I’ve been reading the reports from the court room on Kara Dansky’s website and while I understand these are just summaries from feminist citizens (in a similar vein to Tribunal Tweets) and not actual journalism I’m really quite amazed at how useless some of the ‘expert witnesses’ seem to have been re: Rivers’ tattoos and badges/patches worn by bikers.
Some observations:
The ‘Outlaw’ patch doesn’t necessarily imply criminality.
There are three types of stereotypical Easy Rider style biker clubs.
1.Clubs that are ‘chartered’ to
the American Motorcyclist Association and thus organised in line with the AMA’s ‘by-laws’.
2.Clubs that are NOT part of the AMA and are organised to their own rules (these are called ‘Outlaw’ clubs because they operate outside of the AMA ‘by-laws’, which aren’t actual law-laws).
3.1% Clubs. This is a reference to a supposed quote from some AMA President in the 1940s (the AMA deny it)
‘99% of motorcyclists are law abiding citizens’
so the 1% Clubs are the clubs outright claiming to be involved in criminal activity (although those might be rather dull forms of criminal activity, eg supplying unlicensed bouncers and a bit of tax evasion!)
Not all Outlaw clubs are 1% Clubs but all 1% Clubs are Outlaw clubs (because the AMA is only for naice bikers).
1% Clubs are very old fashioned and have all sorts of weird rules (IME they suit men who feel safest within an obvious hierarchy, eg the fatherless ‘Barnardos Boy’ from the 1960s/70s, or the armed forces veteran who struggles to adjust to civilian life).
There is no such thing as a female member of a 1% club. Women can be ‘supporters’ and WAGs but never full members with voting rights.
There are no all-woman 1% clubs.
There are ‘Outlaw’ (non AMA) Women’s Clubs (although most female biker orgs seem to be ‘Riding Clubs’ aka ‘RCs’ rather than ‘MCs’, aka ‘Motorcycle Clubs’)
The Outlaw club that Rivers joined ‘Deviants MC CA’ doesn’t seem to be much more than a handful of lady riders who liked riding hogs and collecting vest patches and larping as tough guys?
Looking at their Facebook page they didn’t really do much besides run a yearly charity fundraiser?
The tiny size of the club (and the ever-present Troon) would certainly explain why Charlotte had decided to quit the club before reaching full member status - her daughter, Rachel describes Charlotte as ‘wanting to find another club, one with more women to ride with’ (ie, one with enough bio women that the troon presence is watered down)
Rivers’ having two 1% tattoos, and a ‘DFFD’ tattoo and referring to Riverself as the Deviants’ ‘Enforcer’ is most likely Rivers bringing along male 1% MC language, customs and behaviour and attempting to paste it on top of an existing, tiny, tame female club.
The President, ‘Sandra’ who gave evidence likely just enjoyed the drama of biker slang text messages and threatening ‘bitches’ who want a less shit club to ride with but never dreamed Rivers would escalate THAT far.
Re River’s ‘DFFD’ tattoo, that initialism is associated with a different Californian, definitely 1%er MC, so either Rivers has been a member of a male MC in the past or Rivers has just appropriated another club’s phrase, due to the shared initial ‘D’ which would be a bit of a faux pas if Rivers were ever housed in the male prison estate.
1%ers aren’t shy about taking MC paraphernalia away from randomers who have not earned the ‘right’ (under those weird and endless rules) to possess it.
This even extends to forcibly removing/obliterating someone’s tattoos. Luckily for Rivers, he’s not locked in with prisoners of the sex who CAN be 1% club members.
It makes me wonder what he was doing under his previous identity and whether he’d ever tried to join a male MC? He does fit the ‘forces veteran seeking new brotherhood’ narrative and it seems a bit weird to develop an interest in the very macho world of 1% clubs only AFTER transitioning to ‘female’?
Almost makes Jane Fae’s performative knitting seem sane…
I can deffo picture a heterosexual late transitioning male taking a keen interest in the ‘Dykes on Bikes’ subculture, so perhaps he was just oblivious and assumed that Leather Lesbians and Hells Angels are all the same thing?
Only three in the picture are wearing Deviants’ ‘colours’ - the other standing woman and her beardy neighbour are wearing Hells Angel supporters merch (‘81’) and I can’t really see any of the dude’s patches but the ones red and white patches have side rockers that say ‘Faultline’ so that’s some sort of local CA reference. Neither their patches nor the kneeling guy’s have the correct colourways to be standard HA (but the HA have tons of little associated clubs so that doesn’t mean no HA connection at all.
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