Florian’s Knights: A Cautionary Tale

OK I have now watched the Florian’s Knights movie and I have to say it is very well done. It's also very fair because it portrayed both sides. I understand the concerns but dissagree with shutting down the Vancouver chapter. However, I will not minimize the validity of the concerns and hope by examining them we can steer clear of them. This documentary exemplifies some of my concerns. Not just about crime but also about civil liberty.

First I want to say that I have a huge respect for Erik Bjarnason. Not only was he a firefighter but he was also a member of the North Vancouver Search and Rescue. I am a snowshoer born in North Vancouver. I had a second job at Hollyburn Lodge during the Olympics and got to know a few Search and Rescue members. I have a great respect for them. Erik encountered a massive storm on Mount Logan doing a rescue and lost his fingers from frostbite. Mad harsh respect.

The documentary interviews firefighters from Vancouver, Toronto, New York and Detroit. It talks about how some New York firefighters wanted to form a motorcycle club. They were thinking of the name Florian's Legion because Florian was a Centurion and the patron Saint of firefighters. Then they decided on Florian's Knights but saw that the name was already taken so they contacted the Vancouver chapter. That's pretty cool. I'm from Vancouver and have a deep connection to New York. I worked as a volunteer with the Guardian Angels in New York during the US crack epidemic. Those two fire departments coming together to form a MC is awesome.

Then the heartwarming documentary takes a dark twist when the infamous picture of one of the Vancouver Florian's Knights posing with a member of the Hells Angels that was on the front page of the Vancouver Province. Blow out from that picture and article saw the Vancouver member fired from the fire department and the Vancouver chapter disbanded. That is outrageous.

However, some of the concerns expressed in the article and in the documentary by a former VPD officer are valid so let's examine them. The article quoted Mike Farnworth as claiming that firefighters deal with a lot of PTSD from drug overdose calls that the Hells Angles are responsible for. That is very true. The documentary interviewed a former firefighter who joined the VPD investigating Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs named Brad Stephen. He was very articulate in the movie and everything he said was true. He said a 3 piece patch represented outlaw bikers. Why do you want a 3 piece patch? His opinion comes from a long career of first hand experience.

Nick Elmes was the Vancouver firefighter that started the Vancouver chapter of the Florian's Knights posing in the picture with a member of the Hells Angels. The movie reveals that he was initially fired because of the article but after filing a grievance was permitted to retire. That was a pretty sh*ty thing to do to him. In the movie Nick said they're trying to change the stigma of bikers. Is that so? I remember a funny meme that said if the Devil rode into town he's be on a Harley but so would Jesus. I think that saying has merit.

I have quite a bit I could say about Nick's childhood friend but I won't. I've agreed to save that lengthy discourse for the judgement bar of God. However, there are a few things I can and will say about the East Vancouver chapter of the Hells Angels.

As I previously said the East Vancouver chapter has a long history of drug trafficking. They were responsible for the murder of a police informant named Eugene Uyeyama and his wife Michele. When they said no women and no kids, they lied. After they killed him they burned his house down. That was on Christmas back in 1995.

They were also responsible for the murder of Billy Moore in Prince George. The East Vancouver chapter of the Hells Angels ran the drug trade in Prince George. Billy Moore was the president of the Renegades which was a puppet club that sold drugs for the Hells Angels. The East Van chapter killed Billy Moore because he unknowingly sponsored a police informant.

Later they murdered Jay Hall in Prince George who also became president of the Renegades. They were also responsible for the murder of Joey Arrance out of Prince George. They also murdered his girlfriend's wheelchair bound mother when they burned her house down.

They even murdered Brandy Sarionder after she set up a new strip club on Granville. All of these dastardly deeds revolve around Rainbow Ricky from the Devil's Butler. He was a young offender at the time but Simone Holt wrote a book about it based on wiretaps the police produced in court.

His associates in the Satan's Angels kidnapped a hippie and tortured him. They put him in an ice bath naked and made him stand in a bucket naked and masturbate to the music. That's pretty deranged. Why would you force him to do that and why would you want to watch? That's where the name Rainbow Ricky comes from. Those homophobes are pretty confused.

They even sodomized him with a broomstick. Years later, Rainbow Ricky's confused crackhead crew of young offenders sodomized another kid with a broomstick and left him to die exposed in the snow. There is nothing honorable in any of that. So when your mother told you you're judged by the company you keep she was absolutely right.

They also murdered Paul Percy Soluk at a crack house in Surrey which tied them to the Surrey House of Horrors. Just sayn. So here's the deal. We know that pedophiles lure children, well we also need to be aware of how the Hells Angels lure strippers into the sex trade then ended up dead on the Pickton Farm like Stephanie Lange from the Orange Number 5.

It starts off with strippers and blow. Then they say if you really want to make a lot of money, you should become an escort. After the drugs eat them alive they end up dead. Oh I forgot. The East Vancouver Hells Angels also killed Ashley Machiskinic. They pushed her out of a window for a drug debt. Big Tony filmed himself beating the life out of drug addicts who owned him money in the DTES. That's how they lure the girls but don't forget how they lure the puppets.

First it starts off with we just ride motorcycles. There's nothing wrong with that. Then they throw a few parties where it's all about tits and ass. Then it's all about strippers and blow. But I thought you were married men with children? How do strippers and blow fit into the family life? It's a slippery slope so it is. Mind how ya go. If the HAs bought your clubhouse, you're going to owe them a debt they will one day collect. You don't need a 3 piece patch to ride a motorcycle.

Having said that, another concern I have is the fact that the US keeps trying to seize the Mongols patch. The Mongols and the Hells Angels have a right to exist. They just don't have a right to sell illegal drugs. They have the right to sell legal pot just like the cops do. Banning them from selling legal pot is like banning them completely. It's extreme. Extreme measures on crime is an excuse to use extreme measures against everyone's civil liberty. We already have laws in place. We just need to enforce them. We don't need to suspend civil liberty to do it.