Has NCOM taken over ABATE of California?

Posted by Gypsypashn on Biker Republic: I've removed to names associated with this until it can be ascertained as to who wrote what.

just received this from ABATE of California
It should be noted the AIM/NCOM is meeting this weekend in Denver

This is a letter that has been sent to the editor of Calif. ABATEs newspaper , the Bailing Wire. While this copy is unsigned the author is known to us . I believe this letter when published will be signed because we don't print any anonymous letters. Share this with any and all you may choose , this is what AIM/NCOM is about. I might add that the author is not a supporter of mine except when it comes to NCOM.


 These are my personal opinions concerning what I felt happened at the local 25 meeting of 9/18/2008 and some of the issues involved. There were two main issues. Those issues were the firing of Don Blanscet and the merger of ABATE with NCOM without a vote of the full membership. I firmly believe the ABATE state board had every right to fire Don if that was their free choice. I do not believe the board had the legal right to merge ABATE with NCOM without a vote of the full membership and of each local. That vote should have been held without, what I felt was, a show of intimidation by non-member patch holders packing the meeting as was done at the local 25 meeting on 9/18/2008.

I sit at each meeting with ABATE member patch holders in our local every month and never once did I feel intimidated by them. This month our local’s meeting was packed with Saxon, Legacy, and Vago club members who apparently had no reason for being here other than for the purpose of supporting Sarge against the local and to intimidate us. I would have had neither reason nor problem with Sarge appearing by himself or with a couple of non-member patch holders/others.  I did have a problem with him showing up with twenty to thirty non local 25 patch holders at our local’s September regular meeting to voice his side of what is becoming a rather divisive issue. 

 

As I said before I had no issue with the firing of Don.  My impression of ABATE is that it is member driven and I perceive each ABATE local and ultimately the state organization that is comprised of these locals like a corporation where each of us is a voting member like a shareholder in a corporation. No company merges with another company or sells itself to another company without a vote of the shareholders. Boards are elected to run the company and make day-to-day decisions. But ownership and control is the purview of the stockholders. The board may recommend a favorable or unfavorable vote on an issue and put its arguments forward to the membership. But they usually do not have the right to vote on anything, for shareholders, that will significantly impact the shareholders positively or negatively.

 

Am I offended about what I saw at last months meeting?  Yes, I was and I still am. I do not think Sarge and the board had a right to speak for members on this merger issue and that locals and members should have been allowed to vote on this. I am told Local 52 voted to withhold all monies from the state organization and board until there was an agreeable solution to this issue and I personally concur with that course of action for local 25. Did we just give lip service to that oath we took at the beginning of each meeting or are we going to demand our right to decide for ourselves whether we want to be a part of an organization where we might end up no better than second class citizens being told what to do, instead of telling our officers what they should do. We as individual voting members control our own organization, but for how long?  What if a majority of locals do not like what NCOM is doing?  How do we vote not to support an action or a particular issue once we are under their control and have no more rights than a club?  And how much of our money is going to be diverted to NCOM in the future for projects and issues that ABATE people would never support or are not important to us as ABATE members? Are we going to be allowed to choose our business members over those “recommended†by NCOM or will our elected local officials be forced to recommend only NCOM people?

 

In closing, I do not like having other people decide for me whether I should become part of a company/organization that I never sought to join by the state board taking away my right as a member/shareholder to decide my own fate through the vote process whether it is in the bylaws or not. This is a fundamentally wrong decision by the board that flies in the face of everything this country stands for and as such I am now offering a motion for every local’s consideration.  Vote to withhold any monies from going to the state organization of ABATE until this issue is resolved by a free and democratic vote.

 

Please remember that if you as ABATE of California join NCOM you probably will not be joining as an equal partner, but rather as a subservient member of that organization subject to the will of clubs you did not ask to be associated with. All of our votes together will probably be counted as just one vote, and we lose control over our own destiny and money.  Is that what you are supporting?

Problems between the National Coalition of Motorcyclists and Aid to Injured Motorcyclists (NCOM/AIM founded by Richard Lester) and ABATE of California go back approx. 18 years. We have alluded to to them in past posts as well as referencing questions regarding the dual/triple hats James "Doc" Reichenbach wears as President of ABATE of Florida, Lobbyist for ABATE of FLorida and Director on the Board of NCOM and questions of loyalties and conflicts of interest.

