Since 1968, 77 East Third Street in Manhattan's East Village housed the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club's New York City clubhouse (and apartments for some of its members). But the building was recently sold and the Angels have purchased new digs, a former church on Long Island. The New Yorker's Sarah Larson stopped by on moving day:

“The parties used to be great,” (neighbor) Nancy said. “Until the explosion.” In 1990, a garbage-can firecracker killed a fourteen-year-old boy. Over the years, the East Village Angels both caused and prevented mayhem. In 1994, the Times characterized this mayhem, part “lore and part police reports,” as “countless decibel-cranking parties, LSD-laced misadventures, drug deals, orgies and random acts of violence against passers-by.” In recent years, parking-space tussles resulted in beatings and a shooting; a woman who pounded on the door, screaming, was badly beaten. In 1978, the chapter president, Vincent (Big Vinny) Girolamo, of plaque fame, allegedly pushed his girlfriend off the roof, to her death. (He died, of stab wounds, before he could stand trial.) Innumerable bad vibes were doled out after unwanted bench-sitting, dog-peeing, and photography incidents. But, from the scuzz era to the N.Y.U.-and-condos era, club members also defended their neighbors; the Angels’ block was considered the safest around.

“I haven’t heard anybody say ‘Good riddance,’” (neighbor) Janet said.

"Moving Day at the Hells Angels Clubhouse" (New Yorker)

image: Beyond My Ken/CC BY-SA 4.0

Delicious piece by @asarahlarson on the departure of the Hells Angels from my block https://t.co/oCuYPAMyHf

— MarjorieIngall (@MarjorieIngall) April 8, 2019

It's not a great idea to wear borrowed/inherited/ebayed biker vests. But it seems an even worse idea to film yourself threatening a kid in public for wearing a pleather Sons of Anarchy merch top from Hot Topic. [via Reddit]

UPDATE: The video was taken down, but someone mirrored it. Read the rest

It's like something out of Mad Max: a Russian biker gang-cum-militia wearing wolfy helmets, operating in the ruins of Eastern Ukraine. They are "fiercely loyal" to Vladimir Putin and to Christ, but not to families they left behind. Read the rest

Police in Waco, Texas, have released video of the biker shootout that left 9 dead, 18 injured, and reportedly involved 5 different gangs.

CNN acquired the video, captured on security cameras at the Twin Peaks bar where turf tensions erupted in violence, after a freedom of information act request.

177 were arrested in the aftermath, and the mens' lawyers say the video proved that the crackdown was excessive, as most were clearly trying to escape rather than participate. More than 1000 weapons were found in the roundup, however, which police say belies the claims of a peaceful gathering gone awry.

The principal rivalry in the region is between The Cossacks and The Banditos, reports CBS.

Though the Cossacks have been in Texas since 1969, they didn't claim Texas as their territory on the patch known as a "bottom rocker" until last year, according to Peter Edwards, a Toronto star reporter and author of "The Bandido Massacre: A Story of Bikers, Brotherhood and Betrayal," a book about the 2006 slaying of eight Canadian members of the Bandidos.

"For them [Cossacks] to do something like this, to know how much it would enrage the Bandidos, it's really provocative," said Edwards, who has researched and written extensively on the Bandidos and biker culture. "They'd have to know they'd get a strong response."

The patch is the bottom of three worn on the backs of those in motorcycle clubs, and it's taken very seriously in biker culture, according to Edwards. Stronger motorcycle clubs sometimes threaten to take the "bottom rocker" patch off the backs of weaker clubs as a sign of humiliation.

Thanks to the #BlackLivesMatter movement, there has been a lot of discussion recently about racial bias in the media Read the rest