bonar crump

bonar crump
husband - father - reader - runner - picker - grinner - lover - sinner

Tuesday, May 9, 2017

Waco Preamble

The backdrop against which the events of May 17, 2015, took place in the parking lot of Twin Peaks restaurant in Waco, TX, is important to the context of the events which led to 177 arrests that day. The history of Waco, the politics of Waco, and the moral compass of Waco all contributed to the arrests of dozens of innocent witnesses that day. But primarily it was the decisions of a handful of powerful individuals to circumnavigate the sacred Constitution of the United States of America to promote their own prejudice and self-interest that brought about death and injury. Before they knew what they had done, they’d arrested all those people with the realization that they’d have to figure out how to justify it all later. They would jail these “out-of-towners” for weeks, send them home with GPS ankle monitors, create bond restrictions that would limit their movements to the single county in which each person lived, and deny them any interaction with one another. These few individuals huddled behind closed doors and conspired to leverage any and all powers they had at their immediate disposal to humiliate, demonize, marginalize, and shame anyone that would consider themselves motorcyclists without regard for personal character, probable cause, or perpetuity of emotional, spiritual, and physical injury.

But there were more than 177 victims that day. All those that bore witness to the events and their families were traumatized to some extent. From the restaurant patrons who just happened to be visiting the restaurant that day for lunch to the servers and cooks working at Twin Peaks to the very residents of Waco, all lived through a sequence of traumatic events without warning. In the blink of an eye, the events that led to the death of 9 and injuries of dozens more thrust their way into our lives without foreshadowing or forewarning. Except for the small group of people who had knowledge of what “might take place” that day, the rest of us were thrust into an overwhelmingly traumatic situation akin to a plane crash or catastrophic natural phenomenon. Except for the small group that not only had been forewarned but also went so far as to prepare for these events, the rest of us are still picking up the pieces of our lives that were adversely affected that day. Except for the small group that knew when, where, and what would take place weeks in advance, the rest of us were the witless pawns to their game of “gotcha.”

It is this small group of authoritative individuals, both of law enforcement and of Motorcycle Club members, knowledgeable and complicit to the volatile powder keg of violence that happened that day that we must solicit our simple questions of “why?” Why was no one warned or turned away? Why was imminent violence allowed to ignite? Why weren’t employees of Twin Peaks warned? Why weren’t innocent bystanders warned or protected? Why were innocent law enforcement officers unnecessarily put in harm’s way that day? Why did Texas DPS agents set up pole cams and place undercover officers in a restaurant knowing exactly where the violence would take place and not give EVERYONE a warning of impending violence? Why was this allowed to happen? It was not a surprise bombing of a church. It was not a lone gunman walking into a school. It was not a surprise earthquake or tsunami. This was a series of probable events foreseen by a select few people in powerful positions that was allowed to play itself out because watching for what “could” happen outweighed the concerns for people’s safety and well-being.

Residents of Waco, motorcyclists visiting Waco, employees of Twin Peaks, and innocent law enforcement officers simply trying to do their jobs that day were all put in harm’s way in order to facilitate some form of “cock fight” among potentially warring factions that resulted in an ambush and subsequent cover-up which continues to this day nearly 2 years later. The shame does not belong on ALL of these motorcyclists involved that day. Regardless of being labeled “criminals,” “gang members,” “conspirators,” and malcontents, the vast majority of these men and women deserve to have their Constitutional rights restored and be compensated for their significant losses incurred at the hands of a small group of people who knew what would happen that day, where it would happen, and when it would happen. The shame rightfully belongs to this small group of instigators and their willing accomplices who, no doubt, conspired to illegally arrest without probable cause and label all of these folks as “gang members” without any prior knowledge of character, intent, or actionable causes.

We bikers teach our children the same lessons that the people of Waco value. We teach them to be honest, faithful, and conscientious citizens. We also teach them to stand up for what they believe in. We teach honor, loyalty, love, and grace. We expect much from our children and we expect those same virtues from one another in the motorcycle community whether someone is in an MC, a Riding Club, or rides with their friends without any affiliation or club sponsorship. In these ways, we that visited Waco that fateful day were not “outsiders.” We are fellow Texans and fellow United States citizens. Contrary to the words of Sergeant Swanton that day, we are, in fact, engineers, writers, adoptive parents, therapists, veterans, medical technicians, bankers, and pastors. We represent every walk of life and color of skin. We are you and you are us. Motorcycles and leather do not separate us. Those things only allow us to look different and express ourselves independent of societal prescriptions.

Hence, as equal representatives of an enormous cross-section of American society, we as motorcyclists are here to stand up not only for our rights but for the rights of us all. We will not idly stand by in horror and cower at the misuse of power, tyranny, and the corruption of prestige. We will stand firm. We will stand together. We will stand for our children and yours. We will stand without malice or anger. We will stand on the belief that “The truth is like a lion; you don’t have to defend it. Let it loose; it will defend itself,” – Augustine of Hippo.

“The tyranny of a prince in an oligarchy is not so dangerous to the public welfare as the apathy of a citizen in a democracy.”
- Charles de Montesquieu

“Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive.”
- C. S. Lewis

“It is more important that innocence be protected than it is that guilt be punished, for guilt and crimes are so frequent in this world that they cannot all be punished. But if innocence itself is brought to the bar and condemned, perhaps to die, then the citizen will say, 'whether I do good or whether I do evil is immaterial, for innocence itself is no protection,' and if such an idea as that were to take hold in the mind of the citizen that would be the end of security whatsoever.”
- John Adams

Sincerely,
Bonar Crump
President of Grim Guardian MC