Free Essay on Hell's Angels

Throughout the world, many gangs have been formed in the name of identity or cooperation, some of such bands end up being criminal gangs and continuously engaged in criminal activity and abuse the law of the land (Abadinsky, 2012). The governments have tried to curb the emergence of such gangs by convicting their memberships and even discouraging the members of the public from getting associated with such groups. In this particular paper, The Hells Angels have been identified as one of the major world's gang; and several criminal profiling against the gang have been highlighted such as the court bans on the group and some of the criminal activities that the gang have been involved in and also determine the future of criminal justice in curbing and preventing the emergence of the gangs.

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Hells Angels (Hells Angels Motorcycle Club or Hells Angels Motorcycle Corporation) was initiated in the 1940s. It has an international outlook and has been accused of getting involved in several criminal activities by law enforcement officials and thus posing security threats to the members of the public. The membership of the Hells Angels club has been associated with even more outrageous activities where the membership is actively controlled with tedious vetting and initiation and quitting the gang is almost impossible, and some of the members also get killed for it. Moreover, the club has been accused of profiling hate crime and racism since practically all the members are white males. This is a significant concern to many agencies.

Outlaw image

The Hells Angels have their identity bestowed on the Harley-Davidson bikes that they ride denim-and-leather outfits and some sign tattoos (Barker, 2010). The images have been viewed by many critics as an outlaw and thus can negatively influence the young generation who are easily carried away and view them as models. The gang further gain recognition after the California based attorney, Hunter S Thompson's had recognized the gang and their activities in his books "Hell's Angels: A Strange and Terrible Saga." In many occasions, the members have been hired to offer security services in many concerts where they end up abusing the public and causing fear. Some of the members end up causing murder, for instance, one of the group members had stabbed to death concertgoer Meredith Hunter at the gate as they were hired to offer security services at the rolling stone free concert in 1960 (Huff, 1996).

The Hells Angels have been continuously engaged in hazardous and are even linked with the production and dispensation of illegal drugs such as methamphetamine by law enforcement agencies. Nonetheless, some of the attempt to prosecute the gang members under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act concluded in unsuccessful trials in the 1980s. Nonetheless, the FBI in its National Gang Report has consistently regarded the Hells Angels as one of the bandit motorcycle gang, and that should not be allowed to operate since it caused fear among the public.

Some of the Prosecution Processes of the Gang

A Dutch court had banned the Hells Angels motorcycle gang in the Netherlands, suggesting that it had a track record of violent crime such as the killing of rivals, shoot-outs, drug and several crude weapon offences. The prosecutors further remarked that the Hell Angels posed an undeniable danger to the public and instilled fear in the land as they continuously break the law. The court in the central Dutch city of Utrecht ruled that "The Hells Angels is a danger to the public order," "It's a club where there's a culture of lawlessness, and the authorities are kept outside their doors," the court added in a statement. "The Hells Angels' profile is that of the largest and most powerful motorbike club. They believe other clubs should listen to them, and that leads to long-running conflicts."

Dutch prosecutors, in their long quest, to have the gang banned cited an event in the southern town of Kerkrade, in which a cafe frequented by the Bandidos was arson in 2015. Moreover, the Hells Angels members were engaged in a mass brawl in the restaurant of a Rotterdam hotel with an adversary club, and shots were fired. Some of the members had also threated the national security in Portugal at that time of the ban as well.

Arrests made at the Hells Angels bikers club's 50th anniversary in the U.K.

The arrests were carried out based on the assumption of drugs offences and possession of crude weapons. During the anniversary the gang is always engaged in ruthless ride out; however, the police are always on the watch out. During the week of the anniversary, the law enforcement agency was given the search warrant on any individual at the public but within a designated range to prevent or curb any form of anti-social behaviour (Morselli, Tanguay & Labalette, 2008). The search became a success, and over 12 individual members of the gang were charged related to various offences such as being the possession of offensive weapon, drugs and harassment.

Justification of the Police Actions

Around Seven members showed up in court and given suspended prison sentences, and others to appear later. Some individuals stayed in custody and others either cautioned or released with no charge. The police had a responsibility in ensuring the members of the public are safe and secured when attending some of those Hell Angels events and no sense of criminal offence or anti-social behaviour to be sustained. Because some culprits and criminal proprietors were arrested, efficiently justified the police action and reason for the search (Saia, 2015).

