Just when you thought I had finally forgot about the Hells Angels. Not likely. Someone mentioned they just aired a documentary about the East Vancouver Hells Angels on TV. Outlaw Bikers IV Fallen Angels on History Television. You can even watch it online. Just click on Outlaw Bikers Episode 2 Fallen Angels.
Looks like Kim Bolan was on that one too. I didn't realize Michael Plante was from Surrey. Someone said he used to work the door in Newton before the Orange Number 5. TV always goes for the drama. Convicting Punko and Potsie certainly didn't bring down the east Vancouver chapter of the Hells Angels any more than convicted Juel Stanton would have. The documentary failed to mention the City of Vancouver gave the East Van Hells Angels over $2 million. Bryce and Giles are still laughing all the way to the bank.
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OK a couple of points from the actual documentary. "Molesberry" claimed selling pot was easy. Everybody smokes pot. You teacher, your grandmother. Do we really want to close more schools and hospitals to pay for putting everyone in jail for possession of pot? I don't.
The documentary claimed that pot sales gave the Hells Angels seed money for cocaine deals. That is the problem. I'm not talking about selling drugs in clubs or selling cocaine to doctors and lawyers who can afford it. I'm talking about selling crack on the street. That affects property crime and a host of other related problems.
I think the project was worth the investment. The officer was right. The project certainly didn't bring the East Van Hells Angels down but it did tarnish their reputation. Ricky Fat Ass Ciarniello was a broken record of denial claiming the Hells angels aren't a criminal org when it's obvious they are.
This case has shown the Hells angels involvement with cocaine. This documentary shows the criminal activity of the East Vancouver Hells angels. The evidence is beginning to snowball against them. That would include their association with Dave Pickton.
Here's the deal. Ratting out a rat isn't being a rat. Cutting off fingers for a small crack debt in Prince George ultimately for the Hells Angels or pushing First Nations women out of East Van windows over drug debts ultimately for the Hells Angels is deranged. So is threatening and murdering someone's grandmother.
These are the kind of crimes the Hells Angels profit from. Hiding those kind of crimes is not noble. Witnesses like Michael Plante and Margo Compton are heroes not rats. The real rats are the ones that killed Margo Compton's twin seven year old daughters and the ones that wanted to kill their co accused after using him to murder an informant right before Christmas 1995.
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I just discovered a book written about this investigation by Vancouver Sun editor Neal Hall called to Hell to Pay. Someone sent me this link to order it online. Seemingly Randy Potts was beaten up in Surrey by someone who then stole his vest. What a Potsie.
Of course they are still laughing, and will be as long as the Justice system fails to allow for convictions of these shit stains.
ReplyDeleteOn the bright side, look at the amazing work Andy Richards and his parter did. They hit the angels hard, and hit them where it hurts, in their bank account. They executed what? over 70 search warrants for H.A grows?. Thats all dollars boy.
Also, a beautiful thing we are seeing more of finally, is (as you mentioned) civil forfeiture hitting these guys. I would like to see a lot more of it, but hopefully in due time these guys will lose more and more of their ill gotten assets.
I completely agree the officers involved did a fantastic job on the case and will expand upon it in the post. I’m not really comfortable with them seizing every grow op under civil forfeiture since that won’t touch them just the mules that work for them but I do think they should seize clubhouses as they clearly are in the business of organized crime. The fact that the City of Vancouver bought the Drake from the East Van Hells Angels and paid them twice what it was worth is very strange. They should have seized the Drake not slipped them and extra $2 million for it.
ReplyDeleteBut here's a problem highlighted by Kim Bolan; the difficulty of getting gun charges to stick in BC. We need strong laws, not this sort of hindrance.
ReplyDelete"Speaking generally, (Crown spokesman) McKenzie admitted cases involving guns in cars can "be difficult cases to prove for a number of reasons."
"There are certainly some challenges in that type of case."
"(RCMP Officer) Thiessen said it can be difficult to prove a suspect knew there was a gun in his vehicle."
http://tinyurl.com/5wew57
That is rather bizarre. That’s like Glen Hehn claiming he didn’t know there was 52 kilograms of cocaine in the boxes he was loading from his storage locker onto a truck.
ReplyDeleteI think the problem is bigger than just the laws. The one officer ended up quitting the biker enforcement unit because no one would testify against the Hells Angels which made their job virtually impossible. That plus a series of judges that sway in favor of the Hells Angels shows that the same laws aren’t being enforced in BC like they are in other provinces.
Changing the law won’t see David Giles’ decision reversed. The judge threw out wire tap evidence and said they didn’t hear what everyone else heard on the wire tap. Same with the Glen Hehn case. I think changing the laws will just affect the people the Hells Angels use until the existing criminal org laws start being implemented which they slowly are as long as they don’t name the criminal org.
I'm sure you're right about all the things to be changed, but...the tortuous logic here, where we can assume no one knows firearms are at hand, is so ridiculous it brings the law into disrepute.
ReplyDeleteI don't know about you but I've been shooting rifles & shotguns since teenage years. So many of us have, and everyone knows ALL THE TIME where their guns are! It's really basic & necessary to life.
These repeated rulings defy that logic with the public. Gangsters are being freed from sure & serious felony convictions! I was shocked to read all this; the public should be outraged. Also, we surely believe that the law doesn't give us the presumption of ignorance...Just too discouraging.
Some. I had a friend that used to teach handgun target shooting at shooters before it closed down many years ago. I also used to take scouts to do .22 rifle target shooting. Skeet shooting was way different than target shooting. I haven’t had much contact with guns really. You are right about people getting off with weapons charges when they are using them to commit crimes. Reminds me of that Abbotsford judge who let one of the Bacon brothers off with a huge number of automatic weapons seized. It’s crazy.
ReplyDeleteIt seems like when you can't protect people from the Hell's Angels, or org crime in general, it makes it difficult to move against them, unless there are people who think they are already as good as dead/worse that have a vendetta against them.
ReplyDeleteIndeed. When witnesses die or go missing that is a deterrent in people reporting crime to the police. Personally, I think the first step is to stop letting the dealers sell crack in public. At least that’s a start.
ReplyDeleteYes
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