what would you do???

[hipshot]

this evening, as i stopped in at the ONLY convenience store in my town, i saw two 1%'ers, sitting there.

one was "broke down", and the other was "standing by."

my conscience, got the best of me, after about 30 minutes, so i went back to offer assistance.

the stand-by "brother", was gone!

the guy that was broke down, said that he was waiting for his "little brother", to come and get him in a pick-up truck.

 

he told me it was 2 1/2 hours , 'til his brother could get here.

 

 

now, my question is, "how/or would you offer assistance, to a person in need , who could have a "cloudy background"?

just jt

[GigaWhiskey]

eh?

[rod]

I always stop and see if I can help no matter what they ride or look like. Just the way I was raised I guess. I have never had a problem with the 1%ers most have been very polite and appreciative. Rod

[BuddyRich]

I would probably help, They ain't done nothing I ain't done probably and that kinda of tells you about my past. Kinda like casting the first stone. I ain't nowhere near able to do that..

Now being hit by the stones is probably more my speed..

[Sleeperhawk]

Ok, I will bite, what is a 1%ers ?

[BuddyRich]

Bandidos, Hells Angels, Outlaw bikers in general.

[Marcarl]

Hebrews 13:2

Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.

[SledgeHammer]

I try to find the good in everyone,but the bad people are making me not trust anyone. Wednesday of this week, a Black Chevy truck ran out of gas near my house. I had a 5 gallon gas can with about 3 gallons of gas left in it from mowing my grass on Tuesday. I let the man, who was about 21-23 years old pour the gas in his truck to get him to a store. There are at least 2 gas stations within 2 miles of me. He took my 5 gallon gas can, as he stated, so he could put my 3 gallons of gas back in it for my lawn mower. Stated he would be back in a few minutes. I have not seen him, my gas can, or the gas yet. I do have his tag number and the means of tracing him down and I will do that next week. I will be lucky to get my gas can back. People like that make me reluctant to help the next guy. To answer your question, if it involves bringing him in my home or allowing him in my shop, the answer is no. I would be concerned about a break-in. If it involved something simple that I could help him with, then I would. I would loan him tools in my presence, I would go get tools for him, I would even give him a few bucks if he needed it. But I don't allow strangers in my home and especially in my buildings.

[KingSizer]

Not sure how much you could help in that situation but it reminds me of a time when I helped out a person with a "cloudy background"

 

Last summer I was in my house when I heard what was some sort of wreck outside. When I went out onto the front porch I saw cars stopped on both sides of the road, a crotch rocket laying on it's side, a kid with a helmet walking around picking up plastic, and a girl crying hysterically in the middle of the street. At first I thought maybe she had hit the biker. I went to see if they needed an ambulance or any help, as it turns out, the kid had done a wheelie and just pulled it back to far and fell off the back of the bike. The girl was his girlfriend and was following him home, didn't hit him at all. He was trying to pick the bike up and get it off the road so traffic could get going again, but he couldn't lift it and was obviously shaken up. His jeans and jacket were tore up and his shoes were in the middle of the road. I told her to get his shoes, I picked up the bike and told him he could leave it in my driveway or garage until he could get a truck or trailor to get it home. We pushed the bike up my driveway, into my garage, which was very difficult because the wheel and forks were all bent up. I put the kickstand down, turned around and he was gone, running across my front yard, yelled "thanks, I can't get another dui", hopped into his girlfriends car and they took off.

 

My wife came outside to ask me what happened. I didn't know his name, address, phone number, when he was coming back for it, nothing...I told my wife I think I may have just helped a drunk driver or inherited a stolen bike. Just then a patrol car drives down the road, looking for the accident that someone must have called in, but there wasn't anything to see anymore, no rider to talk to, only me with a wrecked bike in my garage and some plastic pieces in the street. The cop drove around the block a few times looking and I was starting to wonder what sort of trouble I could get into for helping (unknowingly) a drunk driver.

 

The cop finally left, and about 5 hours later, when it was dark, the kid knocks on my door, thanked me 1000 times for helping him, said he was on his way home from a Steelers football party at a friends house, where he had been drinking, and was just showing off for his girlfriend when he flipped over backwards. I helped him push the bike onto the trailor he brought, he asked me what kind of beer I drink, and sure enough, a few days later I came home from work and there was a case of beer on my front porch.

Sorry the stories so long, but it was definitly one of the weirdest things that ever happened to me. To this day I don't know his name, whether he got into any trouble, or if he's even fixed the bike. But I did drink all that beer!!!

