Oklahoma Biker - The Riders Ragazine Vol 14 Issue 3 | Page 12

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