05/17/2015
In the words of a deceased friend of
mine, “It started out like an ordinary
day.” Bikers heading for a Confedera-
tion of Clubs (COC) meeting scheduled
for 1pm at a Twin Peaks restaurant in
Waco, TX, and the rest is history? Well
not exactly, it’s a bit more complicated
than that. Unbeknownst to most folks,
there was a rift between a couple of
Texas Clubs, that would climax on that
day.
The never fully explained part was, why
at a COC meeting? COC meetings have
been traditionally perceived as neutral
ground where Clubs could voice their
opinions and concerns without confron-
tation. So let’s lay the ground work and
tell the story. Everyone is welcome at a
COC meeting, member organizations
as well as non-member organizations.
However, a non-member group, in my
humble opinion would be considered a
“guest”. Why would a group considered
to be guests show up several hours
early, take up the parking and park in
a manner to block additional parking,
and then go into the restaurant and
take up the seating and tables in the
area reserved for the COC meeting? In
defense of the restaurant, a group of
bikers had reserved the patio, and these
guests looked like bikers.
So far so good, until the COC mem-
bers started arriving, with no place
conveniently to park, and no tables left
inside for them to sit and conduct their
meeting. This was the recipe for disas-
oklahoma biker the riders ragazine
ter! The group that should have arrived
first was tied up in traffic because of an
accident on I-35 that had temporarily
closed the road. Next enter a handful
of guys that rode in first, and when they
tried to park in the only open parking
spots available, they were promptly con-
fronted by the non-member group. And
yes folks, the rest IS history!
Having been to several COC meetings
(like over 150), I have never seen one
set up like this one was. Driving in was
exiting I-35 and turning into the strip
mall (where Twin Peaks was located),
Law Enforcement Officers in cars and
SUV’s, wearing bullet proof vests and
equipped with assault rifles, blocked
every turn except the route to Twin
Peaks. In other words, once you turned
into the strip mall, you had no choice
of where to go, and you were herded
into a specific portion of the Twin Peaks
parking lot.
Coincidentally, I am sure, that was the
same area the Department of Public
Safety had set up a pole camera earlier
that morning, to record events. Why?
What were they expecting? An outside
camera at a COC meeting would nor-
mally be useless because the meeting
goes on inside. What did DPS know that
we did not?
Even with many eye witnesses, and
several cameras, no one is sure exactly
what sparked it off. Pushing, shoving,
gun shots, in less than one minute,
it was over. Nine people lay dead or
12