[Yammer Dan]

Makes you feel good when one turns out right.

[spear]

Hey hipshot.

I would gather they were riding (sorry, standing beside their broken down) Harleys?

If it was me I wouldn't even acknowledge their presence.

Worked too long as an LEO (a 99%er) to even give such trash the time of day.

My only reaction would be to quietly walk by, jump on my RSV, hit the starter and ride off with not so much as a nod, a wink or a royal wave.

[midnightventure]

How do you tell if they are a 1%er since there are so many in the biker community that try to look the same?

[SaltyDawg]

How do you tell if they are a 1%er since there are so many in the biker community that try to look the same?

 

It isn't hard to recognize Hell's Angels, The Outlaws, or The Pagans. They wear their colors with pride and are prominently displayed on the back of their vests.

 

Now to your story KingSizer, I would have flagged down that police officer. You did nothing wrong, and by not flagging down that officer you allowed an admitted drunk driver get away. I'm not going to get into the what if's, but too many people die from drunk drivers everyday.

 

If for nothing more than to get rid of that worried feeling you were carrying around with you.

[spotsy]

Like someone else said, I would offer assistance if I could because it's the right thing to do unless I felt uncomfortable with something that I saw.

 

Spotsy

[Squidley]

I would have probably asked if the had it under control. Like Sledge, I wouldn't be bringing them to my house more than likely. Now some of you have seen me, I'm not the smallest guy on the planet and dressed in leather with a full beard I suppose I could be viewed upon as mean looking person. Looks are decieving, and you never know about folks by their looks.

There are many times that I have passed a broken down vehicle and kept driving until that voice has told me to turn around. I have done that a few times to find that a young girl with a little one didn't have a phone. The maker does work in mysterious ways

[wild hair 39]

even 1%er,have a nice SIDE,i have stopped to help,more than once,MY VR, IS STILL GOING,THERE ????? IS DOWN,that makes me feel good,maybe just to show off the vr,or voyager,

i even give them a card

[bongobobny]

I'm with Carl!! I remember this one old guy that always said "Son, it's nice to be nice..."

[Guest BluesLover]

I believe the correct way to deal with the "gangs" is that you never want to be in their debt. My wife's uncle owns a garage that is located beside a what used to be a 1%er house (they've since moved).

 

When they first moved in, they went to see my wife's uncle and told him who they were. They also told him that they'd be having the odd "gathering" at their place, and asked if it would be ok to park their bikes in his lot when those meets took place. They offered to pay him for doing that, and he graciously said no. He never had a problem with them for the whole couple of years that they lived next door.

 

Had he accepted payment, he would have "owed" them something, and it may have been a totally different story.

 

Cheers,

[Guest tessa c2]

well it is kind of simular, last fall i came home from work, i was on the late shift, so this would have been about 8-8.30 in the evenning, and while having supper, hazel had metioned about a 3/4 ton truck that was parked at the intersection 1/4 mile off of the yard, and she shaid that it looked like he had a flat tire, but there wasn't any one there by the truck, so we had never gave it another thought, well the next morning Hazel is on early shift, and suddenly she is back home, and says that this truck is still there and he needed a pull to get the truck running, so i threw the tow rope into the dodge, and drive down there, so i nose up to his truck, and he is a scruffy looking guy, who didn't speak a word of english hardly, and i could see that everything he had owned was in the back of his truck and in the cab, he was driving a ford, diesel, so then i had tried to find out what the truck did when it had quit working, well he had said the battry was died and he just needed a pull, so i had swung my truck around and backed up infrount of him i had gotten out and grabbed my ball hitch from the truck bed, and and he had gone to the back of his truck, i was kneeling down putting my hitch into the reciever, when i had noticed that he was standing off to the side with a wheel wrench in his hand. well talk about an uneasy feeling... well i had jammed the pin through the hitch, and slipped the eye of the tow rope over the ball, and informed him that he could hook the other end up onto his own truck, which he did, and so i had pulled him a couple of hundred yards and stopped to see if he had any action under the hood, which he didn't, so then i had tried to trace down what his trouble was, and the only thing that was wrong was his battry was died, well i tryed to explaine to him depending on the make of fuel pump, that some of them have an electric silinoid on them to shut the fuel off and he would need some juice in the battry for this to operated, well this had turned into a heavy dicussion, on wether this was so or what, and his english was as good as my french, so finally i had said that i could either tow him into town and have a mechanic look at it or i could continue to help him, well he didn't want to be towed into town. so i had just taken the tow rope off and swung my truck around and dug out the booster cables, and charged up his battry till i had a glow in his head lights and then told him to try starting it with the starter, and his truck fired up. i had checked to make sure his truck was charging, and why the battry had gone stone died, and it had ended up he had listened to the radio all night and just ran it down, and he was on his way back from British Columbia and was going back home to Quebec, so i was about ready to leave for work, when he goes to his truck and comes back carriing this leather sack, and was jingling it, and told me to take one, well i didn't know what he had in there, and i told him that i didn't want nothing for helping him, so he had just flipped something into my truck , later that day i had found an old silver dollor laying on the floor in the cab. so weither he had ever made it back to Quebec i have know idea, because i didn't think the truck or the tires on it would take him to Manitoba even....