But then consider the following ABATE members also Serve NCOM (as currently listed here on the NCOM/AIM website)

Chris Dulas ABATE of Washington

Tiger Mike Revere ABATE of Oklahoma State Coordinator

Glen Fengstad Vice Chairman ABATE of Montana 

Steve Lundwall CMT/ABATE of Tennessee

Ollie "Laddie" Elkins ABATE of Louisiana

James "Doc" Reichenbach II Chairman ABATE of Florida

Robert “Reb” Williams ABATE of Pennsylvania

“Shag” Meade ABATE of Virginia

Robert “Prospector” Boellner Vice President ABATE of New York

Dennis "Big D" Watson ABATE of New Mexico

Doc being listed as Chairman of the Board of Directors

Note listed as a member of the NCOM/AIM legislative task force is Senator Nancy Argenziano,
From Florida who if I remember correctly at one time had something to do with lobbyist oversight. Have to get back with you on that one.

So besides the fact that this just doesn't look all that pretty it does cause this little ol rube to wonder why NCOM would be interested in California now? Can anyone enlighten tell us how much help
James D. Reichenbach offered as President of Florida and Chairman of NCOM/AIM offered the Brothers in California when they were trying to raise money to continue Quig's Legacy and Finally beat California's Helmet law once and for all.

I mean like could there be any reason why he  might not have wanted to do all that was possible to insure his fellow bikers in California won and came out on the other side stronger???

Aw hell, I'm just getting to damn cynical in my old age.Add to Technorati Favorites 

Major Updates re Rachel Hoffman being released as we type

Credit given where credit due. The Tallahassee Democrat has been all over this story and has and is doing an outstanding job. Lord don't we wish they could do cover all their stories like this. Being released as we type at
http://tallahassee.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080924/NEWS01/809240372

updated 1:17 p.m.

The first city of Tallahassee report expected to be released under a judge's order is a 199-page internal-affairs investigative report into the Hoffman case.

Leon Circuit Judge Kathleen Dekker today ordered the report and other documents to be released. Dekker wrote in her order that after the city has redacted the document, it will be submitted to the court for review and final approval "within only a day or so."

Check back with Tallahassee.com for more on this story.

1:10 p.m.

Leon Circuit Judge Kathleen Dekker also has ordered that a report by the Florida Attorney General into TPD's handling of the Rachel Hoffman case be released.

Dekker entered her order today. She wrote that parties will have today to redact the Attorney General report, an internal-affairs investigative report by the Tallahassee Police Department and other documents.

So far, the Tallahassee Democrat has received only two pages, from the TPD internal-affairs report.

Check back with Tallahassee.com for more on this story.

updated 1:05 p.m.

A friend of Rachel Hoffman told TPD internal-affairs investigators that she received several text messages from Hoffman on May 7, the day of the failed drug sting.

Hoffman, a confidential informant for TPD, was supposed to buy cocaine, Ecstasy and a gun from two men near Forestmeadows Park in northeast Tallahassee. The two men, Deneilo Bradshaw, 23, and Andrea Green, 25, were later arrested in Hoffman’s murder.

The friend said Hoffman was “really good at texting on her iPhone.”

“She was like, ‘At the station now getting wired up,’ like, ‘on my way, park off Meridian,’ ” the friend said.

Hoffman thought TPD Investigator Ryan Pender was a “cool guy,” the friend said.

“I really wouldn’t expect Rachel to say that about any cops, no offense,” the friend said. “But she said he was a cool guy. So that must mean, coming from Rachel, if you’re a cop, that’s pretty good.”

Check back with Tallahassee.com for more on this story.

updated 1 p.m.

An internal-affairs investigative report by the Tallahassee Police Department into the handling of the Rachel Hoffman case is being released incrementally.

So far, the Tallahassee Democrat has received only two pages.

During questioning, a friend of Hoffman's said she had heard from Hoffman's boyfriend that a member of TPD's vice unit had asked Hoffman out for a drink.

Hoffman declined the offer, the friend said. The entire vice unit was questioned, and "every officer categorically denied it," the report states.

Check back with Tallahassee.com for more on this story.

