when funds are low – and they’re looking for ways to raise them – and the general public don’t care – we’re a TARGET. I see it as 2 sided – there’s dipshits that crank their pipes at 3am – get up to go to work and let the bike idle for 10 minutes with straight pipes. You know what? I don’t like that shit either – I barely sleep as it is. I coast my Thunderheader to the main street before 8am – I coast in late at night – some people are Fucking Stupid – and we’re all going to pay the PRICE........
ML&R
Screwdriver
After they originally put out somewhat incorrect information, I provided this to the MRF last month, and they are supposed to be running it in the current MRF Reports. Feel free to distribute as you see fit.
~Tony~
ABATE, of California
SB-435 - Clearing Up The Misconceptions
January 7, 2011
Due to the many false reports and misconceptions about SB-435, it looks like it is time to clear the misunderstandings and false impressions people have concerning SB-435 and ABATE of California’s role in shaping this bill. Contrary to all of the rumors, ABATE of California did not roll over on SB-435 and in fact, was the only major SMRO to oppose SB-435 until June 28, 2010 when it was heard in the Assembly Transportation Committee. At the hearing, last minute resistance was offered by other groups who showed up to testify in opposition, and a few other groups and individuals continued to oppose the bill as it made its way back to the Senate and Governor’s desk, where it was eventually signed.
So let’s look at what happened with SB-435, and how things really transpired. SB-435 was first introduced on February 26, 2009, by State Senator Fran Pavley, (D), Agoura Hills as a bill to institute biennial smog checks for motorcycles. After vigorous opposition to SB-435 by Jim Lombardo, ABATE of California’s lobbyist, SB-435 was turned into a two-year bill and allowed to pass out of the Senate with the provision that Senator Pavley amend the bill and remove the smog check language. In Senator Pavley’s own words, “ABATE’s lobbyist killed my smog bill on the Senate floor.” Accordingly, the record reflects several amendments, which were offered by the bill author before she amended it from a smog check bill into an EPA noise label match-up bill.
The bottom line here is that California’s motorcyclists will not be burdened with a unwarranted and restrictive smog check bill, thanks to the determined efforts of ABATE of California. Once again – NO SMOG CHECKS for motorcycles in California thanks to ABATE of California and Jim Lombardo. Moreover, in the final version of the bill, which was signed into law, all motorcycles currently on the road up to model year 2013 are grand-fathered in. That is a huge concession that ABATE of California was able to achieve on behalf of the over 800,000-registered motorcycle owners in the state. Just guessing, I would estimate that this will save the average owner with after market pipes at least $600 to $1,000.
On June 28, 2010, the version of SB-435 that passed out of the Assembly Transportation Committee is the one which basically was signed into law by the Governor. With just a few weeks prior notice, ABATE of California was able to mobilize to meet the threat posed by the amended bill. The amended SB-435 called for imposition of the 1983 EPA noise label match-up language that has been in effect at the Federal level for 27 years. In addition, it called for a $300 fine, a moving violation, a point on a driving record, and it would have allowed any law enforcement officer, including meter maids to cite motorcyclists, even if the motorcycle was parked. One of the amendments ABATE of California was apprehensive would be offered was the imposition of SAE J2825, developed by the AMA & MIC.
Incidentally, both the AMA and MIC were lobbying to get SAE J2825 introduced into SB-435, and that is a bullet that California’s motorcyclists were able to dodge. In a test performed by ABATE personnel certified in the J2825 testing procedure, virtually every after market set of pipes failed the test, which leads those of us in ABATE of California to have little faith in J2825’s objective standards. Moreover, J2825 would have led to roadside testing and every county and city with officers equipped with db meters would be pulling over and citing motorcyclists given the sorry state of the budget in California. ABATE of California urges all SMRO’s to take a hard look at J2825 before signing onto that program. ONE MORE TIME -- SAE J 2825 will lead to increased roadside checks! Is that really what we need or want?
While we dodged a bullet with J2825, SB-435 as amended contained plenty of anti-motorcycling language and as written, the bill would have affected all motorcycles from model year 2000 forward. Through the efforts of ABATE of California through our lobbyist, Jim Lombardo, several concessions were achieved that removed the most unfriendly and anti-motorcycle language from the bill. Through the joint efforts of ABATE’s Jim Lombardo and John Paliwoda of the California Motorcycle Dealer’s Association, the effective date of imposition of SB-435 was rolled back to 2013, and all motorcycles currently on the road are grand-fathered in. Additionally, due to ABATE’s efforts, violations were changed from a moving violation to a fix-it-ticket, it was dropped to a $50 fine from $300, and it is a secondary violation, meaning that it can’t be the primary reason for an enforcement stop.
As can be plainly seen, the final version of SB-435 was substantially altered by ABATE of California and while we would like to have seen the bill die in committee, we did not enjoy the same support against an anti-noise bill that we did against a smog check bill. Furthermore, the co-author of SB-435 was the Chairwoman of Assembly Transportation Committee, and we knew going into the bill hearing that we simply did not have the votes to kill this bill. While there were some in the ranks of the organization that wished to pursue a hard line stance, the vote from our Political Action Committee determined that we would pursue the course of seeking to modify the bill and in this we were successful given the concessions that were achieved. Had we followed a hard line approach and simply hoped we would defeat SB-435 in committee, we would today be facing a far different reality today than we are.
While there is much Monday morning quarterbacking going on regarding SB-435, ABATE of California is confident that we achieved the best possible outcome for the California motorcycling community that was possible given the difficult circumstances we faced. Two last items on the topic of SB-435 are that this bill is likely to have the unintended consequence of driving up the fair market price for pre-2013 used motorcycles due to the fact that they are grand-fathered in. Another consequence that other states facing similar legislation should be aware of is the 2013 date, which was extended to allow the manufacturers to comply. While we still have two years before SB-435 goes into effect, other states facing similar legislation will not have the same grace period if this legislation should come up in their respective states after January 2013.
Anthony Jaime
Executive Director
ABATE of California
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CA - California Highway Patrol posts rules for legal lane-splitting by motorcyclists
OFF THE WIRE
http://www.sacbee.com/2013/02/07/5171619/california-highway-patrol-posts.html
California Highway Patrol posts rules for legal lane-splitting by motorcyclists
By Tony Bizjak The Sacramento Bee
Lane-splitting. It's a slick maneuver motorcyclists love, allowing them to cut between slower moving cars and shoot out ahead. Car drivers, often startled, hate it – calling it brazen and dangerous. Is it safe? Is it legal? Hoping to clarify the controversial practice, California officials have taken the unusual step of issuing a set of guidelines that affirm the move's legality but point out that there are only certain instances where it is considered safe. California is the only state in the country that allows lane-splitting, also known as "white-lining," where motorcyclists pass vehicles in adjacent lanes by driving between them. California Highway Patrol officials said they've posted the first-ever written guidelines on their website as part of a broader state highway safety initiative. It comes as the number of motorcyclists in California is on the rise, as well as the number of motorcycle crashes. "There is a need to acknowledge lane-splitting is being done in California, and a need to help people understand what is reasonable," said California Highway Patrol Sgt. Mark Pope. "Until now, no one in authority has said how to do it safely." The guidelines say motorcyclists can ride between two cars if there is room, but must do it at no more than 10 miles per hour faster than the vehicles they are passing. The guidelines also make it clear that motorcyclists should not attempt the maneuver at full freeway speeds, or in any traffic going 30 mph or faster. That essentially means the highest speed a motorcyclist should be going when lane-splitting is 39 mph. CHP officials say lane-splitting is more risky at higher speeds because motorcyclists have less time to react when something unexpected happens. "We are trying to get people to slow down," the CHP's Pope said. "A lot are traveling at 40 mph or faster. The faster you go, the harder it is to stop." Pope said the guidelines do not reflect new policy. The CHP has long held that lane-splitting is legal in California because nothing in the state Vehicle Code specifically prohibits it. Many states have explicit prohibitions against lane-splitting. Nevada state law, for instance, reads, "a person … shall not drive a motorcycle … between moving or stationary vehicles occupying adjacent traffic lanes." Oregon, Washington and Arizona have similar language in their highway codes. Other states simply consider the maneuver unauthorized, according to the American Motorcyclist Association's national cycling rules database. The practice is common in California. Some 87 percent of California motorcycle riders reported they lane-split, according to a recent state Office of Traffic Safety survey. Some motorcyclists call it lane sharing. It remains a misunderstood and polarizing practice. The traffic safety survey found that only 53 percent of California drivers knew lane-splitting is legal, and 7 percent of drivers admit they have attempted to block a lane-splitting motorcyclist from passing them. Several motorcycle activists lauded the guidelines for affirming California's unique lane-splitting privilege. "They are very reasonable," said Greg Covel, executive director of ABATE of California, a motorcycle rights organization. Now, "we know what the guidelines are, how close we are to staying within the law or pushing the law," Covel said. "If we get stopped for unsafe speed or lane changes, we know what we are getting into." CHP officials say they sometimes ticket motorcyclists who are lane-splitting, but citations are based on an officer's determination that the rider is going too fast for conditions, or that the rider's lane changes are unsafe. CHP officials acknowledge that motorcyclists get away with unsafe lane-splitting at times because it's hard to stop them. "A lot of us are in patrol cars. It is hard for us to catch them," Sacramento-area Sgt. Mike Bradley told The Bee in an interview for a previous story on the issue. CHP numbers show that more than 9,600 people in California were injured in motorcycle crashes in 2010, the most recent year measured, up 25 percent since 2000. But state officials say they know of no comprehensive studies focused on lane-splitting dangers, and they do not have data on the number of lane-splitting-related crashes. Police say they do get reports of side rear-view mirrors being ripped off and occasional crashes, including fatalities. Pope, of the CHP, and Chris Murphy, head of the state Office of Traffic Safety, said the state has engaged UC Berkeley researchers to study motorcycle crashes to reach better conclusions about motorcycling dangers in general, and lane-splitting in particular. Depending on the Berkeley study results, the state could adjust its lane-splitting guidelines, Pope said. Pete terHorst, spokesman for the American Motorcyclist Association, said the new California guidelines could be used by motorcycle advocates in other states to push legalizing lane-splitting elsewhere. But terHorst said advocates nationally typically focus on other motorcycling issues, including broader concerns about causes of crashes. "We essentially endorse the California position, but we don't promote it in other states," terHorst said. Some motorcycle advocates are leery of the CHP's guidelines. Gabe Ets-Hokin, editor of CityBike magazine in the Bay Area, said he appreciates the state's attempt to make a statement, but worries it could be a first step toward more restrictions on the maneuver. "Lane-splitting is a unique lifestyle to California motorcyclists, a subculture," he said. "If we can do it safely, what is the problem?" He and other advocates contend lane-splitting makes motorcycling safer by allowing riders to avoid dangerous situations in heavy traffic. Motorcycle safety class instructors teach another technique, suggesting that cyclists ride on one side or the other of their lane, rather than in the middle. That way cyclists can avoid the oilier part of the lane, as well as see ahead better and give themselves more avenues to get out of trouble, Covel said. The state guidelines can be found at www.chp.ca.gov under "CHP Programs," by clicking on the headline "California Motorcyclist Safety." It also is viewable at ots.ca.gov, under "What's New at OTS." The guidelines note: • Inexperienced motorcyclists should not lane-split.
• On freeways (when traffic has slowed to below 30 mph), motorcyclists should lane-split only between the two fast lanes. The slow lanes are too dangerous because vehicles there switch lanes more often coming from onramps and getting to offramps.
• Motorcyclists should not lane-split in toll booth queues.
• Law enforcement officers can, at their discretion, determine that a motorcyclist is lane-splitting unsafely.
• Other drivers should not try to impede motorcyclists from lane-splitting.
