Hey,

I just received a new C of O, or Certificate of Occupancy for the Bikernet Headquarters. For months I wondered whether armed officials would kick me out of my old building. Today, we wonder if our old motorcycles might be banned. We wonder if police will barge into our homes and search for guns. WTF.

"Don’t you just love dealing with these power crazed bureaucratic nut jobs at the City……They Tax, Restrict, Regulate, Confiscate or Exercise Seizure in their attempt to “be of service” It’s horribly pathetic how our cities have matured into these houses of regulation under some false sense of “public safety or public good.”

--Undercover Bikernet Agent


I don’t like it. Maybe I’ve been an outlaw all my life. Good or bad I will fight this bullshit and for our peeps’ Freedom until I’m gone. Watch out. Someone is banging on the door. It’s the Mandatory Health Insurance folks.



Don’t forget the Bikernet Weekly News is sponsored in Part by Cycle Source Magazine, Iron Trader News, ChopperTown, Las Vegas Bike Fest, Born to Ride and The Motorcycle Riders Foundation.





WASHINGTON DC MOTORCYCLE RIDERS FOUNDATION LEGISLATIVE ACTION REPORT-- I wanted to provide you all with an update as to what progress we have made with House Resolution 831; A Bill to Address Motorcycle Profiling.

You’ll recall that your MRF issued 2 Calls to Action over the summer months for our grassroots supporters to mobilize. We have made some very positive progress over the last few weeks now that Congress is back in session from the summer recess.

As it stands today, the bill officially has 10 co-sponsors from 6 states (Wisconsin, Minnesota, Alaska, Illinois, Michigan and Texas). There are both Republican and Democrat supporters. Below is the full list of original sponsors and co-sponsors:

Rep. Ribble, Reid [R-WI-8]*
Rep. Walberg, Tim [R-MI-7]*
Rep. Peterson, Collin C. [D-MN-7]
Rep. Kline, John [R-MN-2]
Rep. Pocan, Mark [D-WI-2]
Rep. Emmer, Tom [R-MN-6]
Rep. Young, Don [R-AK-At Large]
Rep. Paulsen, Erik [R-MN-3]
Rep. Burgess, Michael [R-TX-26]
Rep. LaHood, Darin [R-IL-18]


Work still remains. If your Member of Congress is not listed, and you think they may be interested in signing on, please reply to me directly and we can identify next steps in order to gain additional co-sponsors and ensure we do not lose our momentum.

In other news, we continue to work with our champions in the Senate to introduce a similar measure. I will keep you up to date as this progresses.

Thank you for your support and please contact me if you think your Member of Congress would be willing to sign on.


--Megan Ekstrom
Vice-President, Government Affairs & Public Relations
Motorcycle Riders Foundation
1325 G Street N.W. Suite 500
Washington, D.C. 20005
Phone: (202) 725-5471
Fax: (202) 546-0986
www.mrf.org





LE PERA SIGNATURE II CHOPPER SEAT OF THE WEEK-- North Hollywood, California specialist Le Pera has spent 44 years keeping its seat designs at the cutting edge of motorcycle designs and tastes as the market evolved. But when Bob Le Pera Sr started hand-crafting his first seats in 1972, it was choppers all the way.

Fast forward to the 21st century, and while the materials have stayed ahead of the game in terms of quality, durability and comfort, Le Pera's chopper seats have remained a cornerstone of their design reputation and never left production.

The seat seen here is their still popular Signature II, a true piece of Le Pera and custom motorcycle history. Available in Diamond, pleats, or pleats with buttons.

LE PERA ENTERPRISES
www.lepera.com
Posted by www.DealerWorld.com



AUSTRALIAN BIKER TAKES DEPORTATION CASE TO THE HIGH COURT-- Government authorities have failed to show how deporting high profile Tasmanian biker Aaron “AJ” Graham would serve the national interest, a High Court application says.

The former Rebels MC leader has been housed in arguably Australia’s toughest prison, since immigration officials arrested him in June last year and cancelled his visa.

In the latest twist of the long-running deportation saga, Graham has lodged a constitutional challenge in the High Court.

