(Richard "Quiq" Quigley, rest in peace the battle continues)These two statements were taken from one of the first hits if you google NCOM (national coalition of motorcyclists)
"NCOM is not another association, but rather a bringing together of existing motorcycle groups for the purpose of mutual exchange of information, legislative strategy and the combined strength to fight all that is adverse to the freedom of the road"
"NCOM is managed by bikers for bikers. Through its Board of Directors, comprised of motorcyclist rights leaders representing 9 regions of the United States, and a Legislative Task Force that includes six elected state and federal legislators plus many other experienced legislative advocates from across the country, we have the talent and expertise to serve the motorcycling community whenever called upon to do so."
Interestingly enough if you hit Home on that site you are taken to an Attorneys page. See here.
ABATE of Florida erroneously lays claim to being the ones primarily responsible for getting the Florida helmet law "modified" as evidenced by this statement,
GOING TO BIKE WEEK? ABATE of Florida, Inc. won a great victory in Florida this year. Everyone now has the right to decide for themselves if they wish to wear a helmet or not. It was a long and costly battle not only in money but also for the Brothers and Sisters that were not here to see their dream come true.
The cost of this freedom has put a drain on ABATE's treasury. We are not asking for money from anyone, what we are asking is that you consider staying at our ABATE Campground during Bike Week 2001. The money made at the campground will go to help the organization keep this a free state. Our rates are the best in the Daytona area and it is only 20 minutes from downtown Daytona. Listed below are the rates and phone numbers of our contact people. As you can see, the money you save will pay for your trip and give you extra to buy those new leathers you've been thinking about.
DOC REICHENBACH, PRESIDENT
ABATE OF FLORIDA
Posted by Bill Bish of NCOM on NCOM news Bytes here on September of 2000. With the following banner Heading the page:
We have posted before about what we perceive (NOTE the words perceive for any who have threatened legal action that may actually dumb enough to engage in it) to be an unholy alliance between the two.
However some of the reasons for maintaining such perceptions are illustrated in this post dated 12-10-07 one of many questioning this dubious relationship:
Who was Duped? MRF? ABATE of FLORIDA? Motorcyclists?
Now California Biker Rights activists are in the fight of their lives to continue and win Richard "Quig" Quigleys long standing fight against the California Helmet law whose history includes just about every law enforcement body responsible for enforcing the law violating the law.Meaning this has ramifications that reach far beyond "Helmet laws" and into the arena of individual rights. See:
Start Your New Year Off by Striking a Blow for YOUR rights.
BOLT (Bikers of Lesser Tolerance) and ABATE of California and others came together to form a coalition of rights activist to insure once and for all this threat to OUR (meaning all of us) "Individual rights' is defeated and put out a nationwide call for help.ABATE from the tiny state of Delaware was the first to respond donating $8000.00 to the cause. see:
FREEDOM IS NOT FREE ... WE NEED YOUR HELP TO CONTINUE QUIGLEY'S QUEST
It would appear that maybe NCOM and ABATE of Florida (whose president James D.Reichenbach also serves as Chairman of the NCOM Board of Directors) may not have got the word that their "Brothers" were in need of help. As evidenced by this response from a California person in the know, to a recent inquiry,
"There has been no response from NCOM and ABATE of Florida. My guess is they will continue to be silent unless they can find a way to criticize the judicial effort. For them it is not about Bikers Rights, it is about money for Richard Lester and his cronies."
(Note: If this is not so we welcome a response from the president of ABATE of Florida)
But then ABATE of Florida did change it's name from "A BROTHERHOOD Against Totalitarian Enactments" to "American Bikers Aimed Towards Education."
So maybe it's just a case of forgetting what "Brotherhood" is or, "We got ours, now you get yours"
Or maybe they just forgot these little tid bits of history from Tony Pan Sanfelipo (active in the right movement for 29 years and has been riding motorcycles for 36 years. In addition to being the founder of ABATE of WI and BOLT (Bikers Of Lesser Tolerance) he belongs to many other biker's rights groups such as USFF, HLDL, and ABATE of WI. Tony has completed a course called "Two Wheel Trauma" that was given for medical personnel and went on to become nationally registered as an EMT. He is the Head Road Guard for former Governor Thompson’s (now U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services) Harley Tours. Tony works for Michael F. Hupy and Associates, S.C. in Milwaukee and has 10 years of investigative field work as a motorcycle case specialist.) wrote in 1996 (see the whole article here):
"Time has proven that to be a grave error on their part. But luckily, some less controversial individuals picked up on what was being said, and some interestingly enough, figured it out for themselves. Case after case was brought to various venues, and some actually were successful. For the most part, these were lower court rulings, and again were met with skepticism. One case which went to county court in Florida was Florida vs Yasko. Chico had independently taken on the battle with not much help, but a lot of criticism, in Florida. Even though he won his case, the result was minimized by his local ABATE chapter as only a county court case ruling. They just didn't get it. Probably because of personality problems with Chico, or whatever, but they couldn't find it in their minds or hearts to realize and appreciate what had happened here."
And
"Pity some people can't swallow a little pride and remember what we're all here for. I thank Chico in Florida for sticking with his cause at great personal sacrifice and humiliation. I thank Attorney Ed Alden for figuring this out for himself, taking it to court and winning in Washington State, then becoming an HLDL Director for that state. I thank Skip Raring for taking the Easyriders case to fruition in California under the same premises. And most of all I thank Steve Bianco and Richard Quigley for showing the way to do this all, despite tremendous pressure from various quarters of the motorcycle community in California. Especially Richard Quigley. He's arrogant, cantankerous, obnoxious, objectionable, irritable, unfriendly, unruly, and absolutely right about just about everything, especially about not bowing down to the absurd 21-and-under modification language on helmet laws. That is an HLDL and BOLT belief and opinion, not shared by other MRO's, but certainly shared by a number of individual motorcyclists."
It is understood that each state ABATE operates independently in a manner it perceives as being in the best interest of the motorcyclists in their state. Which is a good thing. But when certain members attempt to insert themselves into a position to influence national policy claiming to represent "Bikers" while ignoring one of the biggest motorcycle rights battles in the country one has to wonder about the motivation. Especially after comments he made at the last ABATE of Florida State meeting held in Pensacola such as:"He did go on to rant about how “internet cowboys” offering support from outside of the state were hurting our cause and upsetting legislators. He mentioned, one nasty letter received from California that upset some politicians. Doc stated that “California needs to get their own act together” in regards to the helmet law."
See the rest of my notes from that meeting here:
