One Brick Short

Federal agents joined a well-known 1%‘er motorcycle club—The Mongols—made friends, went on runs, and then busted their new buddies for a variety of crimes.

That’s not all they plan on doing, however. The federal government plans on preventing anyone from ever again wearing the Mongols patch by confiscating the trademark.

That’s right, the federal government can take away your name, erase you from history, “allow law enforcement to seize the leather jackets right off their back,“ according to U.S. Attorney Thomas O’Brien.

That’s kind of scary. In fact, that’s as scary as the Mongols, themselves.

Thomas Watkins, of the Associated Press, filed a story today describing the long, undercover operation in which men and women G-units went into the outlaw biker subculture to gather intelligence on the gang and bust it down and open. Dozens of members were arrested in six states and prosecutors say it could herald the end of what [federal agents] call a criminal group, he wrote.

“This is one of those celebrated investigations in which the organization from top to bottom has been charged and targeted,“ said Michael Sullivan, acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. “It puts a stake in the heart of the Mongols.“

Watkins reports that 61 Mongol Motorcycle Club members were arrested under a racketeering indictment. Agents served 110 arrest warrants across Southern California and in Nevada, Oregon, Colorado, Washington and Ohio.

OK, let’s face it, Mongols ain’t choir boys. 1%‘ers are proud of the fact that they are the “one percent of motorcyclists who cause trouble,“ a quote from the American Motorcycle Association back in the 1950s that led to the formation of the outlaw biker clubs like Hell’s Angels, Outlaws, Pagans, Bandidos and others.

Watkins said the 177-page federal indictment describes a tightly organized group routinely engaging in violence. It alleges the group, which is mostly Latino, sometimes attacks black people and commits robberies, steals motorcycles, and funds itself in part by stealing credit card account information.

The feds wanted the Mongols and wanted them bad. Watkins quotes John Torres, the ATF agent in charge in Los Angeles, describing the pivotal role his organization’s four undercover agents played in the investigation.

The unidentified federal agents infiltrated the gang and were accepted as full members, a difficult process that requires winning the trust of top leaders over a period of months, Torres said. The agents had new identities, including Social Security numbers and life stories. To be accepted into the Mongols, the agents had to pass a lie detector test and background test carried out by private detectives, he wrote.

Torres declined to comment on how they were able to pass the polygraph test, but if the feds can cheat it to go undercover, why can’t criminals cheat it as well?

Anyway, Watkins tells us the agents were required to live away from their real families for days on end in homes set up to make it look like they lived a Mongols lifestyle. Four undercover women ATF agents pretended to be biker girlfriends and attended parties with the agents. So they gained the trust of criminals, lived among them and like them. Yet they did so without, as Torres said, committing any crimes during their work. Hard to believe.

The feds are so intent on destroying this one organization, that they have asked for an injunction that would seize the Mongols’ trademarked name. If the order is approved, any Mongol would no longer be able to wear a jacket displaying the gang’s name or emblem. And neither would you. If you did, the cops could stop you and literally take the jacket off your back.

Imagine having the full force and power of the federal government targeting your organization, complete with the ability to create false Social Security numbers and alternative lives with the intent to arrest not only you and your friends, but the organizational identity. Imagine giving the police the authority to stop you anywhere and actually confiscate the blazer with your country club crest because some golfers were dealing drugs on the back nine.

The government could, essentially, wipe out an entire group’s identity. Imagine the Moose or the Elks falling on the outs with the feds, being the subject of an investigation into, say, illegal supplying of alcohol or violating dance hall licensing requirements. OK, probably ain’t going to happen, but if the government wants you can they get you? Could they take the Moose identity? How about the Optimists? The Kiwanis? The Jaycees?

No issues with Mongols who committed crimes going to prison. That’s part of the lifestyle they have chosen. But taking away the club’s name, making it illegal to use it, seems a little Vladimir Putin, if you ask me.

It’s a scary world out there in our own backyard and we’re not as free as we think.