WE ARE WILLING TARGETS

OK, everybody raise your hand. How many want to be a bulls eye??? Come on now I know that there are some out there that just live to be targets and I got some bros that want to test out a few weapons. Since they are going to use live ammo, they thought it might be fun to use live targets. Any takers?

Insanity you say! AHA, the dude has done one to many 9 volt batteries you conjecture? Oh no, no, no, no, my contention is there are more of you out there than you may imagine. In fact if you are reading this I suspect you are one that doesn't mind being a target. How do I know this you may ask? Or not.

Well check this out. After every local accident where a brother or Sister either gets killed or maimed for life you hear bikers bitching and moaning about the injustice of it all. They slam their hand down on the bar proclaiming loudly, "This has to stop, something must be done!"

Then when the weekend comes they swing their leg over their trusty steed and roar of to a poker run to feed doggies in the pound. O.K. let me remind you. I love doggies. If you had seen my second wife you would know that.

Now I know most of the folk out there are like "primo" riders. Extremely skilled, extra cautious, never drink a beer or 6 before riding, are 9' tall bullet proof and can telepathically tell when that nut job on the cell phone on NE Capital Circle at rush hour is going to swerve into your lane leaving you no place to go. After all, you probably took a motorcycle safety course and now know everything there is to know about ridin. Like which shop has the best buy on leathers. Who does the best paint. Where you can get the best deal on chrome. You know, the important stuff.

Besides all that bad shit happens to other folk and never happens to us right?

So I'm thinking maybe Gary Blake wasn't a good rider because he couldn't tell that a drunk on a suspended license was going to pull out in front of him and kill him.

And maybe Larry Nole should have known that the lousy driver with an extensive history of violations was going to take his, leg, job and ruin his life while walking away with a 3 month drivers license suspension and $1000.00 fine.


And what about these folk:

Maryland woman escapes vehicular homicide charge in death of motorcyclist
AMADirectlink, May 6, 2004 - A Maryland woman who drove her car into the back of a motorcycle, killing the rider, avoided a vehicular homicide charge by quickly paying a fine for the lesser offense of negligent driving.
Man Allegedly Hits 2nd Biker in Two YearsAmerican Motorcyclist, April 2004, Page 29 – An elderly Ohio man who caused the death of a motorcyclist in a traffic accident two years ago has been indicted in another motorcycle crash that cost a woman her leg.
Janklow Gets 100 Days: AMA calls sentence an insultAmerican Motorcyclist, April 2004, Page 24 – For motorcyclists, it was the trial of the decade. Bill Janklow, South Dakota’s only congressman and the state’s former governor, stood accused of second-degree manslaughter and lesser charges in the highway death of a motorcyclist last August.
Driver kills three motorcyclists, pays $70 in fines
AMADirectlink, Mar. 9, 2004 – In Iowa, a man driving a van crossed the centerline of a road and hit six approaching motorcyclists head-on, killing three and seriously injuring two others.
Kill a biker, pay a $200 fine
AMADirectlink, Jan. 16, 2004 - A woman who killed a motorcyclist in a traffic crash in Newport News, Virginia, got off with a $200 fine, drawing fire from a local newspaper columnist who called for tougher penalties for traffic-law violators who kill people.
Kill a Biker, Get 30 Days in Jail
American Motorcyclist, August 2003, Page 20 – Recently, we reported on a tragic crash near Oakland, California, in which motorcyclist Gary Kunich lost his life. At the time, we were encouraged that a California judge had ordered the case to go to trial after rejecting a plea-bargain request on the part of Moore’s attorney, who argued that his client should get off with no more than 60 days in jail.
Rider Dies, Driver Sentenced to Perform ‘Acts of Kindness’
Justice Denied? Drivers who kill riders don’t always go to jail
American Motorcyclist, April 2002, Page 22 – A driver in Newport News, Virginia, makes a left turn in front of an approaching motorcycle. In the ensuing crash, the rider is killed, and a passenger on the motorcycle is left seriously injured.
Driver sentenced to 90 days in jail for causing fatal motorcycle crash
AMADirectlink, Jan. 4, 2002 - A 36-year-old Michigan man who killed a motorcyclist and injured the motorcyclist’s passenger in a traffic crash has been sentenced to 90 days in jail.

See I don't care how aware you think you are, you are rarely going to see the snake that bites your ass. And yes we have all seen the horror stories above and shook our heads in disbelief.
BUT THE QUESTION IS WHY DO WE ALLOW IT???? THATS RIGHT WE????????

Is it that we do not care about our own lives? Is it that we don't care about the lives of our husbands, wives, parents or children?????? One could draw that conclusion as we shake our heads get on our bikes and head out to play "TARGET"

For years bikers rights advocates have been trying to get stiffer penalties, people wear t-shirts that say kill a biker go to jail. But little happens and for the most part we are not ignored but disrespected as judges refuse to hand down maximum penalties. Consider the following:

On September 30, 2000, Norman Walton turned his pickup truck into the path of a motorcycle ridden by Stephan Shemanski, 43, in the Grand Rapids area. Shemanski was killed and his passenger, daughter Melissa Shemanski, 19, was injured.

Walton was found guilty of causing a fatality while driving with a suspended license and faced up to 15 years in prison. But when he was sentenced on January 3 of this year, he was given just 90 days in jail and two years probation.

In handing down that sentence, the judge in the case basically absolved car drivers of the responsibility of looking for motorcyclists.

"The driving in this case was the kind almost anyone would have done," Judge H. David Soet said, according to the Grand Rapids Press. "Anyone who has practiced law in this city for over 30 years, as I have, knows that people don’t see motorcycles. They somehow overlook them."

So the judges attitude is like whoops he was driving a motorcycle, toast!