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California Highway Patrol posts rules for legal lane-splitting by motorcyclists
By Tony Bizjak The Sacramento Bee
Lane-splitting. It's a slick maneuver motorcyclists love, allowing them to cut between slower moving cars and shoot out ahead. Car drivers, often startled, hate it – calling it brazen and dangerous. Is it safe? Is it legal? Hoping to clarify the controversial practice, California officials have taken the unusual step of issuing a set of guidelines that affirm the move's legality but point out that there are only certain instances where it is considered safe. California is the only state in the country that allows lane-splitting, also known as "white-lining," where motorcyclists pass vehicles in adjacent lanes by driving between them. California Highway Patrol officials said they've posted the first-ever written guidelines on their website as part of a broader state highway safety initiative. It comes as the number of motorcyclists in California is on the rise, as well as the number of motorcycle crashes. "There is a need to acknowledge lane-splitting is being done in California, and a need to help people understand what is reasonable," said California Highway Patrol Sgt. Mark Pope. "Until now, no one in authority has said how to do it safely." The guidelines say motorcyclists can ride between two cars if there is room, but must do it at no more than 10 miles per hour faster than the vehicles they are passing. The guidelines also make it clear that motorcyclists should not attempt the maneuver at full freeway speeds, or in any traffic going 30 mph or faster. That essentially means the highest speed a motorcyclist should be going when lane-splitting is 39 mph. CHP officials say lane-splitting is more risky at higher speeds because motorcyclists have less time to react when something unexpected happens. "We are trying to get people to slow down," the CHP's Pope said. "A lot are traveling at 40 mph or faster. The faster you go, the harder it is to stop." Pope said the guidelines do not reflect new policy. The CHP has long held that lane-splitting is legal in California because nothing in the state Vehicle Code specifically prohibits it. Many states have explicit prohibitions against lane-splitting. Nevada state law, for instance, reads, "a person … shall not drive a motorcycle … between moving or stationary vehicles occupying adjacent traffic lanes." Oregon, Washington and Arizona have similar language in their highway codes. Other states simply consider the maneuver unauthorized, according to the American Motorcyclist Association's national cycling rules database. The practice is common in California. Some 87 percent of California motorcycle riders reported they lane-split, according to a recent state Office of Traffic Safety survey. Some motorcyclists call it lane sharing. It remains a misunderstood and polarizing practice. The traffic safety survey found that only 53 percent of California drivers knew lane-splitting is legal, and 7 percent of drivers admit they have attempted to block a lane-splitting motorcyclist from passing them. Several motorcycle activists lauded the guidelines for affirming California's unique lane-splitting privilege. "They are very reasonable," said Greg Covel, executive director of ABATE of California, a motorcycle rights organization. Now, "we know what the guidelines are, how close we are to staying within the law or pushing the law," Covel said. "If we get stopped for unsafe speed or lane changes, we know what we are getting into." CHP officials say they sometimes ticket motorcyclists who are lane-splitting, but citations are based on an officer's determination that the rider is going too fast for conditions, or that the rider's lane changes are unsafe. CHP officials acknowledge that motorcyclists get away with unsafe lane-splitting at times because it's hard to stop them. "A lot of us are in patrol cars. It is hard for us to catch them," Sacramento-area Sgt. Mike Bradley told The Bee in an interview for a previous story on the issue. CHP numbers show that more than 9,600 people in California were injured in motorcycle crashes in 2010, the most recent year measured, up 25 percent since 2000. But state officials say they know of no comprehensive studies focused on lane-splitting dangers, and they do not have data on the number of lane-splitting-related crashes. Police say they do get reports of side rear-view mirrors being ripped off and occasional crashes, including fatalities. Pope, of the CHP, and Chris Murphy, head of the state Office of Traffic Safety, said the state has engaged UC Berkeley researchers to study motorcycle crashes to reach better conclusions about motorcycling dangers in general, and lane-splitting in particular. Depending on the Berkeley study results, the state could adjust its lane-splitting guidelines, Pope said. Pete terHorst, spokesman for the American Motorcyclist Association, said the new California guidelines could be used by motorcycle advocates in other states to push legalizing lane-splitting elsewhere. But terHorst said advocates nationally typically focus on other motorcycling issues, including broader concerns about causes of crashes. "We essentially endorse the California position, but we don't promote it in other states," terHorst said. Some motorcycle advocates are leery of the CHP's guidelines. Gabe Ets-Hokin, editor of CityBike magazine in the Bay Area, said he appreciates the state's attempt to make a statement, but worries it could be a first step toward more restrictions on the maneuver. "Lane-splitting is a unique lifestyle to California motorcyclists, a subculture," he said. "If we can do it safely, what is the problem?" He and other advocates contend lane-splitting makes motorcycling safer by allowing riders to avoid dangerous situations in heavy traffic. Motorcycle safety class instructors teach another technique, suggesting that cyclists ride on one side or the other of their lane, rather than in the middle. That way cyclists can avoid the oilier part of the lane, as well as see ahead better and give themselves more avenues to get out of trouble, Covel said. The state guidelines can be found at www.chp.ca.gov under "CHP Programs," by clicking on the headline "California Motorcyclist Safety." It also is viewable at ots.ca.gov, under "What's New at OTS." The guidelines note: • Inexperienced motorcyclists should not lane-split.
• On freeways (when traffic has slowed to below 30 mph), motorcyclists should lane-split only between the two fast lanes. The slow lanes are too dangerous because vehicles there switch lanes more often coming from onramps and getting to offramps.
• Motorcyclists should not lane-split in toll booth queues.
• Law enforcement officers can, at their discretion, determine that a motorcyclist is lane-splitting unsafely.
• Other drivers should not try to impede motorcyclists from lane-splitting.
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PIC OF THE DAY
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Can a Police Officer Enter a Home Without a Warrant..
OFF THE WIRE
Read more: Can a Police Officer Enter a Home Without a Warrant? | eHow.comhttp://www.ehow.com/facts_7466805_can-officer-enter-home-warrant_.html#ixzz2KWH7y5ZL
Read more: Can a Police Officer Enter a Home Without a Warrant? | eHow.comhttp://www.ehow.com/facts_7466805_can-officer-enter-home-warrant_.html#ixzz2KWHEIzki
Read more: Can a Police Officer Enter a Home Without a Warrant? | eHow.comhttp://www.ehow.com/facts_7466805_can-officer-enter-home-warrant_.html#ixzz2KWHLyX7U
If law enforcement officer suspects criminal activity or contraband at a particular location and can prove "probable cause," a judge can issue a search warrant. A search warrant is a court order that allows the police to search a specified location for specific objects for a duration of time.
Read more: Can a Police Officer Enter a Home Without a Warrant? | eHow.comhttp://www.ehow.com/facts_7466805_can-officer-enter-home-warrant_.html#ixzz2KWH7y5ZL
Unreasonable Search
- The fourth amendment to the Constitution protects citizens from unreasonable searches and seizures by law enforcement. The amendment requires search and arrest warrants be sanctioned by a judge and supported by probable cause.
Exceptions
- Officers can search homes without warrants if the homeowner/renter willingly consents without coercion or deception.
An officer rightfully on someone's property can legally search if he is in view of contraband or visible evidence of a crime.
Officers already arresting someone in their home can search to prevent the destruction of evidence or for weapons or accomplices.
Officers can search in time-restricted situations where the process of obtaining a valid warrant could compromise public welfare or potential evidence.
Rights
- The owner/renter of the property has the right to read the warrant or to have it read to them. They also have a right to request an explanation as to the reason for the search.
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Rusty Coones and Rodrigo Requejo Are Hell Raisers
OFF THE WIRE
For the Illusion Motorsports bike builders, life has been one wild ride
The backroom of Illusion Motorsports is full of bikes: some are set aside like museum pieces, others are jacked up on work tables, here a line of stripped-down and refurbished Harley-Davidsons, there the odd Triumph or Victoria. But two motorcycles in particular stand out inside the construction-in-progress custom-motorcycle shop in a Garden Grove business complex just off Interstate 405 at Golden West. They're distinguished less because of their physical appearance than for what they say about the store's owners, Rodrigo Requejo and Rusty Coones, and the amazing turn of personal fortune both men have experienced in the past few years.
The first bike, an Illusion Hellrazor with a 114-cubic-inch engine custom-manufactured exclusively for the shop, belongs to Kurt Sutter, the creator of the biker drama Sons of Anarchy that airs on FX. Requejo and Coones built the bike for Sutter earlier this year, but Sutter sent it back in for a custom fender and a one-of-its-kind aluminum fairing. It's the second bike Sutter has purchased from the store; the first was custom-made for the show in 2010, and then donated to the Wounded Warrior Foundation, a San Diego charity that benefits wounded and disabled veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
A Sons of Anarchy camera crew filmed Requejo and Coones building the bike from scratch for a special feature for the upcoming DVD release of the show's third season. Coones' heavy-metal band, Attika7, for which he plays lead guitar alongside vocalist Evan Seinfeld of Biohazard fame, also contributed two songs to the second season, as well as one (so far) for the upcoming fourth season. Sutter and his wife, actress Katey Sagal (who plays Gemma on the show), met Coones a few years ago on a toy run in the San Fernando Valley.
"My first impression: 'Fuck, he is big,'" Sutter says. "Then I was struck by his enthusiasm and genuine love of bikes and the motorcycle subculture. Plus, he was a huge Sons fan. We became friends when he started talking about bikes."
Sutter says that although he has been riding motorcycles for 20 years, the Hellrazor was his first custom-built motorcycle. "The bike is an incredible mix of art, power and comfort," he says. "Beautiful to look at, a force of nature on the road and easy to ride. I fucking love it."
While Sutter's Hellrazor symbolizes the success Coones and Requejo now enjoy, the other bike in question speaks to the dark days the two men shared in the not-too-distant past. It's a 2004 West Coast Chopper Dominator, gleaming with a spotless, satin black paint job, resting on a rack high up on one wall of the shop. It was a surprise gift to Coones from his pal Jesse James, who personally built it in celebration of Coones' Dec. 27, 2004, release from federal prison for his alleged role in what police, prosecutors and newspaper articles at the time described as Orange County's biggest drug-smuggling network.
Even as Coones walked out of prison a free man that day, Requejo was behind bars, having just been arrested for murder. For weeks, Requejo sat in jail, facing either the death penalty or life in prison without parole until finally being cleared of any wrongdoing. Both men look back at their pasts with a healthy dose of humility.
"You have to make the best of the bad," says Requejo, whose burly frame belies his soft-spoken, philosophical nature. "Every day, we're here making people happy, working on their bikes and having a good time. Life's been good to us. You have two guys who could have gone way down the wrong path and somehow made a U-turn."
* * *
A 6-foot-5-inch tower of tanned flesh and muscle, Howard Irvine Coones, known to friend and foe alike as Rusty, has piercing hazel eyes beneath his black-nylon skullcap. Scrolling down the back of both of his bulging biceps are flaming letters spelling out "Hells Angels." Coones is president of the Orange County chapter of the club, which he refuses to mention by name, much less discuss in detail, because its rules preclude members from doing so.
Coones was raised in the small Sacramento-area farming town of Madera in the 1960s. His father owned a crop-dusting business, and Coones began flying as a youngster, which is also when he began riding Harley-Davidsons. His dad wasn't too enamored of the hobby, and after a girl crashed into Rusty, totaling his bike but leaving him miraculously unscathed, his dad gave him an ultimatum. "He told me, 'If you get another Harley, I'm going to kick you out of the house, and I'm going to fire you,'" Coones recalls.
With nowhere to stay and no work to speak of in rural California in 1974, it seemed as though Coones' riding days were over. "But once you get a Harley, you get kind of hooked," he says. "So the day I got the insurance check, I went out and got a bike." Sure enough, Coones' dad both fired him and evicted him from the house on the spot. "So I rode my bike down here to Orange County and got a job with my uncle doing plumbing, and I've been here ever since."
John Gilhooley
Rusty Coones and Rodrigo Requejo
John Gilhooley
Requejo and an Illusion Motorsports creation
A Sons of Anarchy camera crew filmed Requejo and Coones building the bike from scratch for a special feature for the upcoming DVD release of the show's third season. Coones' heavy-metal band, Attika7, for which he plays lead guitar alongside vocalist Evan Seinfeld of Biohazard fame, also contributed two songs to the second season, as well as one (so far) for the upcoming fourth season. Sutter and his wife, actress Katey Sagal (who plays Gemma on the show), met Coones a few years ago on a toy run in the San Fernando Valley.
"My first impression: 'Fuck, he is big,'" Sutter says. "Then I was struck by his enthusiasm and genuine love of bikes and the motorcycle subculture. Plus, he was a huge Sons fan. We became friends when he started talking about bikes."
Sutter says that although he has been riding motorcycles for 20 years, the Hellrazor was his first custom-built motorcycle. "The bike is an incredible mix of art, power and comfort," he says. "Beautiful to look at, a force of nature on the road and easy to ride. I fucking love it."
While Sutter's Hellrazor symbolizes the success Coones and Requejo now enjoy, the other bike in question speaks to the dark days the two men shared in the not-too-distant past. It's a 2004 West Coast Chopper Dominator, gleaming with a spotless, satin black paint job, resting on a rack high up on one wall of the shop. It was a surprise gift to Coones from his pal Jesse James, who personally built it in celebration of Coones' Dec. 27, 2004, release from federal prison for his alleged role in what police, prosecutors and newspaper articles at the time described as Orange County's biggest drug-smuggling network.
