Hells Angels have a rule

book - apparently.

There is a fascinating article about the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club in the paper this morning. What is so fascinating is that their "rule book" would suggest that they are not the criminals we view them as being. They have rules!

Really? One of those rules is "no heroin"...and I think that one is highly unlikely. They are not supposed to "fight dirty"...and I think that one is highly unlikely. They are not supposed to take another man's woman...also unlikely. 

In this state it is illegal for three or more members of "proscribed organisation" to be seen together in public. It is just one of the ways in which the government has legislated in order to make it much more difficult for a group like the Hells Angels to exist. In reality of course it sends them "underground" and makes them more attractive to a certain sort of person. It also means that the police deliberately target "known associates" at events like funerals. Perhaps they are concerned that these "bikies" will plan a robbery or an arson attack while they are there. I don't know.

I have met several members of a motorcycle gang. I am not sure which of the "bikie" gangs they belonged to but it would not have been the Hells Angels. These "bad boys" were rough, tough and had almost certainly had their run ins with the law. They had long hair, leathers and the obligatory tattoos. Their speech included a good many Anglo-Saxon words when they thought I was not listening.

There were three of them. They were "mates". This was 2002 and they wanted to go to Indonesia and "help" after the tsunami. One of them had got in touch with me through someone who knew someone who thought... you know the sort of thing. To say I was alarmed would be to put it mildly. Three "bikies" head to a part of the world which was a disaster zone? They would have no idea! I was quite convinced about that until I met them.  We met in the open. I was too wary to do otherwise.

I immediately guessed they had cleaned themselves up to meet me. Their t-shirts were clean, their jeans pressed and their boots polished. The one who was their spokesman put a list down on the table in the coffee shop we met in and said something like, "We don't know much but we figure we have to take all our own gear and food and the like."

That was a start. They apparently had thought about it. What were they going to do? One of them had been to the place once before. "There's a little bit of a hospital or was. We reckon we can do another one using the wrecked stuff and some more.  Reckon it will take a couple of weeks to put something basic up for them."

There was a lot more to it than that of course. All they wanted from me was a communication board so they could talk to the locals who did not have any English. They were making contacts, getting permits and they were determined to go.

They did go. When they arrived they were not made very welcome but a day or two of simply "getting on with it" and showing they did not need anything from the locals soon had people offering to help them. They built a tiny hospital while they were there in the way the local village people wanted and helped with a school building being used as a shelter before they had to return to their own jobs.

I did not hear from them of course. I did not expect to hear from them. It was someone else entirely who told me they had actually done something so valuable. 

Rough, tough, covered in tattoos and language to match... they looked and sounded like the last people to go and genuinely help but they did. They repeated the exercise some years later in another area. I knew about that only because there was another request for help in communicating with the local people. 

I wonder what the police make of those three. I haven't heard from them again but it would be interesting to know.