A person once said to me, "I'm tired of this, what can we do to stop it, nobody at the capital is listening or getting anything done"

My silly response, "We need to fill the court rooms with leather, we need to surround the courts with bikes, we need to DEMAND OUR RIGHT TO USE THE ROADS WITHOUT BEING TARGETS."

See my answer should have been we need to get Bikers to care as much about bikers as they do about dogs. We need to get Bikers to worry as much about whether or not a downed bikers kid is getting as much to eat as the dog is.

To Panama City's Whitesands ABATE Chapter, 8 members showed to support Larry Nole in court. Out of a town of hundreds of Bikers. I applaud those 8 individuals efforts, but what is the message sent. That out of hundreds of bikers 8 cared! And if we can not care about ourselves, if can not respect ourselves, if we allow ourselves to be pimped by every charity that will send nobody to our funerals or our children's funerals, if we can not finally say enough is enough then we will continue to be what we are, TARGETS and the only ones left crying two weeks after your gone will be your loved ones.

IF YOU DON'T MAKE THINGS HAPPEN THEN THINGS WILL HAPPEN TO YOU!
Robert Collier, American motivational author, 1885-1950Add to Technorati Favorites

AND YES THERE ARE MIRACLES

FL:

4 Motorcycles, 2 Pickups Collide In Zephyrhills

Tribune photo by JASON GEARY A trooper said the wreck involved four motorcycles and a Dodge Ram and GMC Sierra pickup. ADVERTISEMENT

By Jason Geary of The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 20, 2008

ZEPHYRHILLS - Traffic was being rerouted in south Zephyrhills after a morning wreck involving two pickups and four motorcycles.

Emergency workers cleared the vehicles off the road about 12:30 p.m.

Florida Highway Patrol troopers are still investigating the crash, which happened near Gall Boulevard and Fir Avenue, slightly north of where State Road 39 merges into U.S. 301.

A trooper on scene said the wreck involved four motorcycles and a Dodge Ram and GMC Sierra pickups.

The wreck snarled traffic in both directions along U.S. 301.

Despite how bad the crash looked -- two motorcycles ended up underneath the truck's wheels -- no one was seriously hurt, a trooper said.

GA: Motorcyclist thrown from bike across two lanes of interstate
Macon Telegraph, GA - A Warner Robins motorcyclist rolled across two northbound lanes of Interstate 75 after losing control of the bike just south of the Hartley Bridge exit in Bibb County.
Witnesses said Jeffrey Scott Sohler, 36, started wobbling on his Harley Davidson motorcyle in the right hand lane and was thrown from the bike at about 8:45 a.m., said Lt. George Meadows of the Bibb County Sheriff's Office.
The unmanned motorcycle continued down the interstate about 200 feet and was hardly damaged, Meadows said.
Sohler was conscious and alert when the ambulance and rescue workers arrived but it was not immediately known if he was hit by traffic, Meadows said.
Ron Papizan of Byron swerved his Ford F-250 pickup into the guardrail to avoid running over Sohler, who was wearing proper safety equipment, Meadows said.
Sohler was taken by ambulance to the Medical Center of Central Georgia after at least three medical professionals stopped to render aid including a registered nurse and a firefighter from Robins Air Force Base, Meadows said.
Although the lanes of traffic remained open, traffic slowed and backed up toward Crawford and Peach counties.Add to Technorati Favorites

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Motorcycle suit moved to Federal Court???

Well now You all thought it was just Florida now didn't you? Seems Kentucky didn't even bother with no law. But wait a second, what are the operative words here? “Without a warrant and without court permission,” "FBI (Federal) involvement?"

Didn't "they" tell us that kind of action would only be used against "Terrorists"???

And how will the Federal Courts rule on this little case that who cares about what happens in Kentucky anyway??? Watch this one closely folk, this has much about a whole heap more than motorcycles.

By KENNETH HART
The Independent
ASHLAND — A lawsuit filed last month by a group of motorcycle owners that claim their bikes were illegally seized by the Kentucky State Police as part of a criminal investigation has been moved from state to federal court.

An order was entered recently transferring the case from Boyd Circuit Court to U.S. District Court in Ashland.

The main reason the case was transferred is it involves questions of whether the plaintiffs’ Constitutional rights were violated, said Catlettsburg attorney Garis Pruitt, who filed the suit on behalf of the motorcycle owners.

In the state court complaint, the three name plaintiffs, Mark Justice, Terry Elliott and Pete Withrow, all of Ashland, claimed their cycles were among about 45 seized from owners in and around Boyd County last summer by the KSP and FBI.

Each of the seizures was done “without a warrant and without court permission” and were outside the scope of the KSP’s statutory authority, the complaint alleged.

The suit names as defendants the KSP and William Riley, a detective with the agency’s Lexington-based Special Investigations Section.

In its response to the suit, the KSP acknowledged seizing the bikes and it continues to hold them. However, the agency denies the vehicles were wrongly taken from their owners and maintains it acted within the scope of Kentucky law.

The KSP also states the cycles were seized “in conjunction with a joint interstate criminal investigation” with the FBI.

In an amended complaint filed in federal court, Pruitt maintains that by seizing the motorcycles without warrants and without giving the owners the opportunity to contest the seizures, the KSP violated the owners’ rights to due process of law under the Fourth, Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.

Also, Pruitt argues the state law the KSP cites to justify the warrantless seizures “is unconstitutional both on its face and so applied.” Similar laws permitting warrantless seizures of private property based solely on police officers’ beliefs have been struck down as unconstitutional in other states, the complaint states.

The suit was filed in federal court on behalf of the three named plaintiffs and “42 others similarly situated.” Court records also indicate Justice is no longer part of the case.

KENNETH HART can be reached at khart@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2654.

We thank GOLDIRON for that little tidbit.Add to Technorati Favorites