The 49-year-old is appealing Immigration Minister Peter Dutton’s decision to cancel his visa for a second time in June.

The second cancellation came just hours after Graham won a Federal Court challenge to quash Dutton’s initial decision to have him deported to his native New Zealand.

High Court documents show a constitutional aspect to the appeal, with Graham’s lawyers arguing Dutton’s decision went beyond the power of Parliament.

Another ground of the appeal relates to Dutton rescinding the visa on the basis that it would advance the national interest because of Graham’s links to the Rebels.

But the former president of the Rebels’ Kingston chapter argued through his lawyers that Dutton’s decision was misguided.

“[Mr Dutton] made no finding as to how removing the plaintiff from Australia would advance the national interest,” the High Court application says.

Graham has changed legal teams since his last court bout and is now represented by Melbourne firm Malkoun & Co Lawyers.

The firm’s principal Anthony Malkoun, who studied law at the University of Tasmania, is the nephew of former Victorian Comanchero president Amad “Jay” Malkoun.

The firm has brought in one of Australia’s top barristers, Brett Walker, SC, who represented big tobacco companies in the fight against plain packaging.

Graham was arrested in a crackdown on bikers and taken away to Goulburn Supermax. Although he was not charged with an offence, because of a prior conviction Dutton (a former QLD cop), cancelled his visa on character grounds, claiming it would “contribute to the national effort to disrupt, disable and dismantle the criminal activity of outlaw motorcycle gangs”.

Graham was jailed in 2009 over an assault of an insurance fraud investigator at Clarendon Vale.

Graham moved to Australia when he was 10 and has children born here.





ROYAL ENFIELD OPENS MILWAUKEE DEALER-- Royal Enfield North America Cruises Into Milwaukee With the Opening of North American Headquarters and First Flagship Showroom.

Oldest Motorcycle Brand in Continuous Production Focuses Efforts in North America

It was a historic day for Royal Enfield, the fastest-growing motorcycle brand in the world, as it marked the opening of its first flagship dealer experience in Milwaukee, the heart of the North American motorcycle community.



Royal Enfield CEO Siddhartha Lal and Rod Copes, president of Royal Enfield North America, addressed the crowd, including VIPs and dignitaries, at the grand opening event this past weekend.

“Royal Enfield is focused on delivering a ‘Pure Motorcycling’ experience to consumers. Our motorcycles are classically styled, simple, evocative and fun to ride. Royal Enfield creates a unique experience for riders that is approachable and unintimidating,” Copes said at the press conference. “This is the brand’s first stand-alone showroom location in the U.S., which brings to life the 115-year heritage of Royal Enfield – a history we’re very proud of.”



The company has also selected Milwaukee as the location of its headquarters and currently employs a staff of 20.

“Myself and the rest of the Royal Enfield global leadership are committed to the North American region,” Lal said. “Since 2010, we have increased production from 50,000 units to 500,000 units globally, and we are expected to produce 675,000 by the end of this fiscal year. North America is key to the contribution of that global growth.”



Royal Enfield North America will be continuing the brand’s storied history with the unveiling of its North American model lineup, featuring single-cylinder engines currently up to 535 cc. Available models at the 226 N. Water St. showroom include:

The Classic 500 – timeless colors and classic styling ideal for exploring a city or cruising a country road.

The Continental GT – a light and nimble motorcycle that boasts an aggressive riding position for an exhilarating ride.

The Bullet 500 – in production for seven decades with its unmistakable appearance and distinctive exhaust note, this model delivers a classic, vivid sensory experience on every ride.


To learn more, visit www.royalenfield.com/USA,





SAME OLD SAME OLD-- Recent headlines screamed at us:

Traffic Fatalities Up Sharply in 2015

NHTSA: 2015 Sees Largest Increase in Traffic Fatalities in Half Century

Traffic Deaths in 2015 Climb by Largest Increase in Decades

Highway Fatalities Jumped 7.2% Last Year

Cheap Gas May Be Killing Us

No, we didn’t make that last one up.

