Happy New Year + Book Review

[Tristan Orford]

Hey all, hope you had a great celebration and best wishes for 2013.

Wanted to pass along a recommendation for a book I received for Xmas and just finished.  Title is "No Angel" and it's a memoir of an undercover ATF agent who infiltrated the Hells Angels in Arizona in 2002-3.  In addition to good storytelling, it also provides a glimpse into a uniquely American sub-culture: outlaw motorcycle clubs (MCs).  

For any "Sons of Anarchy" aficionados out there, much may be old hat, but there's some detail that even that longer treatment doesn't cover.  I'll lay out the most immediately applicable tidbit, for further reading the Wikipedia page makes for a good start.  There's actually a pretty regimented system for how to identify an outlaw MC rider (sort of like ID'ing a dangerous snake, a good skill).  It's also notable (the book brings up this point) that a group of people who pride themselves for not conforming to society's expectations are such conformists to their own system of rules.  Outlaw MCs use denim or leather vests with 3 patches on the back to distinguish themselves from enthusiast riders.  The top patch has the name of the club, the middle will be a logo of some sort, the bottom is the local branch of the club the rider is affiliated with.  Only groups proclaiming to be "outlaw" or "1%ers" will use the MC nomenclature or 3-patch system, so if you see these guys, probably best to steer clear.

One other bit of curio is that the outlaw MC movement is now very much international.  Ralph "Sonny" Barger who figures in the book is regarded as being one of the most visionary leaders in the HA and the outlaw MC community generally for realizing how far the movement would spread and codifying rules to hold the community together.  Ironically, it results in a bunch of hardened ex-con Americans whose alleged purpose in joining an MC is to be able to do as they please being beholden to their European brethren to sign off on details like inducting new members.

[Adam Altman]

reminds me of reading about the somali pirates and how they actually have something like a corporate hierarchy, with middle managers and bureaucratic red tape preventing un-approved sieges.