Even as Coones walked out of prison a free man that day, Requejo was behind bars, having just been arrested for murder. For weeks, Requejo sat in jail, facing either the death penalty or life in prison without parole until finally being cleared of any wrongdoing. Both men look back at their pasts with a healthy dose of humility.
"You have to make the best of the bad," says Requejo, whose burly frame belies his soft-spoken, philosophical nature. "Every day, we're here making people happy, working on their bikes and having a good time. Life's been good to us. You have two guys who could have gone way down the wrong path and somehow made a U-turn."
* * *
A 6-foot-5-inch tower of tanned flesh and muscle, Howard Irvine Coones, known to friend and foe alike as Rusty, has piercing hazel eyes beneath his black-nylon skullcap. Scrolling down the back of both of his bulging biceps are flaming letters spelling out "Hells Angels." Coones is president of the Orange County chapter of the club, which he refuses to mention by name, much less discuss in detail, because its rules preclude members from doing so.
Coones was raised in the small Sacramento-area farming town of Madera in the 1960s. His father owned a crop-dusting business, and Coones began flying as a youngster, which is also when he began riding Harley-Davidsons. His dad wasn't too enamored of the hobby, and after a girl crashed into Rusty, totaling his bike but leaving him miraculously unscathed, his dad gave him an ultimatum. "He told me, 'If you get another Harley, I'm going to kick you out of the house, and I'm going to fire you,'" Coones recalls.
With nowhere to stay and no work to speak of in rural California in 1974, it seemed as though Coones' riding days were over. "But once you get a Harley, you get kind of hooked," he says. "So the day I got the insurance check, I went out and got a bike." Sure enough, Coones' dad both fired him and evicted him from the house on the spot. "So I rode my bike down here to Orange County and got a job with my uncle doing plumbing, and I've been here ever since."
By 1982, Coones was firmly entrenched in Southern California's outlaw-biker scene. He'd also developed a penchant for dealing drugs and collecting firearms, which were confiscated from his mansion in Laguna Canyon when police busted him there on drug and gun charges that year. After getting out of prison two years later, he returned to Laguna Beach and operated Lords of Limos and Custom Inc., a business that custom-built cars, limousines and motorcycles. A 1988 Los Angeles Times article about a local car-show appearance by surgically enhanced Playboy model—and mistress of disgraced televangelist James Bakker—Jessica Hahn describes Coones as a "33-year-old bodybuilder" who picked Hahn up at John Wayne Airport and drove her to the event in his "$75,000 gleaming silver limo truck with a computerized bar."
In 1986, Coones met his future wife, Katherine, a half-Italian, half-Mexican firecracker of a woman who goes by the nickname KO; he immediately began courting her, hoping she'd move into his million-dollar mansion. "Rusty is very kind and generous, a cement-covered marshmallow," she says. "He's never hurt me or lied to me and treats me like a princess. I remember when I met him, he had one of those $3,000 cell phones that was as big as a shoebox. He built me a walk-in closet in his home. He showered me with gifts and jewelry, and he had an airplane, a Cessna 210, all black and custom-painted, and would say, 'Let's fly up to San Francisco together.'"
![Rusty's wife, KO]()
In 1981, his brother shot himself in the head. "Rusty always carried that guilt," says KO. "He felt that it was his fault that he couldn't save him."
Local police, however, remained determined to put Coones back in prison, even going so far as to put local informants to work, trying to lure him into drug deals. One Sunday afternoon in 1991, Coones was drinking a beer at a biker bar in Laguna Canyon when a stranger asked if he could buy him a beer. Coones pointed at his own bottle and declined the offer. The following week, the same man showed up and once again offered to buy Coones a drink. Again, Coones, who already had his own, refused, at which point the man began to ask him for advice on how to invest cash from a court settlement he'd just received.
"I've got all this money I want to invest," he began. "What would you do with it?"
"Me, personally, I buy used bikes and sell them—that's my thing," Coones responded. "And real estate; I've never lost money on real estate."
"I'm thinking about something more lucrative," the man said.
"Like what?"
"You know, coke . . ."
Coones didn't let the stranger finish his sentence. "Get the fuck out of here," he commanded, leaning over the table. "I'll beat your ass."
For the next month, Coones watched the same helicopter hovering near his house and following him around town. He knew the cops were suspicious because of the size of his house and the fact he'd just taken a loan against the property for $400,000 cash. "So I'm flush with money and doing cars and bikes and trying to remodel the property and sell it, and all the time, I'm legit," Coones insists. "They didn't know that. They thought I was good for 100 kilos of coke."
Coones knows that number for a fact because it was in the search warrant police used to raid his house one morning in 1991 while he was meeting with a city official about his rehab program. A 60-man task force led by Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) and Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) agents backed by two helicopters surrounded his house and blew open his unlocked front door. They wrestled to the floor two guests who were sleeping in different rooms and had to call a fire truck after one of the explosions set off a small fire. One of the hapless houseguests, who, like Coones himself, was never arrested, later told Coones he overheard police saying that 21 bullets had been discharged inside the house as police went from room to room, rifles at the ready.
As it turned out, the police claimed to have an informant who said Coones had a house safe full of cocaine and machine guns, thus they were expecting armed resistance. "They looked like idiots," Coones says. "There wasn't anything to find. I told them they were years too late. They could justify that on the search warrant in front of any judge because, back in 1982, when I did get arrested there, I did have machine guns in my room. I had quite a collection."
In 1986, Coones met his future wife, Katherine, a half-Italian, half-Mexican firecracker of a woman who goes by the nickname KO; he immediately began courting her, hoping she'd move into his million-dollar mansion. "Rusty is very kind and generous, a cement-covered marshmallow," she says. "He's never hurt me or lied to me and treats me like a princess. I remember when I met him, he had one of those $3,000 cell phones that was as big as a shoebox. He built me a walk-in closet in his home. He showered me with gifts and jewelry, and he had an airplane, a Cessna 210, all black and custom-painted, and would say, 'Let's fly up to San Francisco together.'"
John Gilhooley
Rusty's wife, KO
Despite the bling, Coones insists that he went straight after his prison stint. Besides operating a successful bike shop and limo service, he opened First Step Treatment Centers of California, a rehabilitation facility for recovering drug addicts and alcoholics. Coones' younger brother was a heroin addict, and Coones had spent years trying to save him. "Even though I was into a lot of illicit-drug stuff, I wasn't a user," Coones explains. "But he was, and I would get him off the drugs and clean him up, and then he would go right back to it. It went on like that for seven or eight years."
Local police, however, remained determined to put Coones back in prison, even going so far as to put local informants to work, trying to lure him into drug deals. One Sunday afternoon in 1991, Coones was drinking a beer at a biker bar in Laguna Canyon when a stranger asked if he could buy him a beer. Coones pointed at his own bottle and declined the offer. The following week, the same man showed up and once again offered to buy Coones a drink. Again, Coones, who already had his own, refused, at which point the man began to ask him for advice on how to invest cash from a court settlement he'd just received.
"I've got all this money I want to invest," he began. "What would you do with it?"
"Me, personally, I buy used bikes and sell them—that's my thing," Coones responded. "And real estate; I've never lost money on real estate."
"I'm thinking about something more lucrative," the man said.
"Like what?"
"You know, coke . . ."
Coones didn't let the stranger finish his sentence. "Get the fuck out of here," he commanded, leaning over the table. "I'll beat your ass."
For the next month, Coones watched the same helicopter hovering near his house and following him around town. He knew the cops were suspicious because of the size of his house and the fact he'd just taken a loan against the property for $400,000 cash. "So I'm flush with money and doing cars and bikes and trying to remodel the property and sell it, and all the time, I'm legit," Coones insists. "They didn't know that. They thought I was good for 100 kilos of coke."
Coones knows that number for a fact because it was in the search warrant police used to raid his house one morning in 1991 while he was meeting with a city official about his rehab program. A 60-man task force led by Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) and Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) agents backed by two helicopters surrounded his house and blew open his unlocked front door. They wrestled to the floor two guests who were sleeping in different rooms and had to call a fire truck after one of the explosions set off a small fire. One of the hapless houseguests, who, like Coones himself, was never arrested, later told Coones he overheard police saying that 21 bullets had been discharged inside the house as police went from room to room, rifles at the ready.
As it turned out, the police claimed to have an informant who said Coones had a house safe full of cocaine and machine guns, thus they were expecting armed resistance. "They looked like idiots," Coones says. "There wasn't anything to find. I told them they were years too late. They could justify that on the search warrant in front of any judge because, back in 1982, when I did get arrested there, I did have machine guns in my room. I had quite a collection."
The next time the cops surrounded Coones' house didn't go so well, although the search came up empty for guns and drugs once again. Appropriately enough, the raid took place on D-Day: June 6, 1999. Under cover of darkness early that morning, Coones slipped out of his house in Garden Grove, having long since sold his Laguna mansion. He knew he'd been under surveillance for weeks by FBI agents driving everything from Dodge Intrepids to beat-up Volkswagen buses. Coones drove to KO's house in Orange. He knew his time was running out: The helicopter hovering somewhere nearby told him the feds were closing in on him.
"Man, it's coming down this morning," he said to himself. He told KO to get dressed. It was like a scene out of the film Goodfellas' climax, in which a coked-out Henry Hill becomes increasingly paranoid about the helicopter following him—except Coones wasn't on drugs. As the noise from the helicopter grew louder, he looked out the window and saw a California Highway Patrol car pull up three doors down. Several officers from the multi-agency task force that was hunting him crouched behind the vehicle, while others began to surround the wrong house. Not wanting any neighbors to end up dead, Coones calmly walked out the front door, his hands raised.
Unlike the other defendants, all of whom tried to work out plea deals, Coones refused to talk to the police or even his lawyer, who made the mistake of telling Coones he could get his bail reduced if he talked to the feds. "I had been taught since I was a youngster that you maintain your right to remain silent," Coones says. "It doesn't matter if you're innocent or guilty. You don't talk to them, and that's that, and that's what I did. I never cooperated, never interviewed, and they didn't expect me to cooperate because they knew that wasn't going to happen."
Coones eventually pleaded guilty to a single count of drug conspiracy for providing Ward with 108 pounds of ephedrine, a component of the highly potent methamphetamine known as "ice" that Ward was trafficking. "In actuality, I did have involvement in ephedrine and hooking people up," he acknowledges. "I introduced one party to another, and I never actually had my hands on it, but I was involved in that conspiracy."
After 21 months at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles, Coones was sentenced to just more than eight years in federal prison; a jury later convicted Ward, who received a term of life in prison without the possibility of parole, while former prosecutor Kazarian, who was promptly fired by DA Tony Rackauckas, got off with a relatively lenient 33 months and a disbarment that was later reversed; he now works as a defense attorney in Westminster. While Coones admits to knowing Ward, he says he never met Kazarian.
"But according to the police reports, the prosecutors and the papers, I was supposed to be associated with him," he says. "It was so outlandish, and most of it was trumped up. They brought up every expert on the Hells Angels they could find."
Although Coones insists the club had nothing to do with his predicament, his status as a high-ranking Hells Angel turned him into a minor celebrity in the war on drugs while he was behind bars. After his arrest, KO took over Illusion Motorsports, selling motorcycles and other gear to pay Coones' legal bills and to keep the business' various state and local licenses current. To raise cash for Coones to use at the prison commissary, she sold "Free Rusty" T-shirts, and she set up a website to keep friends updated on his case and on which she published occasional essays by Coones about the hypocrisy and ineffectiveness of the drug war. While in prison, Coones took up the guitar and began writing songs, including "Lockdown" and "No Redemption," which he still performs with Attika7.
One of Coones' biggest supporters was fellow bike-builder Jesse James, who had worked with Coones on motorcycles and befriended him years before his arrest. During the four seasons that James appeared on Monster Garage, he wore several different "Free Rusty" T-shirts during taping in a quiet tribute to his friend. Then there was the motorcycle James built for Coones just days before Coones got out of prison. Actually, James gave the bike to KO because he wouldn't be able to do it in person.
"He told me that he and Sandy were leaving for Cabo," KO recalls, referring to James' then-wife Sandra Bullock. "'We won't be here when Rusty comes home, so you have to give him the bike.'" James knew that Coones had lost all his motorcycles to legal bills and would have nothing to ride. "He had tears in his eyes when he handed the keys to me. He said, 'KO, a Hells Angel needs a motorcycle.'"