Updated 12:18 p.m.

Leon Circuit Judge Kathleen Dekker has ordered that a Tallahassee Police Department report into the handling of the Rachel Hoffman case be released.

The order, issued today, authorizes a redacted version of the TPD internal-affairs report to be released.

Check back with Tallahassee.com for more on this story.Add to Technorati Favorites

OUCH

We don't have a "news" link for this to verify this post by a New York rider on another forum. We have no reason to believe that it is not as stated but will avoid any names due to lack of validation and print as way of expressing our empathy and his frustration over the being treated the way so many of us are.   Also because I had a 68 chopped trumpet and can feel his pain:

I was stopped at a intersection waiting to turn, when an 80 year old guy going 50mph just SLAMS into my bike, sending me 25 feet. Im still alive with a few broken ribs, toes, road rash, cant wait for the first time I have to sneeze). The bike is now listed on the police report as "demolished". His insurance company calls and the adjuster guy says he isnt sure what a 65 triumph custom chopper (previously in show condition) is worth and he needs time to review an estimate, and he wants to know what I think its worth ...etc. NO, I didnt have collision on my bike. What do I tell this asshole without sounding stupid so I can at least recover some of my losses?? The kicker here is the cops didnt issue him one friggin ticket, but I got one for no mirrors and no turn signals, which in NYS you dont even need pre 1970. -hurts all over.

Ouch!!!Add to Technorati Favorites

Update: Judge trying to figure out if reports should be released in Rachel Hoffman case

Circuit Judge Kathleen Dekker could file her order as soon as today on whether reviews of the Tallahassee Police Department's handling of the Rachel Hoffman case will be released to the public.

The city of Tallahassee had asked the judge whether it could release two reports: one by the attorney general on TPD's role in the death of the 23-year-old informant during a botched drug sting and one by TPD's own internal-affairs investigators.

If the judge orders the reports open to the public, the city will move quickly to prepare them for release, said Michele Bono, assistant to the city manager. From Tallahassee Democrat

Hmmm such language would indicate that the city of Tallahassee is chomping at the bit to get their own internal investigation released, along with one by the Attorney General.

One would hope that Tallahassee would be working overtime to stem the bleeding from this case.  However this we has done said we ain't to likely to buy whatever results an internal affairs investigation is likely to reveal.  Which is why we have asked over and over for outside, unbiased, unconnected, preferably not from Florida investigators to be brought in to avoid the expected white wash.

We have the grand jury report and we have the states attorneys office challenging the integrity of the TPD.  We also have TPD chief Jones appearance on 20/20.
http://www.bigbendbikersforfreedom.com/2008/07/rachel-hoffman-2020-story-part-2.html
http://www.bigbendbikersforfreedom.com/2008/07/rachel-hoffman-full-2020-story-part-one.html

If nothing else, the above videos with his failure to stand up and publicly state that servicemen take precedence over FSU football players validate our contention:

CHIEF JONES, RESIGN NOW

However never underestimate the power of..............................Add to Technorati Favorites

Mrytle Beach update, it's tactics are a plauge and it is spreading

The mayor of Myrtle Beach has said the following referring to the onslaught of ordinances just past designed to significantly impact, if not destroy the two Bike rallies it hosts: 

Mayor John Rhodes told News13, “City council’s looked at all the ramifications that could come about from these ordinances and we understand there’s going to be legal actions taken on some of them and some of them there won’t be, we understand that and we’re willing to go forward.

Folk this is what passes for government now days. Make law based on whats wanted, ignore whats right, and if individual liberties have been transgressed let those who have been violated seek relief in the court.

Pass the cost of enforcing individual liberties on the individual. In the time it would take to get all the possible permutations of litigation through the courts many of these businesses could be dead. Many individuals will have been fined our worse for engaging in previously legal activities and a great many of them will not have the resources by which to protect their rights.

This is the cost of failure to act (sent as comment to News 13). As Sir Buster pointed out re HB137, it's disease that will pass from state to state.

One plague that is spreading like wildfire reducing crimes to civil infractions allowing municipalities to circumvent state laws and due process.

This whole scenario is exceedingly dangerous. Just exactly what is the state of the union (Bikers Rights Movement).Add to Technorati Favorites