The media reacted swiftly to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) announcement that 35,092 people died on U.S. roads in 2015, an increase of 7.2 percent over the previous year. In turn, NHTSA and the White House made a public plea for help in analyzing the raw data to determine the cause of the near-record increase in highway fatalities.

You know that the instant conclusion of many will be – already has been – that speed limits have to be lowered.

First it should be recognized that two data points – in this case traffic fatalities in 2014 and 2015 – do not constitute a pattern. The second equally important observation is that absolute numbers are misleading when trying to identify a trend. NHTSA, by virtue of its FARS (Fatality Analysis Reporting System) database, established the standard by factoring in distance traveled. The traffic fatality rate in terms of 100 million vehicle miles traveled provides a truer year-over-year comparison than looking at absolute totals.

The reason is simple: As more total miles are driven, the risk exposure to accidents also increases. NHTSA noted that vehicle miles traveled were 3.5 percent higher in 2015 than in 2014. So while the agency estimates that total fatalities increased 7.2 percent in 2015, the fatality rate increase was actually 7.2 – 3.5 = 3.7 percent.

Check out this progression of numbers: 1.73, 1.69, 1.65, 1.58, 1.55, 1.53, 1.51, 1.51, 1.48, 1.44, 1.46, 1.42, 1.36, 1.26, 1.15, 1.11, 1.10, 1.14, 1.10, 1.08. Those are NHTSA-published fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles for 1995 (when the 55 mph national maximum speed limit was fully repealed) to 2014. The long-term trend is a steady decline in fatalities with the most meaningful year-to-year rate increase being 3.6 percent from 2011 (1.10) to 2012 (1.14).

That is similar to the increase between 2014 and 2015. Note that after 2012, the rate reverted back to the 20-year pattern of declining highway fatalities, 1.10 in 2013 and 1.08 in 2014. Let’s see what happens to the fatality rate in 2016, 2017 and 2018 before declaring a new upward trend based on a one-year increase.

That is not to say that efforts to reduce the absolute numbers of fatalities shouldn’t continue in earnest. It is commendable that the government is reaching out to tech companies for help in that regard. But when it comes to calls for blanket lowering of speed limits, consider this: From 1995 to 2014 speed limits rose from 55 mph to 70, 75 and even 80+ mph. During that same period, fatality rates dropped 37.6 percent in a relatively steady line. If anything, highway safety improvements across the nation should include speed limit reform where speed studies and the 85th percentile traffic engineering principle that can lead to a smoother, more consistent flow of traffic.

--NMA

--from Rogue





HOGS & HEIFERS SALOON PRESENTS “Rally in the Alley” –  Sep. 28th - Oct. 2nd, 2016--Expanded Motorcycle Party Generates Huge Excitement in the Motorcycle Community

Las Vegas Bike Week brings tens of thousands of Motorcycle Riders
from all over the world and the majority of those find their way to the Legendary Hogs &
Heifers Saloon! Hogs & Heifers has been expanding it’s Annual Party during Las Vegas Bike week since opening in 2005.

Past years have seen the Rally in the Alley pour out onto 3rd street with the Hogs & Heifers Roadshow Bar which is large enough for 16 plus bartenders to sling drinks from and dance on top of! 2016 sees even more expansion with the Hogs & Heifers Pushers on the Promenade, Pop Up Shop style, “Free to Attendees,” Vendor Area stretching from Hogs & Heifers Saloon, all the way up the Fremont Street Experience’s 3rd St Promenade to the Canopy over Fremont Street itself!



Easyriders Magazine will be back to host their Easyriders “Old School” Bike Show and this year they’ll also host the Easyriders Saturday Hangover Ride with American
Revolution Vodka’s Bloody Marys. Add to that, the Pushers on the Promenade will
include notable companies such as John Shope’s Dirty Bird Concepts (as seen on TV),World Renowned Artist Eric Hermann, The Big Belly Crew, Various Motorcycle parts andaccessories Manufacturers available for installs on site and many other unique companies and products.

Add to that the Infamous Jack Schit back to Co-Emcee another year, Tankbilt’s Live “Low Brow” Art painted daily, a Custom Builder Bike Display Area and some additional “Surprise Guests,” and... It’s easy to see why Las Vegas Bike
Week Attendees consider “Rally in the Alley” the best party going!