Just six days before Coones walked out of prison a free man, Rodrigo Requejo was driving his battered Ford Dually truck home from a long day at Twisted Metal, his now-shuttered bike shop, when he took his eyes off the road for a few seconds, fumbling for his cell phone. When he looked up, he'd pulled up close behind a pickup. The then-31-year-old Argentinean immigrant and self-employed bike builder swerved around the vehicle and kept driving, unaware that his maneuver had antagonized its occupants. After exiting, he was sitting at a red light when two angry young men rushed his car and pulled him to the pavement.
What happened next is a blur in Requejo's mind. "They beat the hell out of me, man," he says. "I was in a big fog. I got hit so hard in the head and chest and everything. I thought I had pulled out a knife and scared them away. I didn't have a drop of blood on me." Covered in bruises, Requejo managed to fight off his attackers and retrieve his truck, which had rolled away. It wasn't until he saw the news the following day that he realized he had in fact stabbed both men, who turned out to be twins, and that one of them, Justin Ammann, died from his wounds.
The surviving brother, Jason, told police that Requejo, who was a Hells Angels prospect at the time, had forced them off the road and attacked them, yelling the name of the motorcycle club. Based on that version of events, police arrested Requejo, who was charged with murder and attempted murder, with a special-circumstances enhancement alleging the crimes were carried out for the benefit of the Hells Angels. Because of his status as a club prospect at the time, Requejo refused to give his side of the story to police; he even denied being involved in the fight when he was arrested.
"Who's going to believe me?" he wondered. "I'm a Hells Angels prospect. They are going to hang me for this. Had this happened at another place, where there were no witnesses, I'd be gone."
Indeed, at his arraignment, the judge coolly informed Requejo that, if convicted, he'd be eligible for the death penalty, despite the fact he'd never been arrested for a violent crime. In the end, Requejo was spared by pretrial media coverage. Eyewitnesses who saw what really happened came forward to contest the official story, saying it was the two brothers who started the fight and that Requejo had acted in self-defense.
On Feb. 3, 2005, after more than a month behind bars, prosecutors dropped all charges against Requejo. He had been living with two death sentences hanging over him, given that the Ammann brothers were members of the Orange County Skins, a violent white-supremacist street gang that had green-lighted a hit on Requejo. "I don't have a problem with them now," Requejo says. "But while I was inside, I had to watch out."
One inmate had torn a gang rival in half with an AK47, Requejo recalls. Another had murdered his probation officer; stolen his badge, gun and car; and led police on a freeway chase that ended in a shootout. When the cops caught up with him, they found the probation officer's ears in the man's pocket. "I was locked up with dudes who were nuts—you could see right through them," he says, "but there were dudes who were swearing their innocence up and down, and I could honestly believe a couple of them."
Requejo had first met Coones when he was 18 years old and Coones and another hulking Hells Angel showed up at his dad's motorcycle shop. He ran into him again at a bike run not long after he left jail. Requejo reintroduced himself. The two began talking about bikes, and before long, Requejo had shuttered Twisted Metal and become Coones' business partner in Illusion Motorsports. "We've been going at it since," Requejo says.
There was one hitch in the promising partnership, however. On July 27, 2008, several Hells Angels, including Requejo, were drinking beer at Blackie's By the Sea in Newport Beach when they got into a brawl with members of Phil Aguilar's Set Free Soldiers, an evangelical-Christian bike club (see "He Shall Be Set Free," Nov. 25, 2010). Requejo says he threw the first punch when a friend of one of the Set Free Soldiers "disrespected" one of the Hells Angels at the bar. Requejo told the man to mind his own business. "Fuck you," the man responded.
"For me, one 'fuck you' is one too many," Requejo says. "I wouldn't have cared if the president of the United States was there or 100 cops; if somebody tells me, 'Fuck you,' I am going to punch him in the mouth, and that's exactly what I did."
What happened next is well-known, and the security-video footage has since gone viral on YouTube: A dozen or more massive bikers explode in a blur of fists and flying pool cues before, just as suddenly, both sides withdraw and calmly leave the bar. Although he wasn't arrested, Requejo was already on probation for carrying a knife—he claims it was of legal length—so police charged him with seven felonies, including assault with a deadly weapon. They also raided his house; while officers ransacked his home, Requejo's mother suffered a heart attack and had to be taken to the hospital.
The first thing she did when she recovered was to beg her son to quit the Hells Angels. "I didn't want to quit," he recalls. "These were my friends, but she's my mother, man. If she had died in that hospital, I would have blown my brains out. I couldn't have lived with that on my conscience, her dying over me doing something stupid. So I did what I thought was right at the time."
Following the infamous Blackie's bar fight, Requejo pleaded guilty to one assault charge in return for probation, which is now just weeks from running out, at which point the charge will be expunged from his record. Nowadays, he divides his time between his two daughters, age 7 and 15; the bike shop; and racing the only sidecar bike with a Harley-Davidson engine in it at Costa Mesa Speedway on weekend nights. Not a day goes by when he doesn't regret killing another person or that he doesn't ponder the possibility of things working out differently. "What if I had my seatbelt on and I could have hit the gas before they pulled me out?" he asks. "What if I had locked my doors? The fate of that poor guy—I am never going to live that down. I took somebody's life. I'm going to have to answer to the man upstairs for that someday."
Nevertheless, Requejo is grateful for how well life is going now for both him and Coones. "It's a hard life we both have lived," he says. "At one part in both our lives, we had the great potential to be gone away forever, and I was thinking, 'I could never eat a steak or get a cup of coffee from Starbucks in the morning or lay down with a woman again.' Those things go through your mind."
Coones is also a busy man. Besides his work at the shop, he's often up halfway to dawn practicing with Attika7, who have played venues ranging from the Galaxy Concert Theatre and House of Blues in Anaheim to Irvine Lake. He was recently offered a principal role in a three-part film trilogy that has yet to be formally announced.
Thanks in part to his continued membership in the Hells Angels, police love to keep tabs on his movements. When Coones showed up for a Boys & Girls Club toy run in Santa Ana several weeks ago, police wouldn't let him ride with his club patch on. Coones refused to take it off as a matter of principle.
He doesn't complain about such incidents. "I'm just glad I'm where I'm at now and not having to go through the hard times I had," he says. "It's pretty exciting. We have a lot of things going on these days. We get to create art that rolls. Our work is fun; our play is fun. It's a good life."
Although it has been years since he was a member of the Hells Angels, Requejo says the police haven't forgotten about him, either. "I tell Rusty all the time, 'No matter how well we're doing in life, you always have one foot in the successful life and one foot in a prison cell somewhere,'" he says. "It's a balancing act. You have to put more weight on the good foot than the bad because it's easy to put more weight on the other foot and be gone. It's like you have a sidecar of doom."
Requejo is the first to admit he still has his "wild side." One Christmas Day a few years ago, he was eating brunch with his family at Costa Mesa's now-closed Omelette Parlor when he heard a familiar voice behind him. He walked around the corner and saw a table of police officers, including the one who had previously arrested him for carrying a knife. The cops stopped talking, and the one whose voice Requejo recognized walked up to him, facing him nose to nose.
"So I heard you quit," the cop said, referring to Requejo's resignation from the Hells Angels.
"Yeah, you heard right," Requejo responded.
"So you're done, huh?" the cop continued. "You quit. You're done?"
"Let me tell you something," Requejo answered. "I quit, but I'm not done. I'll never be done."
The cop walked back to his table, and Requejo rejoined his family.
This article appeared in print as "Hell Raisers: For Rusty Coones and Rodrigo Requejo of Illusion Motorsports, life has been one wild ride."
"Man, it's coming down this morning," he said to himself. He told KO to get dressed. It was like a scene out of the film Goodfellas' climax, in which a coked-out Henry Hill becomes increasingly paranoid about the helicopter following him—except Coones wasn't on drugs. As the noise from the helicopter grew louder, he looked out the window and saw a California Highway Patrol car pull up three doors down. Several officers from the multi-agency task force that was hunting him crouched behind the vehicle, while others began to surround the wrong house. Not wanting any neighbors to end up dead, Coones calmly walked out the front door, his hands raised.
Seconds later, just after 6:30 a.m., Coones was arrested in a massive operation targeting what authorities billed as a Hells Angels-tied smuggling scheme that brought untold quantities of methamphetamine from California to Hawaii, much of it stashed inside Harley-Davidson motorcycles, netting profits of $1 million per week. Among the 15 people arrested that day were John Ward, a 31-year-old drug kingpin from Orange who was known in Las Vegas as a flashy whale with a $25,000 Rolex on his wrist and whose fleet included Porches, Mercedeses and Ferraris, and Bryan Kazarian, an ambitious young deputy district attorney whose job was targeting street gangs in Orange County.
Coones eventually pleaded guilty to a single count of drug conspiracy for providing Ward with 108 pounds of ephedrine, a component of the highly potent methamphetamine known as "ice" that Ward was trafficking. "In actuality, I did have involvement in ephedrine and hooking people up," he acknowledges. "I introduced one party to another, and I never actually had my hands on it, but I was involved in that conspiracy."
After 21 months at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles, Coones was sentenced to just more than eight years in federal prison; a jury later convicted Ward, who received a term of life in prison without the possibility of parole, while former prosecutor Kazarian, who was promptly fired by DA Tony Rackauckas, got off with a relatively lenient 33 months and a disbarment that was later reversed; he now works as a defense attorney in Westminster. While Coones admits to knowing Ward, he says he never met Kazarian.
"But according to the police reports, the prosecutors and the papers, I was supposed to be associated with him," he says. "It was so outlandish, and most of it was trumped up. They brought up every expert on the Hells Angels they could find."
Although Coones insists the club had nothing to do with his predicament, his status as a high-ranking Hells Angel turned him into a minor celebrity in the war on drugs while he was behind bars. After his arrest, KO took over Illusion Motorsports, selling motorcycles and other gear to pay Coones' legal bills and to keep the business' various state and local licenses current. To raise cash for Coones to use at the prison commissary, she sold "Free Rusty" T-shirts, and she set up a website to keep friends updated on his case and on which she published occasional essays by Coones about the hypocrisy and ineffectiveness of the drug war. While in prison, Coones took up the guitar and began writing songs, including "Lockdown" and "No Redemption," which he still performs with Attika7.
One of Coones' biggest supporters was fellow bike-builder Jesse James, who had worked with Coones on motorcycles and befriended him years before his arrest. During the four seasons that James appeared on Monster Garage, he wore several different "Free Rusty" T-shirts during taping in a quiet tribute to his friend. Then there was the motorcycle James built for Coones just days before Coones got out of prison. Actually, James gave the bike to KO because he wouldn't be able to do it in person.
"He told me that he and Sandy were leaving for Cabo," KO recalls, referring to James' then-wife Sandra Bullock. "'We won't be here when Rusty comes home, so you have to give him the bike.'" James knew that Coones had lost all his motorcycles to legal bills and would have nothing to ride. "He had tears in his eyes when he handed the keys to me. He said, 'KO, a Hells Angel needs a motorcycle.'"
Just six days before Coones walked out of prison a free man, Rodrigo Requejo was driving his battered Ford Dually truck home from a long day at Twisted Metal, his now-shuttered bike shop, when he took his eyes off the road for a few seconds, fumbling for his cell phone. When he looked up, he'd pulled up close behind a pickup. The then-31-year-old Argentinean immigrant and self-employed bike builder swerved around the vehicle and kept driving, unaware that his maneuver had antagonized its occupants. After exiting, he was sitting at a red light when two angry young men rushed his car and pulled him to the pavement.
What happened next is a blur in Requejo's mind. "They beat the hell out of me, man," he says. "I was in a big fog. I got hit so hard in the head and chest and everything. I thought I had pulled out a knife and scared them away. I didn't have a drop of blood on me." Covered in bruises, Requejo managed to fight off his attackers and retrieve his truck, which had rolled away. It wasn't until he saw the news the following day that he realized he had in fact stabbed both men, who turned out to be twins, and that one of them, Justin Ammann, died from his wounds.
The surviving brother, Jason, told police that Requejo, who was a Hells Angels prospect at the time, had forced them off the road and attacked them, yelling the name of the motorcycle club. Based on that version of events, police arrested Requejo, who was charged with murder and attempted murder, with a special-circumstances enhancement alleging the crimes were carried out for the benefit of the Hells Angels. Because of his status as a club prospect at the time, Requejo refused to give his side of the story to police; he even denied being involved in the fight when he was arrested.
"Who's going to believe me?" he wondered. "I'm a Hells Angels prospect. They are going to hang me for this. Had this happened at another place, where there were no witnesses, I'd be gone."