[hipshot]

this evening, as i stopped in at the ONLY convenience store in my town, i saw two 1%'ers, sitting there.

one was "broke down", and the other was "standing by."

my conscience, got the best of me, after about 30 minutes, so i went back to offer assistance.

the stand-by "brother", was gone!

the guy that was broke down, said that he was waiting for his "little brother", to come and get him in a pick-up truck.

 

he told me it was 2 1/2 hours , 'til his brother could get here.

 

 

now, my question is, "how/or would you offer assistance, to a person in need , who could have a "cloudy background"?

just jt

 

well folks , to finish the story:

 

i didn't catch the guy's name. he was a "bandido", from Houston chapter.

he had just installed a new battery the day before and made a "meet" in corpus christi.

on the way home the batt. shorted out, and he couldn't ride in the dark with no lights.

 

was sorta cool out, so i offered him a thermal sweat shirt, which he politely refused.

i offered to go get him a new battery, "no thanks, i'm good", was all he said.

i then asked if he was hungry thirsty, he said the same thing, "i'm good".

 

now i figure he must be low on cash, so i offered to go into town, and buy him a new battery, which he could pay back when he was able.

by now , he had put his "colors", in his war bag, shook my hand, and thanked me for the offer. last words were "i appreciate your help, brother, but i'm good"!

lol

i then left him, sitting on a curb, outside of the store. i guess he finally got home.

just jt

[GigaWhiskey]

Now that I finally get what you are saying, I would have prolly asked if he needed help if he didn't look like he wanted to take me out or snatch my 1st gen. I do not think i would have offered to buy him a battery.

[CrazyHorse]

I try to help when I can. I ve had strangers help me in the past so I figure I'll return the favor to someone else. That being said you have to judge for yourself your comfort level of the person your dealing with because there are some messed up people on this planet.

[Guest ReinyRooster]

Too many years of law enforcement and seeing what the 1% have done in the past and are capable of doing....I would not offer assistance. I know it's not the Christian think to do but I'm sorry....the only thing that he and I have in common is that we ride motorcycles. That does not make us brothers, no more then we are brothers because we both drive Fords or have brown hair.

Many different people ride bikes...the fact that you ride a bike does not by itself make you a bad person..or a good person...but belonging to a biker gang does require you to be of a certain character and that's not the type of character I want anything to do with.

That's just me.

[Switch]

I have to agree with MarCarl's answer, plus, as an improbable but not impossible scenario, someday something might happen that caused offense to a group of 1%'ers and they corner you, then some guy comes out of nowhere and says "Hey, lay off him, guys, he helped me out of a jam one time."

 

One never knows...

 

As a retired LEO, and a Blue Knights member, I would probably stop and offer help. Never know when the favor might be returned. Besides, under all that swagger, leather, and tattoo's there was once a little boy of maybe three years old that fell and skinned his knee and ran home crying to his mommy. His life may have taken a turn but you never know what might bring him back. Stranger things have happened.

[WIKD]

Hey hipshot.

If it was me I wouldn't even acknowledge their presence.

Worked too long as an LEO (a 99%er) to even give such trash the time of day.

My only reaction would be to quietly walk by, jump on my RSV, hit the starter and ride off with not so much as a nod, a wink or a royal wave.

 

That's true and all law enforcement officers are a-holes that just want to write tickets and eat doughnuts.

If you're going to make inflammatory remarks like that don't whine when people make the same statements about LEO's. Making statements like that only enforces the idea that ALL bikers are trash.

I personally wear my colors on my vest proudly and call many 1% club members friends. Does that mean your generalizations include me also?

Any biker that is having trouble would get me to stop and render aid if I could.