To become a sponsor or vendor, contact
Penny Osiecki at 702-279-5332.



By the way, whatever you do, make sure you get over to East Fremont Street and check
out everything Las Vegas BikeFest has to offer! They’re in their 2nd year at the new
location conveniently located within walking distance of Downtown Hotels, but still with
plenty of Bike Parking in the area.





PRISON STRIKE PENDING-- I have often referred to Prison Labor as Slave Labor and can through personal knowledge and experience.

A large portion of inmates are Bikers and some are there because they would not fall in line with what the Biggest Gang In The Country Said (Government).
The worst offenders are the Private Prisons.

Inmates strike in prisons nationwide over 'slave labor' working conditions
Organizing groups say coordinated strikes are under way in at least four states against poor sanitary conditions and jobs that amount to forced labor.

The Free Alabama Movement said a widespread strike at Holman correctional facility was launched a minute after midnight on Friday.

A nationwide prison strike over conditions and wages behind bars, which organizers tipped to be the biggest of its kind in US history, was under way in at least several correctional facilities across the country on Friday, according to prison rights advocates.
Inmates from several states, who had bound together with the help of activists and organizing groups, aimed the national strikes – which had been in the making for several months – against what they said amounted to slave labor conditions amid mass incarceration in the country.

The coordinated events, which organizers targeted in as many as 24 states, occurred on the 45th anniversary of the riots at Attica prison in New York – the largest prison uprising in American history – over grievances today’s protesters say are similar, including poor sanitary conditions and prison jobs that amount to forced labor.


In April, one of the main national groups organizing the campaign, the Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee (IWOC), under the banner of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) union, announced its call to action.

“This is a call for a nation-wide prisoner work stoppage to end prison slavery,” it said. “They cannot run these facilities without us.”
“Work is good for anyone,” Melvin Ray, who is incarcerated at the WE Donaldson correctional facility in Bessemer, Alabama, told Mother Jones on Friday. “The problem is that our work is producing services that we’re being charged for, that we don’t get any compensation from.”

Ray is a member of the group called the Free Alabama Movement, which has been instrumental in leading the strike efforts, along with other groups formed with the help of incarcerated individuals such as the Free Ohio Movement, the Free Mississippi Movement and the End Prison Slavery in Texas movement.

According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, prisoners at federal facilities can make between 12 and 40 cents an hour for their work, while state prison rates can be higher or lower. In several states, including Texas and Arkansas, inmates are paid no wage for their labor.

But the issue is not merely about earning meager amounts of money on the side. Inmates and outside organizers say that many US prisons simply would not run without the labor of inmates, including the work of building maintenance, cooking and cleaning.

“These strikes are our method for challenging mass incarceration,” Kinetik Justice, a founder of the Free Alabama Movement, who serves at the Holman correctional facility in Alabama, told Democracy Now in May, during a prior 10-day strike which mirrors what he and others planned for Friday.

Justice said that effort to push for a coordinated strikes came after “we understood that our incarceration was pretty much about our labor and the money that was being generated through the prison system”. He added that the prisoners, as a result, “began organizing around our labor and used it as a means and a method in order to bring about reform in the Alabama prison system”.

The full scope of Friday’s planned protests, however, has not yet emerged.
Strikes have happened at many prisons across the country over wages and conditions in the past several years.
In 2013, one of the largest coordinated inmate resistance actions to date occurred when some 30,000 inmates across California went on hunger strike to protest at penal conditions, including a heavy reliance upon solitary confinement.

--The Guardian.com


--from Rogue





NOT JUST A CAMERA-- Your smartphone can take photos and videos, but it can also do a lot more. Why should your action camera be any different?

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ILLUSTRATED MOTORCYCLE BOOKS FOR KIDS— We just received Jerry Barnett’s MOTORCYCLE MEMORIES from the Buzz Walneck group.

After nearly 5=40 years of helping motorcycle nuts tell their stories as a professional illustrator it’s time for Jerry to get his stories told.