Indeed, at his arraignment, the judge coolly informed Requejo that, if convicted, he'd be eligible for the death penalty, despite the fact he'd never been arrested for a violent crime. In the end, Requejo was spared by pretrial media coverage. Eyewitnesses who saw what really happened came forward to contest the official story, saying it was the two brothers who started the fight and that Requejo had acted in self-defense.
On Feb. 3, 2005, after more than a month behind bars, prosecutors dropped all charges against Requejo. He had been living with two death sentences hanging over him, given that the Ammann brothers were members of the Orange County Skins, a violent white-supremacist street gang that had green-lighted a hit on Requejo. "I don't have a problem with them now," Requejo says. "But while I was inside, I had to watch out."
One inmate had torn a gang rival in half with an AK47, Requejo recalls. Another had murdered his probation officer; stolen his badge, gun and car; and led police on a freeway chase that ended in a shootout. When the cops caught up with him, they found the probation officer's ears in the man's pocket. "I was locked up with dudes who were nuts—you could see right through them," he says, "but there were dudes who were swearing their innocence up and down, and I could honestly believe a couple of them."
Requejo had first met Coones when he was 18 years old and Coones and another hulking Hells Angel showed up at his dad's motorcycle shop. He ran into him again at a bike run not long after he left jail. Requejo reintroduced himself. The two began talking about bikes, and before long, Requejo had shuttered Twisted Metal and become Coones' business partner in Illusion Motorsports. "We've been going at it since," Requejo says.
There was one hitch in the promising partnership, however. On July 27, 2008, several Hells Angels, including Requejo, were drinking beer at Blackie's By the Sea in Newport Beach when they got into a brawl with members of Phil Aguilar's Set Free Soldiers, an evangelical-Christian bike club (see "He Shall Be Set Free," Nov. 25, 2010). Requejo says he threw the first punch when a friend of one of the Set Free Soldiers "disrespected" one of the Hells Angels at the bar. Requejo told the man to mind his own business. "Fuck you," the man responded.
"For me, one 'fuck you' is one too many," Requejo says. "I wouldn't have cared if the president of the United States was there or 100 cops; if somebody tells me, 'Fuck you,' I am going to punch him in the mouth, and that's exactly what I did."
What happened next is well-known, and the security-video footage has since gone viral on YouTube: A dozen or more massive bikers explode in a blur of fists and flying pool cues before, just as suddenly, both sides withdraw and calmly leave the bar. Although he wasn't arrested, Requejo was already on probation for carrying a knife—he claims it was of legal length—so police charged him with seven felonies, including assault with a deadly weapon. They also raided his house; while officers ransacked his home, Requejo's mother suffered a heart attack and had to be taken to the hospital.
The first thing she did when she recovered was to beg her son to quit the Hells Angels. "I didn't want to quit," he recalls. "These were my friends, but she's my mother, man. If she had died in that hospital, I would have blown my brains out. I couldn't have lived with that on my conscience, her dying over me doing something stupid. So I did what I thought was right at the time."
Following the infamous Blackie's bar fight, Requejo pleaded guilty to one assault charge in return for probation, which is now just weeks from running out, at which point the charge will be expunged from his record. Nowadays, he divides his time between his two daughters, age 7 and 15; the bike shop; and racing the only sidecar bike with a Harley-Davidson engine in it at Costa Mesa Speedway on weekend nights. Not a day goes by when he doesn't regret killing another person or that he doesn't ponder the possibility of things working out differently. "What if I had my seatbelt on and I could have hit the gas before they pulled me out?" he asks. "What if I had locked my doors? The fate of that poor guy—I am never going to live that down. I took somebody's life. I'm going to have to answer to the man upstairs for that someday."
Nevertheless, Requejo is grateful for how well life is going now for both him and Coones. "It's a hard life we both have lived," he says. "At one part in both our lives, we had the great potential to be gone away forever, and I was thinking, 'I could never eat a steak or get a cup of coffee from Starbucks in the morning or lay down with a woman again.' Those things go through your mind."
Coones is also a busy man. Besides his work at the shop, he's often up halfway to dawn practicing with Attika7, who have played venues ranging from the Galaxy Concert Theatre and House of Blues in Anaheim to Irvine Lake. He was recently offered a principal role in a three-part film trilogy that has yet to be formally announced.
Thanks in part to his continued membership in the Hells Angels, police love to keep tabs on his movements. When Coones showed up for a Boys & Girls Club toy run in Santa Ana several weeks ago, police wouldn't let him ride with his club patch on. Coones refused to take it off as a matter of principle.
He doesn't complain about such incidents. "I'm just glad I'm where I'm at now and not having to go through the hard times I had," he says. "It's pretty exciting. We have a lot of things going on these days. We get to create art that rolls. Our work is fun; our play is fun. It's a good life."
Although it has been years since he was a member of the Hells Angels, Requejo says the police haven't forgotten about him, either. "I tell Rusty all the time, 'No matter how well we're doing in life, you always have one foot in the successful life and one foot in a prison cell somewhere,'" he says. "It's a balancing act. You have to put more weight on the good foot than the bad because it's easy to put more weight on the other foot and be gone. It's like you have a sidecar of doom."
Requejo is the first to admit he still has his "wild side." One Christmas Day a few years ago, he was eating brunch with his family at Costa Mesa's now-closed Omelette Parlor when he heard a familiar voice behind him. He walked around the corner and saw a table of police officers, including the one who had previously arrested him for carrying a knife. The cops stopped talking, and the one whose voice Requejo recognized walked up to him, facing him nose to nose.
"So I heard you quit," the cop said, referring to Requejo's resignation from the Hells Angels.
"Yeah, you heard right," Requejo responded.
"So you're done, huh?" the cop continued. "You quit. You're done?"
"Let me tell you something," Requejo answered. "I quit, but I'm not done. I'll never be done."
The cop walked back to his table, and Requejo rejoined his family.
This article appeared in print as "Hell Raisers: For Rusty Coones and Rodrigo Requejo of Illusion Motorsports, life has been one wild ride."
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Jonathan"s Journey - I WAS INFORMED OF THIS AND WILL BE HELPING OUT, SO I`M CHALLENGING YOU TO HELP OUT
OFF THE WIRE
Hi, I am Megan,
I am a first time mom of an almost 3 month old baby boy named Jonathan. My son was born with Cranialsyntosis, or more specifically referred to in this case as Coronal Syntosis. Coronal Syntosis is a premature fusion of a bone in the skull,so because of this he needs Cranial and Facial surgery by Pediatric Neurosurgeons to correct the misshape of my son's head,and to realign his nose. He will be under doctors care for 2 years from the day of surgery,he will have to wear a helmet for 23 hours a day for at least 18 months or more depends on the out come from surgery,he will not be able to be a normal boy and toddler for a long time,everything you will read and see is very overwhelming to myself and it will be with you as well,this is a long journey that I am in need of monetary and prayer support as this journey with Jonathan goes ahead,this page is to be of knowledge as well as prayers and going step by step with us through this. The insurance that is carried only covers so much,I do want to thank all that can help in either manner,as being a young mom that I am this is hard for me to do but I am in need of help and trying to get through all of this as well,my son is my life and I cannot imagine my life without him in it.I have a paypal set up to where you can go to donate and send what you can it is very much appreciated,I have and will post photos as Jonathan goes though this long hard journey of the many surgeries and recoveries. Thank you again so very much to be a part this page and our journey,God Bless you
http://www.gofundme.com/20gmzg
paypal information: nnora73031@att.net
Definition
By Mayo Clinic staffCraniosynostosis is a birth defect in which one or more of the joints between the bones of your infant's skull close prematurely, before your infant's brain is fully formed. When your baby has craniosynostosis, his or her brain can't grow in its natural shape and the head is misshapen.
Craniosynostosis can affect one or more of the joints in your infant's skull. In some cases, craniosynostosis is associated with an underlying brain abnormality that prevents the brain from growing properly.
Treating craniosynostosis usually means your infant needs surgery to separate the fused bones. If there's no underlying brain abnormality, the surgery allows the brain adequate space to grow and develop.
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CA - Lane Splitting General Guidelines
Lane splitting in a safe and prudent manner is not illegal in the state of California.
The term lane splitting, sometimes known as lane sharing, filtering or white-lining, refers to the process of a motorcyclist riding between lanes of stopped or slower moving traffic or moving between lanes to the front of traffic stopped at a traffic light.
Motorcyclists who are competent enough riders to lane split, should follow these general guidelines if choosing to lane split:
1) Travel at a speed that is no more than 10 MPH faster than other traffic – danger increases at higher speed differentials.
- A speed differential of 10 miles per hour or less allows an alert, competent rider enough time to identify and react to most dangerous situations that can occur.
- The greater the speed differential, the less time a rider has to identify and react to a hazard.
2) It is not advisable to lane split when traffic flow is at 30 mph or faster --- danger increases as overall speed increases.
- At just 20 mph, in the 1 or 2 seconds it takes a rider to identify a hazard, that rider will travel approximately 30 to 60 feet before even starting to take evasive action. Actual reaction (braking or swerving) will take additional time and distance.
- Braking and stopping distance varies greatly based on a multitude of factors (rider, machine and environment).
- As speed increases, crash severity increases.
3) Typically, it is safer to split between the #1 and #2 lanes than between other lanes.
- Other road users are more accustomed to motorcycles splitting between the #1 and #2 (furthest left) lanes.
- Avoid splitting in lanes near freeway on-ramps and exits.
- Avoid splitting lanes when another motorcycle rider is splitting between other nearby lanes as cars may make additional room for one rider and accidentally reduce space for another.
4) Consider the total environment in which you are splitting, including the width of the lanes, size of surrounding vehicles, as well as roadway, weather, and lighting conditions.
- Some lanes are narrower than others, leaving little room to pass safely. If you can't fit, don't split.
- Some vehicles are wider than others -- it is not advisable to split near wide trucks. If you can't fit, don't split.
- Know the limitations of your motorcycle --- wide bars, fairing and bags require more space between vehicles. If you can't fit, don't split.
- Avoid splitting on unfamiliar roads to avoid surprises such as poor road surfaces.
- Seams in the pavement or concrete between lanes can be hazardous if they are wide or uneven.
- Poor visibility, due to darkness or weather conditions, makes it difficult for riders to see road hazards and makes it more difficult for drivers to see you.
- Help drivers see you by wearing brightly colored protective gear and using high beams during daylight.
5) Be alert and anticipate possible movements by other road users.
- Be very aware of what the cars around you are doing. If a space, or gap, opens up next to your lane, be prepared react accordingly.
- Always be prepared to take evasive action if a vehicle changes lanes.
- Account for inattentive or distracted drivers.
- Riders should not weave back and forth between lanes or ride on top of the line.
- Riders should avoid lingering in blind spots.
- Never ride while impaired by drugs, alcohol or fatigue.
- Constantly scan for changing conditions.
The Four R's or “Be-Attitudes” of Lane Splitting:
Be Reasonable, be Responsible, be Respectful, be aware of all Roadway and traffic conditions.
- Be Reasonable means not more than 10 MPH faster than traffic flow and not over 39 MPH.
- Be Responsible for your own safety and decisions.
Don't put yourself in dangerous positions.
If you can't fit, don't split.
- Be Respectful --- sharing the road goes both ways. - A speed differential of 10 miles per hour or less allows an alert, competent rider enough time to identify and react to most dangerous situations that can occur.
- The greater the speed differential, the less time a rider has to identify and react to a hazard.
2) It is not advisable to lane split when traffic flow is at 30 mph or faster --- danger increases as overall speed increases.
- At just 20 mph, in the 1 or 2 seconds it takes a rider to identify a hazard, that rider will travel approximately 30 to 60 feet before even starting to take evasive action. Actual reaction (braking or swerving) will take additional time and distance.
- Braking and stopping distance varies greatly based on a multitude of factors (rider, machine and environment).
- As speed increases, crash severity increases.
3) Typically, it is safer to split between the #1 and #2 lanes than between other lanes.
- Other road users are more accustomed to motorcycles splitting between the #1 and #2 (furthest left) lanes.
- Avoid splitting in lanes near freeway on-ramps and exits.
- Avoid splitting lanes when another motorcycle rider is splitting between other nearby lanes as cars may make additional room for one rider and accidentally reduce space for another.
4) Consider the total environment in which you are splitting, including the width of the lanes, size of surrounding vehicles, as well as roadway, weather, and lighting conditions.
- Some lanes are narrower than others, leaving little room to pass safely. If you can't fit, don't split.
- Some vehicles are wider than others -- it is not advisable to split near wide trucks. If you can't fit, don't split.
- Know the limitations of your motorcycle --- wide bars, fairing and bags require more space between vehicles. If you can't fit, don't split.
