Ex-Hells Angel Convicted Of Criminal Harassment For Threatening Judge
Ninth Commandment
FROM CANADIAN PRESS
TROIS-RIVIERES, Que. — A former Hells Angels member who played trumpet
with the Quebec City Orchestra was found guilty today of uttering
death threats against a judge.
Claude Berger, 54, was also found guilty of criminal harassment
against Quebec court Judge Jean-Pierre Dumais, who sits in Quebec
City.
The incident dates to May 2002 when Berger saw Dumais at a hardware
store and threatened him. Court was also told Berger had asked a store
employee for the home address of the judge, who was having supplies
delivered to his home.
When the judge's house and his wife's car were vandalized several
weeks later, Dumais filed a complaint against Berger.
Berger had asked for his trial to be moved from Quebec City to
Trois-Rivieres to ensure fairness.
The judge also ruled Berger had breached the terms of his probation.
Berger played third trumpet for the orchestra until the position was
cut in 1997. He was also a member of the Hells Angels in the
Sherbrooke area in the 1990s.
He will be sentenced Nov. 12.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Claude "Burger" Berger
Hells Angels Sherbrooke Chapter
Claude Berger was born on May 8, 1949 and grew up in Sherbrooke.
He began to associate with bikers as a teenager and, as he became
older, he earned the respect of the city's criminal element. He was
soon a full-patch member of the Gitans biker gang and in 1984, when
the club was absorbed by the Hells Angels, Berger became a member of
the notorious motorcycle gang.
Besides being a hardcore biker, Berger has another passion:
music. He held the position of third trumpet with the Quebec
Symphony Orchestra for more than 10 years before he was replaced in
April, 1998.
He is also a part of the Rock BB Blues, a popular Sherbrooke band,
and taught music on a part time basis at the local college for over 20
years.
Police raided a bar owned by Berger and Hells Angel Gilles Dumas
in 1995 and seized illegal video pocker machines, cocaine and
marijuana, and a shotgun. For people were arrested in the bust but no
charges were laid against the two owners. Surprisingly, and to
public outrage, Berger and Dumas would receive a $71,000 municipal
grant for renovations on the bar two years later.
Berger was charged with illegal possession of a firearm on
April 222, 1997, after police raided a bar. Officers saw him fleeing
the bar and trying to hide a gun. He was arrested and released
on $5,000 bail. He was acquitted but prosecutors contested the
decision and a new trial was set.
Police arrested Berger at his house next door to the
Hells Angels' Lennoxville clubhouse on November 5, 1998, and
charged him with producing and conspiring to produce marijuana and
of nine counts of living off the profits of crime. 21 others,
including Gilles Dumas and Marc Bordage, members of the Hells Angels
Quebec chapter, were also picked up and charged with crimes ranging
from drug trafficking to attempted murder. Berger was released two
weeks later, after he posted bail.
Police seized more than $3 million in drugs, $45 million in
counterfeit American currency, six guns, two stolen vehicles, and a
seaplane believed to have been used to transport drugs.
Berger's problems with the law continued. A motorist
unknowingly parked his car in Berger's space in front of the Hells
clubhouse on September 18, 2001. When the civilian returned to his
car, he was confronted by a man, who told him he was not allowed to
park there. The motorist was then escorted into the clubhouse where,
he claimed, Berger complained he had gotten a parking ticket
because the man had taken his spot. Berger and three other bikers then
allegedly surrounded the man and forced him to sign a $50 cheque, to
cover the cost of the ticket. The victim's son quickly alerted police,
who arrested Berger. He appeared before a judge the next day and
was released on $1,000 bail.
Reports in early 2002 claimed that Berger and three other
Hells Angels retired in good standing from the Sherbrooke chapter.
But Berger, who commands a lot of respect within the organization,
was since seen wearing his Hells Angels colours and is most likely
still active within the club.
Bill Smith
gangsters rape our children.
NO we've had enough of this.
These biker organized gangsters need to be brought down.
We will fight them in the streets,
Should you have an issue against these scum, Post, we'll form a
vigilante squad.
Enough is enough.
Sir Scruffy
thesis of the books is that moral panics usually include what Cohen called the
deviancy amplification spiral.
The spiral starts with some "deviant act". Usually the deviance is criminal but
it can also involve legal acts considered (rightly or wrongly) morally
repugnant.
The mass media report what is newsworthy. Bad or frightening situations are
reported. What is not frightening and would help the public keep a rational
perspective tends to be ignored.
Minor problems are made to look serious. Rare events are described as if they
were the norm. Gullible and frightened members of the public buy newspapers;
they listen to radio or television programmes and believe what they are told.
This is profitable for those who run the media. Irresponsible publicity can
increase deviant behaviour.
In the next stage, typically public concern about crime forces the police and
the whole law enforcement system to focus more resources on dealing with the
specific deviancy than would otherwise be necessary. Police under public
pressure make more arrests. Judges and magistrates under public pressure pass
stiffer sentences. All this tends to convince the public that any fear was
justified while the media continue to profit by reporting police and other law
enforcement activity.
Moral panics do not always include the deviancy amplification spiral. The
witchhunts that occurred in medival times did not have significant media
involvement. In modern times media involvement is usual in any moral panic.
In article <u41pn0594hphdvepm...@4ax.com>,
world28...@hotmail.com says...