One Brick Short

Tacky wind-breakers emblazoned with ATF or FBI will soon be a thing of the past. Federal agents will soon be known as “Mongols” and wear the outlaw motorcycle club’s cuts and colors after confiscating the trademark as part of an undercover bust.

Associated Press reporter Greg Risling in Los Angeles said a judge made the move official yesterday. Mongols can no longer wear patches bearing the motorcycle gang’s insignia following what appears to be an unprecedented court order stripping them of their trademarked logo.“

Risling wrote that U.S. District Court Judge Florence-Marie Cooper on Wednesday “granted an injunction that prohibits gang members, their family members and associates from wearing, licensing, selling or distributing the logo, which typically depicts the profile of a Mongolian warrior wearing sunglasses.“

The moves comes after dozens of Mongol members were arrested under a racketeering indictment.

“If a Mongol is wearing a vest or jacket bearing the Mongols patch, that item is pursuant to seizure based on this order,“ said Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven Welk.

It is believed to be the first case in the nation in which the government has sought to take control of a gang’s identity—via its logo—through a court order, according to Risling.

The judge ordered gang members and their affiliates to “surrender for seizure all products, clothing, vehicles, motorcycles ... or other materials bearing the Mongols trademark, upon presentation of a copy of this order.“

Considering the popularity of the outlaw biker couture, the feds could clad their own in the style once held sacred by large, mean guys with tats. Special agents for the alphabet soup of federal law enforcement could wear the Mongols patch to show that they are the meanest government agents out there as they bust down doors of oddball religious retreats with queer folkways and worship services.

You survivalists out there who think the government is out to get you and destroy your way of life, better surrender your guns and ammo because the Federal Mongols are at your door on confiscated hogs with a no-knock warrant.

First the Mongols. Then the Hell’s Angels. Then the Pagans. Then the Outlaws. Then the Crips and the Bloods and the Klan and the Nazis and the Anarchists and the Southern Baptists and the Free Methodist and the Libertarians and Green Peace and Acorn and any other group that may somehow be attached to a criminal indictment regardless of conviction or guilt, may lose their identity to the federal government.

The question remains, if you take the patch and vest off a Mongol or the frock off the minister, do you eliminate the threats they pose?