- Avoid splitting on unfamiliar roads to avoid surprises such as poor road surfaces.
- Seams in the pavement or concrete between lanes can be hazardous if they are wide or uneven.
- Poor visibility, due to darkness or weather conditions, makes it difficult for riders to see road hazards and makes it more difficult for drivers to see you.
- Help drivers see you by wearing brightly colored protective gear and using high beams during daylight.
5) Be alert and anticipate possible movements by other road users.
- Be very aware of what the cars around you are doing. If a space, or gap, opens up next to your lane, be prepared react accordingly.
- Always be prepared to take evasive action if a vehicle changes lanes.
- Account for inattentive or distracted drivers.
- Riders should not weave back and forth between lanes or ride on top of the line.
- Riders should avoid lingering in blind spots.
- Never ride while impaired by drugs, alcohol or fatigue.
- Constantly scan for changing conditions.
The Four R's or “Be-Attitudes” of Lane Splitting:
Be Reasonable, be Responsible, be Respectful, be aware of all Roadway and traffic conditions.
- Be Reasonable means not more than 10 MPH faster than traffic flow and not over 39 MPH.
- Be Responsible for your own safety and decisions.
Don't put yourself in dangerous positions.
If you can't fit, don't split.
- Don't rely on loud pipes to keep you safe, loud pipes often startle people and poison the attitude of car drivers toward motorcyclists.
- Other vehicles are not required to make space for motorcycles to lane split.
- uneven pavement
- wide trucks
- distracted drivers
- weather conditions
- curves
- etc.
Disclaimers:
These general guidelines are not guaranteed to keep you safe.
Lane splitting should not be performed by inexperienced riders. These guidelines assume a high level of riding competency and experience.
The recommendations contained here are only general guidelines and cannot cover all possible combinations of situations and variables.
Personal Safety: Every rider has ultimate responsibility for his or her own decision making and safety. Riders must be conscious of reducing crash risk at all times. California law requires all motorcycle riders and passengers wear a helmet that complies with the DOT FMVSS 218 standard.
Risk of getting a ticket: Motorcyclists who lane split are not relieved of the responsibility to obey all existing traffic laws. With respect to possible law enforcement action, keep in mind that it will be up to the discretion of the Law Enforcement Officer to determine if riding behavior while lane splitting is or was safe and prudent.
These general guidelines are not guaranteed to keep you safe.
Lane splitting should not be performed by inexperienced riders. These guidelines assume a high level of riding competency and experience.
The recommendations contained here are only general guidelines and cannot cover all possible combinations of situations and variables.
Personal Safety: Every rider has ultimate responsibility for his or her own decision making and safety. Riders must be conscious of reducing crash risk at all times. California law requires all motorcycle riders and passengers wear a helmet that complies with the DOT FMVSS 218 standard.
Risk of getting a ticket: Motorcyclists who lane split are not relieved of the responsibility to obey all existing traffic laws. With respect to possible law enforcement action, keep in mind that it will be up to the discretion of the Law Enforcement Officer to determine if riding behavior while lane splitting is or was safe and prudent.
When is it NOT OK to split?
You should NOT lane split: - If you can't fit.
- At a toll booth.
- If traffic is moving too fast or unpredictably.
- If dangerous road conditions exist --- examples include water or grit on the road, slippery road markings, road construction, uneven pavement, metal grates, etc.
- If you cannot clearly see a way out of the space you're going into (for example, if a van or SUV is blocking your view).
- Between trucks, buses, RVs, and other wide vehicles.
- Around or through curves.
- If you are not fully alert and aware of your surroundings.
- If you are unable to react to changing conditions instantaneously.
- If you don't feel comfortable with the situation.
Messages for Other Vehicle Drivers
1) Lane splitting by motorcycles is not illegal in California when done in a safe and prudent manner.
2) Motorists should not take it upon themselves to discourage motorcyclists from lane splitting.
3) Intentionally blocking or impeding a motorcyclist in a way that could cause harm to the rider is illegal (CVC 22400).
4) Opening a vehicle door to impede a motorcycle is illegal (CVC 22517).
5) Never drive while distracted.
6) You can help keep motorcyclists and all road users safe byChecking mirrors and blind spots, especially before changing lanes or turning Signaling your intentions before changing lanes or merging with traffic Allowing more following distance, three or four seconds, when behind a motorcycle so the motorcyclist has enough time to maneuver or stop in an emergency
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Babe`s of the DAY..... This is 18 and older. Rest assured I will offend you and rest assured I don't give a fuck! If you don't like crude hum or and think you will report me don't like my page. For those with the ability to laugh and take a joke welcome.
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ILLUSION CYCLES, OPEN HOUSE
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What Are My Rights When I'm Pulled Over By a Cop?
OFF THE WIRE
Officer Identification
- You have the right to ask for the officer to identify himself and show his badge and identification. This information is important for two reasons: first, you want to ensure that you aren't about to become the victim of a criminal impersonating a police officer. Second, you will need this information if you feel that you were ill treated by the officer and want to file a complaint.
Do Not Answer Questions
- When you are pulled over, be very careful of what you say. Besides providing your name, drivers license, vehicle registration and proof of insurance, you do not have to answer questions the officer directs at you. You are allowed to answer questions questions like "Do you know why I pulled you over" or "Do you know how fast you were going" with a simple "yes" or "no." You can also choose not to give an answer. Silence is not an admission of guilt, but the officer can use anything you say to write a ticket.
Vehicle Search
- If you are pulled over by the police, they do not automatically have the right to search your car. However, if the officers have probable cause then they can. Probable cause can be established by the officers seeing something in your car through the windows, or by your actions. For example, if they see you throwing something out of your car as you are pulling over or if your actions create suspicion after they pull you over.
Admission of Guilt
- When a police officer gives you a ticket for a driving infraction, it is not a summary judgment. Rather, the citation is a charge from the officer to which you can either plead "no-contest" and pay or challenge in court. As this is the case, you do not have to admit anything to the officer when you are pulled over. If he informs you that you were speeding, you can say "I see" or some other non-committal comment. You only have to acknowledge that you are being given a ticket, not that you deserve it.
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“THE BIKERS OF AMERICA, THE PHIL and BILL SHOW”
OFF THE WIRE
Listen to my new episode THE BIKERS OF AMERICA, THE PHIL & BILL SHOW at http://tobtr.com/s/4375147. #BlogTalkRadio
JOIN US FOR THE SHOW..
“ THE BIKERS OF AMERICA, THE PHIL and BILL SHOW ” GO`S Live! at 6 pm PAC, 9:00 pm EST every Tuesday & Thursday on BlogTalk Radio.
Check us out!
Hits Like a bored and stroked big V-twin is the hardcore biker right’s talk show that will shift the thoughts and minds of all! Screwdriver is a member of Bikers of Lesser Tolerance, which is a "No Compromise" philosophy that rights cannot ever be negotiated and the west coast Representative of B.A.D (Bikers Against Discrimination) & Bill Kennedy of Kennedy’s Custom Cycles !!! Join us each week as we give you straight talk on what is happening to Bikers on the Left Coast along with what YOU can do to join the cause! Tune in and check us out..!!!!
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Go`s Live! at 6 pm PAC, 9:00 pm EST every Tuesday & Thursday on BlogTalk Radio. Check us out!AND REMEMBER, IF YOU CAN’T TUNE INTO THE “LIVE” SHOW YOU CAN LISTEN TO/DOWNLOAD THE SHOW AT YOU CONVENIENCE ANY DAY/TIME FREE OF CHARGE FOR UP TO 90 DAYS SINCE SHOWS ARE ARCHIVED FOR YOUR CONVENIENCE!
And do not forget, if you want to call in live and speak with the host, be sure to dial (347)826-7753.
You will be placed into the caller queue, where you will still be able to hear the show while you are on hold.
If you miss this above event you can listen to the archive anytime by clicking on the same link below.
Enjoy the show, We invite you to participate by clicking the web address,
www.blogtalkradio.com/bikersofamerica.
Two ways to listen on Tuesday`s & Thursday`s
1. Call in: (347) 826-7753 ... Listen live right from your phone..
2. Stream us live on your computer:
Link:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/bikersofamerica.
The next “THE BIKERS OF AMERICA (THE PHIL and BILL SHOW)”
will be on Tuesday, OCT /23/ 2012 at 6pm Pacific and 9pm Eastern.
as Well As Thursday OCT /25/ 2012 night`s 6pm Pacific and 9pm Eastern.
SO PLEASE TUNE IN AND SUPPORT US, Because were here to support you...
THANK YOU,
Screwdriver & Bill
"IF YOU VIOLATE OUR BIKER RIGHTS...
YOU BETTER WATCH OUT FOR OUR BIKER LEFTS!"
Screwdriver and Bill are hosting,
“THE BIKERS OF AMERICA, KNOW YOUR RIGHTS”
Daily Information Blog, & the Blog can be reached at,
bikersofamerica.blogspot.com
Screwdriver at Countermeasures Division (strokerz383@gmail.com).
Please note that this e-mail address is being protected from spambots so you will need JavaScript enabled to view it.
We will be featuring different topics Guests from around the World.
Bikers Rights, News off the wire and B.O.L.T updates from across the country.
Other potential topics –
• How Bill and I have been involved, in The Biker Community,
Supporting different cause`s the years.
• The unconstitutional roadside checkpoints.
• The motorcycle only checkpoints.
• The Helmet Law’s Unconstitutional Enforcement.
• Legislation and Politics.
• The Veterans Groups, The V.A. Hospitals,
& Helping Our Brothers and Sisters when asked.
Participation Options: Our show is flexible so we can either control the topic or we will be happy to turn the podium over to you. Should you wish to hold the podium, please email me, Screwdriver at Countermeasures Division (strokerz383@gmail.com).
Please note that this e-mail address is being protected from spambots,
so you will need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Let’s Not Forget, To support are Good Friend, Hermis..
Hermis LIVE, Wednesdays at 9 pm Est or 6 pm Pac, http://www.%20hermislive.com./
For broader communication, since these shows are open to the public, please pass this email along to your family and/or friends, who you know are interested in Motorcyclist Rights. Remember the bottom-line; we all have a sincere involvement with knowing, sharing, and/or enhancing our understanding about our rights as members of the biker community so I am asking for you, family, and friends to support the above two (3) shows.
Thank you, in advance, for your anticipated support and participation in these important discussions.
Philip (aka Screwdriver)
BOLT of California
(760) 207-2965 or strokerz383@gmail.com
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
For more information about Bikers Of A Lesser Tolerance, please visit http://boltusa.org/ or for California Rights information see http://www.boltofca.com/
Listen to my new episode THE BIKERS OF AMERICA, THE PHIL & BILL SHOW at http://tobtr.com/s/4375147. #BlogTalkRadio
JOIN US FOR THE SHOW..
“ THE BIKERS OF AMERICA, THE PHIL and BILL SHOW ” GO`S Live! at 6 pm PAC, 9:00 pm EST every Tuesday & Thursday on BlogTalk Radio.
Check us out!
Hits Like a bored and stroked big V-twin is the hardcore biker right’s talk show that will shift the thoughts and minds of all! Screwdriver is a member of Bikers of Lesser Tolerance, which is a "No Compromise" philosophy that rights cannot ever be negotiated and the west coast Representative of B.A.D (Bikers Against Discrimination) & Bill Kennedy of Kennedy’s Custom Cycles !!! Join us each week as we give you straight talk on what is happening to Bikers on the Left Coast along with what YOU can do to join the cause! Tune in and check us out..!!!!
Go`s Live! at 6 pm PAC, 9:00 pm EST every Tuesday & Thursday on BlogTalk Radio. Check us out!AND REMEMBER, IF YOU CAN’T TUNE INTO THE “LIVE” SHOW YOU CAN LISTEN TO/DOWNLOAD THE SHOW AT YOU CONVENIENCE ANY DAY/TIME FREE OF CHARGE FOR UP TO 90 DAYS SINCE SHOWS ARE ARCHIVED FOR YOUR CONVENIENCE!
And do not forget, if you want to call in live and speak with the host, be sure to dial (347)826-7753.
You will be placed into the caller queue, where you will still be able to hear the show while you are on hold.
If you miss this above event you can listen to the archive anytime by clicking on the same link below.
Enjoy the show, We invite you to participate by clicking the web address,
www.blogtalkradio.com/bikersofamerica.
Two ways to listen on Tuesday`s & Thursday`s
1. Call in: (347) 826-7753 ... Listen live right from your phone..
2. Stream us live on your computer:
Link:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/bikersofamerica.