Mitigations of Gang Crime: Hell Angels

The media fraternity tends to frame and facilitate fear of crime and to instill desirable behaviour on the citizens. The media news has significantly influenced public opinion by how the interaction among the various individuals within the criminal system. However, the media needs to be controlled to ensure that the classified information does not reach the public hence many regulations have been formulated to help keep the media in close check and to monitor the media's operations. The media would also be considered as a vital tool for spreading information and has the power to coordinate people at all aspects of life regardless of the distance or age gap. For instance, the citizen had been made aware of the dangers of joining Hell's Agengle Gang via media.

Again, there is a likelihood of more advancement in technology such as Forensic DNA analysis to emphasize an essential role in the investigation process within the criminal justice system throughout the world (Horseman et al., 2007). Such inventions would greatly help to put most of the gang members would be involved in a crime scene without necessarily capturing the whole group. For instance, the member of the group would be cautious before getting involved in criminal activities due to fear of being singled out and prosecuted (O'Brien et al., 2013). Again, in some countries like Sweden, a political party (Liberty Party), has been initiated to mobilize the public against the application of the label of "gangs" and identity.

Hell Angels Perceived as a Criminal Organization

Many organizations such as the FBI's National Gang Intelligence Center (NGIC) identified the Hell Angels as one of the greatly structured criminal organizations whose members regularly are involved in illegal activities such as violent crime, weapon possession, and trafficking of drug, and members use their motorcycle clubs as a habitat for criminal economic gains (NGIC 2015:8). And the same definition was provided by the Europol about the gang.

It is believed that the gang is composed of people organized around the love for motorcycles in the clubs (Piano, 2017). Moreover; the club is dedicated to economic profit and income generation through certain criminal activities (Maxson & Klein, 1995). Many of the gangs have almost the same organizational rules and structures; and having their leaders who are elected after some durations, thus giving the members to address their opinion through the election process (McCorkle & Miethe, 2001). The gang hold some symbols of paraphernalia that uphold the subculture of the band and make it look like a warring organization to instill fear instantly to critics. Nonetheless, there is no direct with connection, of the Hell Angels as a criminal organization but due to its virtue of notoriety and size, the gang has created lots of concerns to the criminal justice in several countries including the U.S (Morselli, 2010).

Conclusion

In summary, criminal gangs should be strictly checked in line with the law regardless of the form that they take. The criminal justice has made continuously tremendous efforts to curb the organization of such gangs like the Hell Angels to ensure that the public are secure.it is also evident that most of the criminal group have violated the law and got away with it in most instance due to the difficulty in identifying and singling out the proprietors of crime. It is, therefore, an obligation of the entire criminal justice to curb the menace and ensure that the citizens are safe.

References

Abadinsky, H. (2012). Organized crime. Cengage Learning. https://www.amazon.com/Organized-Crime-Howard-Abadinsky/dp/113304963X

Barker, T. (2010). Biker gangs and organized crime. Routledge. https://books.google.com ' Law ' Criminal Law ' General

Huff, C. R. (1996). The criminal behavior of gang members and nongang at-risk youth. https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles/fs000190.pdf

Maxson, C. L., & Klein, M. W. (1995). Investigating gang structures. Journal of Gang Research, 3(1), 33-40. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1477370806067911

McCorkle, R. C., & Miethe, T. D. (2001). Panic: The social construction of the street gang problem. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. https://www.pearson.com/...Panic-The-Social-Construction-of-the-Street-Gang-Proble...

Morselli, C. (2010). Assessing vulnerable and strategic positions in a criminal network. Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, 26(4), 382-392. www4.uwm.edu/people/haas/sna/morselli.pdf

Morselli, C., Tanguay, D., & Labalette, A. M. (2008). Criminal conflicts and collective violence: Biker-related account settlements in Quebec, 1994-2001. In Organized crime: Culture, markets and policies (pp. 145-163). Springer, New York, NY. https://www.researchgate.net/...Organized_Crime...criminal.../Organized-Crime-Analyzin.

O'Brien, K., Daffern, M., Chu, C. M., & Thomas, S. D. (2013). Youth gang affiliation, violence, and criminal activities: A review of motivational, risk, and protective factors. Aggression and violent behavior, 18(4), 417-425. https://research.monash.edu/.../youth-gang-affiliation-violence-and-criminal-activities-

Piano, E. E. (2017). Free riders: the economics and organization of outlaw motorcycle gangs. Public Choice, 171(3-4), 283-301. https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/.../v171y2017i3d10.1007_s11127-017-0437-9.html

Saia, A. M. (2015). The Evolution and Influence of Outlaw Motorcycle Clubs in the American West. The University of Idaho. https://www.scribd.com/document/.../The-Evolution-of-Motorcycle-in-West-America