The other book came from Quarto Publishing Group. It’s HOW TO BUILD A MOTORCYCLE by Saskia Lacey and illustrated by Martin Sodomka. The illustrations are killer.

Look these books up for your kids on line.

--Bandit






ATF STING IN MILWAUKEE FLAWED—from the start

From the outset, an undercover gun-buying sting by federal agents in Milwaukee was plagued by confusion.

Local ATF agents wanted to target their longtime nemesis, the Outlaws. They had been going after the aging motorcycle gang with what they dubbed "Operation Smokin’ Piston," breaking up untaxed cigarette operations on the south side, but were having little success nailing the gang.

It was 2011. Fellow agents with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives familiar with the Outlaws elsewhere in the country came to Milwaukee to offer some advice: Ditch the tobacco operation. The Outlaws were savvy to that type of sting. Instead try a fake storefront, a “surplus shop” and sell T-shirts, motorcycle parts and other goods as a front. Situate the store in the gang’s prime territory: Police District 2.

That’s how to get the Outlaws, the experienced agents advised.
But higher-ups in the agency wanted a broader focus to the operation. With a violent crime rate double the national average, Milwaukee had more pressing problems.

An ATF supervisor wanted the operation to target all gun violence in the city. The sting should be located on the north side, closer to a majority of the firearms violence in Milwaukee, they said.

After the plan had been approved and without permission from headquarters, the location of the storefront was changed and Operation Fearless Distributing was hatched — not in District 2 but in a former sign factory north of downtown on a quiet street in Riverwest.

It was just the beginning of an operation marred by mismanagement and mistakes that would ultimately spark major reforms in how the federal agency conducts undercover storefront stings.

Those details and others were released in a report issued by the Justice Department's Office of the Inspector General last week, three years after a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel investigation exposed major problems with the Fearless sting and other similar undercover operations nationwide.

The inspector general’s 112-page reportconfirmed the depth of the problems, calling them “avoidable,” and said significant reform was needed for such operations to be done correctly.

Investigators with the office also found the ATF and other federal law enforcement agencies were in violation of a 43-year-old disabilities law. Although they said they found no evidence that agents targeted people with disabilities, they found that operations in "Pensacola, Wichita, Milwaukee, and Portland storefronts each had one or two persons who regularly frequented the storefront, provided assistance to the undercover agents at times, and who were later alleged to have an I/DD (intellectual or developmental disabilities)."

Once traffic in the store picked up, problems mounted. An armed felon with armor-piercing bullets in a loaded revolver who was threatening to shoot someone was allowed to leave the store. He refused to sell his gun, saying he needed it to retaliate against those who shot his cousin. And he left.

'An obvious flaw'

The agents had no cover team outside to stop him. Officials don’t know if he ever shot anyone. The man was arrested and charged eventually.

Agents also overpaid for guns, leading people to bring in firearms they had bought hours earlier in stores, enticed by the opportunity to turn a quick profit.

The operation was shut down after nine months when an agent’s guns, including a machine gun, were stolen from his vehicle parked at a coffee shop and the store itself was burglarized of $40,000 in merchandise, a ballistic shield and a Drug Enforcement Administration cash-counting machine, the report says.

The machine gun and a handgun have not been recovered. After the theft, a witness told an ATF supervisor that he knew of people who were selling guns to some "white, undercover, ATF person."

When Salkin pressed to be paid, ATF officials threatened him…

The St. Louis storefront cost $260,000 and yielded 129 guns along with heroin, cocaine and other drugs. Thirty-two people were arrested with two dozen going to the federal system.

The operation was shut down when agents learned of a pending robbery by suspects. The St. Louis sting did not lead to any other major cases, the report said.

--byJohn Diedrich and Raquel Rutledge, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

It is a well-known fact that the ATF has targeted Motorcycle Clubs first by calling them Gangs.

This is just another bullshit sting in a long list of flawed investigations and mishandling of cases involving motorcyclist.

If the ATF has so many people that they have time to target motorcyclist just to keep them busy then it indicates they have too many agents on the payroll.

This does not even get into the court cases and the time and money to try and get convictions to justify the time and money they had already spent on bogus investigations.

--ROGUE