The next “THE BIKERS OF AMERICA (THE PHIL and BILL SHOW)”
will be on Tuesday, OCT /23/ 2012 at 6pm Pacific and 9pm Eastern.
as Well As Thursday OCT /25/ 2012 night`s 6pm Pacific and 9pm Eastern.
SO PLEASE TUNE IN AND SUPPORT US, Because were here to support you...
THANK YOU,
Screwdriver & Bill
"IF YOU VIOLATE OUR BIKER RIGHTS...
YOU BETTER WATCH OUT FOR OUR BIKER LEFTS!"
Screwdriver and Bill are hosting,
“THE BIKERS OF AMERICA, KNOW YOUR RIGHTS”
Daily Information Blog, & the Blog can be reached at,
bikersofamerica.blogspot.com
Screwdriver at Countermeasures Division (strokerz383@gmail.com).
Please note that this e-mail address is being protected from spambots so you will need JavaScript enabled to view it.
We will be featuring different topics Guests from around the World.
Bikers Rights, News off the wire and B.O.L.T updates from across the country.
Other potential topics –
• How Bill and I have been involved, in The Biker Community,
Supporting different cause`s the years.
• The unconstitutional roadside checkpoints.
• The motorcycle only checkpoints.
• The Helmet Law’s Unconstitutional Enforcement.
• Legislation and Politics.
• The Veterans Groups, The V.A. Hospitals,
& Helping Our Brothers and Sisters when asked.
Participation Options: Our show is flexible so we can either control the topic or we will be happy to turn the podium over to you. Should you wish to hold the podium, please email me, Screwdriver at Countermeasures Division (strokerz383@gmail.com).
Please note that this e-mail address is being protected from spambots,
so you will need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Let’s Not Forget, To support are Good Friend, Hermis..
Hermis LIVE, Wednesdays at 9 pm Est or 6 pm Pac, http://www.%20hermislive.com./
For broader communication, since these shows are open to the public, please pass this email along to your family and/or friends, who you know are interested in Motorcyclist Rights. Remember the bottom-line; we all have a sincere involvement with knowing, sharing, and/or enhancing our understanding about our rights as members of the biker community so I am asking for you, family, and friends to support the above two (3) shows.
Thank you, in advance, for your anticipated support and participation in these important discussions.
Philip (aka Screwdriver)
BOLT of California
(760) 207-2965 or strokerz383@gmail.com
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
For more information about Bikers Of A Lesser Tolerance, please visit http://boltusa.org/ or for California Rights information see http://www.boltofca.com/
↧
DISCRIMINATION ON THE BASIS OF CLOTHING OR CLUB MEMBERSHIP IS ILLEGAL
OFF THE WIRE
Comment,
- Law enforcement love this shit and are probably also posing as bikers, posting comments and feeding into the hype… divide and conquer. The attention from the real threat to the MC world and society as a whole keeps getting diverted.
- At this very moment in the United States, this has become the norm …. Law enforcement officers are involved in criminal activity. In addition, these individuals are involved in violating citizen’s civil and constitutional rights and they have more latitude to cause death, physical, financial and emotional harm to U.S. citizens than any other organization. Their actions are overlooked and encouraged by their department leadership, making those individuals complicit in the crimes.
- America’s #1 Terrorist Threat is Law Enforcement
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The Unruh Civil Rights Act (C-C Section 51 et seq) provides that “All persons within the jurisdiction of this state are free and equal, and no matter what their sex, race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin or blindness or other physical disability are entitled to the full and equal accommodations, advantages, facilities, privileges or services in all business establishments of every kind whatsoever.”
Any person whose exercise or enjoyment of rights secured by the Constitution or laws of the United States has been interfered with, or attempted to be interfered with may institute and prosecute a civil action for injunctive and other appropriate equitable relief, including the award of compensatory monetary damages. The Supreme Court ruled in the case of Cohen V. California 403 US 15 (1971) that individuals have the constitutional right under the First Amendment to wear clothing which displays writing or designs.
In addition, the right of an individual to freedom of association has long been recognized and protected by the United States Supreme Court Thus, a person’s right to wear the clothing of his choice, as well as his right to belong to any club or organization of his choice is constitutionally protected and persons or establishments who discriminate on the basis of clothing or club membership are subject to lawsuit.
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Know Your Rights When Dealing With Police Officers
OFF THE WIRE
"I DON'T WANT TO TALK UNTIL MY LAWYER IS PRESENT"
A Police Officers Worst Enemy Is A Well Informed Citizen Who Knows Their Rights!
Police officers hate to hear these words:
"Am I free to go?"
"I don't consent a search."
"I'm going to remain silent."
When a Police Officer Stops You
To stop you a police officer must have a specific reason to suspect your involvement in a specific crime and should be able to tell you that reason when you ask. This is known as reasonable suspicion. A police officer usually will pull you over for some type of "traffic violation," such as speeding or maybe not using your blinker. Throwing a cigarette butt or a gum wrapper out your car window is reason enough for the police to pull you over, ticket you for littering and start asking you all sorts of personal questions.
Your Rights During a Traffic Stop. Top Five (5) Things to Know About Protecting Yourself from the Police:
#1 - Safety. The first thing is your safety! You want to put the police officer at ease. Pull over to a safe place, turn off your ignition, stay in the car and keep your hands on the steering wheel. At night turn on the interior lights. Keep your license, registration, and proof of insurance always close by.
Build a trust with the police officer be a "good citizen" be courteous, stay calm, smile and don't complain. Show respect and say things like "sir and no sir." Never bad-mouth a police officer, stay in control of your words, body language and your emotions. "All this takes practice, try practicing with a friend." The idea is to get the police officer to understand that you're just an average ordinary citizen and let you get on your way down the road. Never touch a police officer and don't run away!
#2 - Never Talk To A Police Officer. The only questions you need to answer is your name, address and date of birth and nothing else! Instead of telling the police officer who you are, simply give him your drivers license or I.D. card. All the information the police officer needs to know about you can be found on your drivers license. Don't volunteer any more information to the police officer, if he ask you any other questions politely say "Am I free to go?" and then don't say another word.
#3 - I'm Going to Remain Silent. The Supreme Court has made a new ruling that you should Never Talk to a Police Officer without an attorney, but there's a CATCH! New Ruling Before you're allowed NOT to talk to a police officer, you must TELL the police officer "I'm Going to Remain Silent" and then keep your mouth shut!(How can you be falsely accused and charged if you don't say anything?) Anything you say or do can and will be used against you at any time by the police.
#3 - I'm Going to Remain Silent. The Supreme Court has made a new ruling that you should Never Talk to a Police Officer without an attorney, but there's a CATCH! New Ruling Before you're allowed NOT to talk to a police officer, you must TELL the police officer "I'm Going to Remain Silent" and then keep your mouth shut!(How can you be falsely accused and charged if you don't say anything?) Anything you say or do can and will be used against you at any time by the police.
#4 - Just Say NO to Police Searches! If a police officer didn't need your permission to search, he wouldn't be asking. Never give permission to a police officer to search you, your car or your home. If a police officer does search you, don't resist and keep saying "I don't consent to this search."
#5 - "Am I Free to Go?" As soon as the police officer ask you a question ask him "Am I free to go?" You have to ask if you're "free to go," otherwise the police officer will think you are voluntarily staying. If the police officer says that you're are being detained or arrested, say to the police officer"I'm Going to Remain Silent"
#5 - "Am I Free to Go?" As soon as the police officer ask you a question ask him "Am I free to go?" You have to ask if you're "free to go," otherwise the police officer will think you are voluntarily staying. If the police officer says that you're are being detained or arrested, say to the police officer"I'm Going to Remain Silent"
Anything You Say Can And Will Be Used Against You!
Police officers need your permission to have a conversation, never give it to them!
Never voluntarily talk to a police officer, there's no such thing as a "friendly chat" with a police officer. The Supreme Court has recently ruled that you should NOT talk to a police officer without a lawyer and you must say "I'm going to remain silent." It can be very dangerous to talk to a police officer or a Federal Agent. Innocent people have talked to a police officer and ended up in jail and prison, because they spoke to a police officer without an attorney.
Police officers have the same right as you "Freedom of Speech," they can ask you anything they want, but you should never answer any of their questions. Don't let the police officer try and persuade you to talk! Say something like "I'm sorry, I don't have time to talk to you right now." If the cop insists on talking to you, ask him "Am I free to go?" The police officer may not like when you refuse to talk to him and challenge you with words like, "If you have nothing to hide, why won't you speak to me? Say again "I told you I don't have time to talk to you right now, Am I free to go?" If you forget or the police officer tricks you into talking, it's okay just start over again and tell the police officer "I'm going to remain silent."
The Supreme Court has ruled that if a police officer doesn't force you to do something, then you're doing "voluntarily." That means if the police officer starts being intimidating and you do what he ask because you're "afraid," you still have done it voluntarily. (Florida v. Bostick, 1991) If you do what the police officer ask you to do such as allowing him to search your car or answer any of his questions, you are 'voluntarily' complying with his 'requests.'So don't comply, just keep your mouth shut unless you say "Am I Free to Go?" or "I don't consent to a search."
You have every right NOT to talk to a police officer and you should NOT speak to a police officer unless you have first consulted with a lawyer who has advised you differently. Police officers depend on fear and intimidation to get what they want from you. Police officers might say they will "go easy" on you if you talk to them, but they're LIARS! The government has made a law that allows police officers to lie to the American public. Another reason not to trust the police! So be as nice as possible, but stand your ground on your rights! Where do some of your rights come from? Read the Fourth and Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
Traffic Stops and Your Rights
First of all keep your license, registration and proof of insurance in an easily accessible place such as attached to your sun visor. The less time it takes for you to get to these items, the less time the officer has to look through your windows and snoop. When pulled over by a police officer stay in the car, turn on the cab lights and keep your hands on the steering wheel. Sit still, relax and wait for the officer to come to you. Any sudden movements, ducking down, looking nervous or appearing to be searching for something under your seat is dangerous! Just sit up naturally be still and try to put the officer at ease."
Police officers like to ask the first question and that usually is, "do you know the reason I pulled you over?" The police officer is trying to get you to do two things, admit that you committed a traffic violation and to get you to "voluntarily" start a conversation with him.Remember the police officer is not your friend and should not be trusted! The only thing you should say is "I'm going to remain silent and am I free to go?"
The police officer might start asking you personal questions such as "where are you going, where have you been and who did you see, ect." At that point it's the perfect time to exercise your rights by asking the police officer "AM I FREE TO GO?" There is NO legal requirement that American citizens provide information about their comings and goings to a police officer. It's none of their damn business! Keep asking the police officers "AM I FREE TO GO?" You have to speak up and verbally ask the police officer if your allowed to leave, otherwise the courts will presume that you wanted to stay and talk to the cops on your own free will.
Passengers in your vehicle need to know their rights as well. They have the same right not to talk to a police officer and the right to refuse a search "unless it's a 'pat down' for weapons." The police will usually separate the passengers from each other and ask questions to see if their stories match. All passengers should always give the same answer and say, "I'm going to remain silent and am I free to go?" Remember you have to tell the police officer that you don't want to talk to him. It's the law
How long can a police officer keep you pulled over "detained" during a traffic stop? The Supreme Court has said no more than 15 minutes is a reasonable amount of time for a police officer to conduct his investigation and allow you to go FREE. Just keep asking the police officer "AM I FREE TO GO?"
A good time to ask "AM I FREE TO GO," is after the police officer has given you a "warning or a ticket" and you have signed it. Once you have signed that ticket the traffic stop is legally over says the U.S. Supreme Court. There's no law that requires you to stay and talk to the police officer or answer any questions. After you have signed the ticket and got your license back you may roll up your window, start your car and leave. If you're outside the car ask the police officer, "AM I FREE TO GO?" If he says yes then get in your car and leave.
Car Searches And Body Searches
Remember the police officer wouldn't be asking you, if he didn't need your permission to search! "The right to be free from unreasonable searches is one of America's most precious First Liberties."
Just because you're stopped for a traffic violation does NOT allow a police officer to search your car. However if you go riding around smoking a blunt and get pulled over, the police officer smells marijuana, sees a weapon or drugs in plain view he now has "probable cause" to search you car and that's your own stupid fault!
Police officers swore an oath to uphold the U.S. Constitution and not to violate your rights against unreasonable search and seizure Fourth Amendment. Denying a police officers request to search you or your car is not an admission of guilt, it's your American right! Some police officers might say, "if you have nothing to hide, you should allow me to search." Politely say to the police officer "I don't consent to a search and am I free to go?"
The police officer is allowed to handcuff you and/or detain and even put you in his police car for his safety. Don't resist or you will be arrested! There's a big difference between being detained and being arrested. Say nothing in the police car! Police will record your conversation inside the police car, say nothing to your friend and don't talk to the police officers!
If you are arrested and your car is towed, the police are allowed to take an "inventory" of the items in your car. If anything is found that's illegal, the police will get a warrant and then charge you with another crime.
Police Pat Downs...
For the safety of police officers the law allows the police to pat down your outer clothing to see if you have any weapons. If the police officer feels something that he believes is a weapon, then he can go into your pockets and pull out the item he believes is a weapon.
A police officer may ask you or even demand that you empty your pockets, but you have the right to say "NO, AM I FREE TO GO?" There's NO law that requires you to empty your pockets when a police officer "ask you." The only time a police officer should be taking your personal property out of your pockets is after you have been arrested.
If a Police Officer Knocks at Your Door at Home-You Don't Have to Open the Door!
If the police knock and ask to enter your home, you DON'T have to open the door unless they have a warrant signed by a judge. "If the police have a warrant they won't be knocking, they'll be kicking in your door!" There is NO law that requires you to open your door to a police officer.* Don't open your door with the chain-lock on either, the police will shove their way in. Simply shout to the police officers "I HAVE NOTHING TO SAY" or just don't say anything at all.
Guest and roommates staying in your home/apartment/dorm need to be aware of their rights specially "college students" and told not to open the door to a police officer or invite police officers into your home without your permission. Police officers are like vampires, they need your permission to come into your home. Never invite a police officer into your home, such an invitation not only gives police officers an opportunity to look around for clues to your lifestyle, habits, friends, reading material, etc; but also tends to prolong the conversation.
If you are arrested outside your home the police officer might ask if you would like to go inside and get your shoes or a shirt? He might even be nice and let you tell your wife or friend goodbye, but it's a trick! Don't let the police officer into your house!
If you are arrested outside your home the police officer might ask if you would like to go inside and get your shoes or a shirt? He might even be nice and let you tell your wife or friend goodbye, but it's a trick! Don't let the police officer into your house!
Never agree to go to the police station if the police want to question you. Just say, "I HAVE NOTHING TO SAY."
* In some emergency situations (for example when a someone is screaming for help from inside your home, police are chasing someone into your home, police see a felony being committed or if someone has called 911 from inside your house) police officers are then allowed to enter and search your home without a warrant.
Children have rights also, if you're under 18 click here. If your children don't know their rights and go talking to a teacher, school principal, police officer or a Federal agent without an attorney could cost your family dearly and change the lives of your family forever!
If a Police Officer Stops You On The Sidewalk...
NEVER give consent to talk to a police officer. If a police officer stops you and ask to speak with you, you're perfectly within your rights to say to the police officer "I do not wish to speak with you, good-bye. "New Law At this point you should be free to leave. The next step the police officer might take is to ask you for identification. If you have identification on you, tell the officer where it is and ask permission to reach for it. "Some states you're not required to show an I.D. unless the police officer has reasonable suspicion that you committed a crime." Know the laws in your state!
The police officer will start asking you questions again, at this point you may ask the officer "Am I Free to Go?" The police officer may not like this and may challenge you with words like, "If you have nothing to hide, why won't you speak to me?" Just like the first question, you do not have to answer this question either. Just ask "Am I Free to Go?"
Police officers need your permission to have a conversation, never give it to them. There is NO law that says you must tell a police officer where you are going or where you have been, so keep your mouth shut and say nothing! Don't answer any question (except name, address and age) until you have a lawyer.
Police officers need your permission to have a conversation, never give it to them. There is NO law that says you must tell a police officer where you are going or where you have been, so keep your mouth shut and say nothing! Don't answer any question (except name, address and age) until you have a lawyer.
Probable Cause...
A police officer has no right to detain you unless there exists reasonable suspicion that you committed a crime or traffic violation. However a police officer is always allowed to initiate a "voluntary" conversation with you. You always have the right not to talk or answer any questions a police officer ask you. Just tell the police officer "I'm going to remain silent."
Under the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, police may engage in "reasonable" searches and seizures. To prove that a search is reasonable, the police must generally show that it's more likely than not that a crime has occurred and that if a search is conducted it is probable that the police officer will find evidence of the crime. This is called "probable cause."
Police may use first hand information or tips from an informant "snitch" to justify the need to search your property or you. If an informant's information is used, the police must prove that the information is reliable under the circumstances to a judge.
Here's a case when police officers took the word of a "snitch," claiming he knew where a "drug dealer" lived. The police officers took it upon themselves to go to this house that the snitch had "picked at random" and kick in the door at 1:30 in the morning ,without obtaining a search warrant from a judge. The aftermath was six police officers firing over 30 shots and shooting an innocent man 9 times in the back as he laid on the ground. Read How Police In Texas Are Allowed to Murder Innocent People and Get Away With It
Under the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, police may engage in "reasonable" searches and seizures. To prove that a search is reasonable, the police must generally show that it's more likely than not that a crime has occurred and that if a search is conducted it is probable that the police officer will find evidence of the crime. This is called "probable cause."
Police may use first hand information or tips from an informant "snitch" to justify the need to search your property or you. If an informant's information is used, the police must prove that the information is reliable under the circumstances to a judge.
Here's a case when police officers took the word of a "snitch," claiming he knew where a "drug dealer" lived. The police officers took it upon themselves to go to this house that the snitch had "picked at random" and kick in the door at 1:30 in the morning ,without obtaining a search warrant from a judge. The aftermath was six police officers firing over 30 shots and shooting an innocent man 9 times in the back as he laid on the ground. Read How Police In Texas Are Allowed to Murder Innocent People and Get Away With It
Can We Trust Police Officers?
Are police officers allowed to lie to you? Yes the Supreme Court has ruled that police officers can lie to the American public. Police officers are trained at lying, twisting words and to be manipulative. Police officers and other law enforcement agents are very skilled at getting information from people. So don't try to "out smart" the police officer or try being a "smooth talker" because you will loose! If you can keep your mouth shut, you just might come out ahead more than you expected.
Teach your children that police officers are not always their friend and police officers must contact a parent for permission before they ask your child any questions. Remember police officers are trained to put you at ease and to gain your trust. Their job is to find, arrest and help convict a suspect and that suspect is you!
The federal government created a law that says citizens can't lie to Federal Agents and yet the government can lie to American Citizens. Makes perfect since doesn't it? The best thing you can do is ask for a lawyer and keep your mouth shut. How can you be charged with something if you haven't said anything?
Although police officers may seem nice and pretend to be on your side they are wanting to learn your habits, opinions, and affiliations of other people not suspected of wrongdoing. Don't try to answer a police officers questions, it can be very dangerous! You can never tell how a seemingly harmless bit of information that you give to a police officer might be used and misconstrued to hurt you or someone else. Keep in mind that lying to a federal agent is a crime. "This why Martha Stewart went to prison, not for insider trading but for lying to a Federal Agent."
Police officers may promise shorter sentences and other deals for statements or confessions from you. The police cannot legally make deals with people they arrest, but they can and will lie to you. The only person who can make a deal that can be enforced is the prosecutor and he should not talk with you without a lawyer present.
Lies That Police Officers Use To Get You To Talk...
There are many ways a police officer will try to trick you into talking. It's always safe to say the Magic Words: "Am I free to leave, if not I'm going to remain silent and I want a lawyer."
The following are common lie's the police use when they're trying to get you to talk to them:
* "You will have to stay here and answer my questions" or "You're not leaving until I find out what I want to know."
* "I have evidence on you, so tell me what I want to know or else." (They can fabricate fake evidence to convince you to tell them what they want to know.)
* "You're not a suspect, were simply investigating here. Just help us understand what happened and then you can go."
* "If you don't answer my questions, I won't have any choice but to take you to jail."
* "If you don't answer these questions, you'll be charged with resisting arrest."
* "Your friend has told his side of the story and it's not looking good for you, anything you want to say in your defense?"
If The Police Arrest You...
"I DON'T WANT TO TALK UNTIL MY LAWYER IS PRESENT"
* Don't answer questions the police ask you, (except name, address and age)until you have a lawyer.
* Even if the police don't read your Miranda Rights to you, refuse to say anything until your lawyer/public defender arrives. If you "voluntarily" talk to the police , then they don't have to read your Miranda Rights.
* If you're arrested and can not afford an attorney, you have the right to a public defender. If you get a public defender always make it clear to the judge that the public defender is not representing you, but merely is serving as your counsel.
* Do not talk to other jail inmates about your case.
* Within a reasonable time after your arrest or booking, you have the right to make a local phone call to a lawyer, bail bondsman, relative or any other person. The police may not listen to the call to the lawyer.
* If you're on probation or parole tell your P.O. you've been arrested and say nothing else!
COMMENT
COMMENT
Yesterday, when I was discussing this law with a group, a citizen asked "If you have nothing to hide, why not comply with the officer?" I answered with a sime question: "If the police have no probably cause, why are they intruding into my life?"
When did government intrusion become patriotic or accepted? For heaven's sake, this country was founded on the government staying out of our lives.
Lawyer Motorcycle Association
If a police officer demands that you produce identification, that demand is not a valid.
In The Hiibel case, the US Supreme Court (highest court in the land) specifically interprets Nevada's "Duty to Identify" statute (NRS 171.123) and ruled:
"It apparently does not require him to produce a driver's license or any ...other documentation. If he chooses either to state his name or communicate it to the officer by other means, the statute is satisfied and no violation occurs." Hiibel v Sixth Judicial Court of Nevada, 542 US 177 (2004)
Please note: the driver of a vehicle is required to produce a driver's license under a different law (but NOT the passenger)
COMMENT`
Don’t kill a cop. You will lose in Court. Enjoy life, get even as a juror (providing you’re eligible for jury service) and vote not guilty no matter what the evidence shows.
Slapstick and Pig,
If driving or riding and you have been pulled over, turn over your license, registration and insurance when asked. If cop starts asking ANY questions simply ask “am I free to leave?” If cop says “yes” then leave. If cop says “no” then say I “want a lawyer.” And continue to remain silent!
If walking down street and cop detains you in any way ask if you are free to go about your business. If cop says no then request a lawyer and remain silent. You do NOT have to take off your glasses, hat, do-rag, whatever … You do NOT have to turnover your cell phone. Do NOT allow a cop to search you or your house, car, bike, etc. without a warrant. When the cop does search without a warrant in violation of your Constitutional Rights immediately file a complaint against that cop. Immediately! Go to the cops station/division and file that complaint.
Cops put paper on us, we put paper on them. That simple.
And ALWAYS password protect your cell phone. Cops can search your cell phone in many instances without a warrant. Remain silent and don’t give up the password.
All of the above aggravates the shit out of cops. I know, I have done it many times.
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When did government intrusion become patriotic or accepted? For heaven's sake, this country was founded on the government staying out of our lives.
Lawyer Motorcycle Association
If a police officer demands that you produce identification, that demand is not a valid.
In The Hiibel case, the US Supreme Court (highest court in the land) specifically interprets Nevada's "Duty to Identify" statute (NRS 171.123) and ruled:
"It apparently does not require him to produce a driver's license or any ...other documentation. If he chooses either to state his name or communicate it to the officer by other means, the statute is satisfied and no violation occurs." Hiibel v Sixth Judicial Court of Nevada, 542 US 177 (2004)
Please note: the driver of a vehicle is required to produce a driver's license under a different law (but NOT the passenger)
COMMENT`
Don’t kill a cop. You will lose in Court. Enjoy life, get even as a juror (providing you’re eligible for jury service) and vote not guilty no matter what the evidence shows.
Slapstick and Pig,
If driving or riding and you have been pulled over, turn over your license, registration and insurance when asked. If cop starts asking ANY questions simply ask “am I free to leave?” If cop says “yes” then leave. If cop says “no” then say I “want a lawyer.” And continue to remain silent!
If walking down street and cop detains you in any way ask if you are free to go about your business. If cop says no then request a lawyer and remain silent. You do NOT have to take off your glasses, hat, do-rag, whatever … You do NOT have to turnover your cell phone. Do NOT allow a cop to search you or your house, car, bike, etc. without a warrant. When the cop does search without a warrant in violation of your Constitutional Rights immediately file a complaint against that cop. Immediately! Go to the cops station/division and file that complaint.
Cops put paper on us, we put paper on them. That simple.
And ALWAYS password protect your cell phone. Cops can search your cell phone in many instances without a warrant. Remain silent and don’t give up the password.
All of the above aggravates the shit out of cops. I know, I have done it many times.
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