Washington - This is from Maks Goldenshteyn who is covering this issue for The Olympian and News Tribune:
Rep. Steve Kirby's latest attempt to curb the alleged profiling of motorcyclists by law enforcement officers gained a little more traction Tuesday after his bill was passed out of committee on a 7-to-1 vote.
HB 2511 would force local law enforcement agencies to adopt a written policy designed to condemn and prevent the profiling of motorcyclists, who have testified that police target them out of the mistaken assumption they belong to biker gangs. The language used in HB 2511 is borrowed from a bill passed in 2002 that dealt with racial profiling, and it would institute training to address the problem.
"If we have to make it a legislative matter to make it stop, so be it," said Kirby, a Tacoma Democrat. "We shouldn't have had to pass a racial profiling bill, but we did because it was the right thing to do. And this is the right thing to do."
Kirby said he hoped his previous two bills on motorcyclist profiling would solve the problem by at least bringing attention to it. But motorcyclist advocates say police still target them for stops and enforcement.
Officials from the Washington State Patrol and the Washington Association of Sheriffs & Police Chiefs deny the claims.
David Devereaux of the Washington Confederation of Clubs said before the House Committee on Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness that almost every member of every club, and even motorcyclists who aren't in clubs, has been profiled.
Motorcyclists present at Tuesday's hearing point to a specific incident involving the Washington State Patrol in January of 2009 as one of many incidents that prove they're being profiled. At Black Thursday, an annual legislative lobbying day for motorcyclists, riders went inside the Capitol to try to find sponsorship for a bill that would stop motorcycle profiling. Outside, the Washington State Patrol arrived and began taking down their license plate numbers.
Video footage taken of the officers shows some crawling through bushes to get the information. Committee Chairman Christopher Hurst, D-Enumclaw, said he never profiled anyone in his 25 years in law enforcement, but acknowledged that "what you're talking about has happened."
Rep. Brad Klippert, R-Kennewick, a Benton County Sheriff's deputy, said he doesn't profile motorcyclists either. He voted against moving the bill forward because he wants to see it tweaked.
Donnie Landsman, who's in charge of legislative efforts for the Washington chapter of ABATE, said he was profiled in the halls of the John L. O'Brien Building before Tuesday morning's hearing.
"Oh there's a motorcycle gang. I wonder what they're here for?" he heard someone say after he and a group of other motorcyclists arrived early to find out what room the hearing was going to be in.
Source: theolympian.com
California considers requiring motorcycle smog checks
Cars do it. Trucks do it. And now the state of California may require motorcycles to do it, too.
Biennial smog checks would be required for motorcycles manufactured in the 2000 model year and later under a bill making its way through the California Legislature.
Introduced in the Senate in late February, SB 435 targets bikes with illegally modified exhaust systems and would go into effect in 2012 if passed and signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, an avid motorcyclist.
The measure has won support from health and environmental groups that say the move is critical to reducing the state's smog pollution but has angered motorcycle-rights groups, dealers and manufacturers, which say it's bad for business and an infringement of riders' freedoms.
Motorcycles account for 3.6% of registered vehicles in the state and make up just 0.8% of vehicle-miles traveled, yet account for 10% of passenger vehicles' smog-forming emissions, according to the California Air Resources Board, which backs the measure. Although fuel-efficient bikes emit significantly less carbon dioxide per mile, the ARB says they are, on average, 14 times more polluting per mile when it comes to emissions of oxides of nitrogen and hydrocarbons -- smog-forming pollutants that have been shown to trigger asthma attacks and worsen respiratory and cardiac illnesses.
The ARB estimates that 5.2 tons of pollutants would be prevented from entering the atmosphere daily if motorcycle smog checks become law.
"Five tons of smog out of 5,691 tons emitted daily from all statewide sources is so minuscule," said John Paliwoda, executive director of the California Motorcycle Dealers Assn. in Lake Elsinore. "Our feeling is that fewer people will want to buy motorcycles if they'd have to go through a smog check where no smog check is required right now."
Already, the industry is aching from the freezing of consumer credit and plummeting personal wealth, which have led to a 30.5% decline in new sales for the first quarter of 2009 over the same period last year, according to the Motorcycle Industry Council.
But the ARB says every emission source is fair game in its effort to corral pollutants linked to health problems and climate change.
"It's so difficult to find new sources of emissions reductions, particularly for L.A.," said Tom Cackette, the ARB's deputy director. "Some people think motorcycles look small, and percentage-wise they are tiny, but so is everything else that's available for emissions reductions."
Charity Event
The Green Machine Motorcycle Club organized their first 2009 Summer Charity Events, the portion of the proceeds to benefit Veronica’s Home of Mercy in San Bernardino.
The Veronica’s Home of Mercy is committed to provide a home for adult pregnant women and their children as an alternative to substance abuse, abortion, domestic violence and/or homelessness. With 40 beds available, it affords the mothers and children a family living atmosphere to nurture, support and foster each woman into the fullness of her creation, skills and talents, and to restore the dignity that is proper to her as woman. It provides a family living atmosphere that promotes growth and wholeness in each individual woman and child. Veronica’s Home of Mercy is a life changing experience that brings hope, love and care to the women and children, who have been hurt, rejected or mistreated in life. These goals are achieved by supporting the physical, emotional, spiritual, and educational needs, as well as the growth of each woman and child.
Veronica’s Home of Mercy pursues excellence and success in promoting the wellness of each woman and child. So it is necessary to assure each woman a future of hope.
SAN BERNARDINO - The loud roar on Sixth Street on Sunday morning was not Santa Claus and his reindeer pulling into downtown San Bernardino.
Instead, about 200 men and women on rumbling motorcyles filled that role by bringing a haul of toys and food to scores of local underprivileged children and families.
Four chapters of the Vagos motorcycle club, joined by several other motorcycle and car clubs, brought Christmas gifts and cheer to the Salvation Army on Fifth Street, between H and G streets.
"This is a blessing," said a joyous Roosevelt Carroll, director of Hospitality House shelter, operated by Salvation Army. "It's a step toward Christmas."
The shelter houses 23 children, 18 women and 28 men, Carroll explained. A weak economy means even tougher times for local families who are already struggling to make ends meet.
More than 100 children appeared Sunday for a meal and toys at the shelter, Carroll estimated.
Outside the shelter a long line of kids, some in strollers and some still in their mothers' arms, waited to get a number that gives them a meal and one of the toys they could see through the shelter's window.
Every December for many years, individual chapters of motorcycle and car clubs have given from their own pockets and banded together for various toy runs, their members said.
Some of the clubs' own members are living hand-to-mouth and have been affected negatively by the economy, they said.
"But they come out to give what they can to those who are even more needy than they are," said a Vagos member. The clubs hope others will follow their example of goodwill.
The toy and food run was sponsored by the following Vagos chapters: South Side, San Gorgonio, Berdoo and Devil's Canyon.
The organizers collected 289 toys and served 329 people.
"We wanted to give back to the community," said Victor Flores, president of Viejitos club, who was invited to participate. Viejitos had its 13th annual toy drive in Fontana last week, he said.
Some of the other motorcycle and car clubs who helped out include: Bikers for Christ, Forgotten Few, Freedom Warriors, Green Machine, Out Of Control and Soldiers for Christ.
Groupe Inland Empire, a car club, also supported the Vagos in making a better holiday for the area's needy.
"It's all for the kids," said Dominic Acosta, sergeant at arms of Groupe Inland Empire.
"We take our weekends and try to do something positive with it," said a man who identified himself as "D-Day" from Green Machine, San Bernardino Chapter. Seeing the kids with smiles is what the toy run is about, he said.
"It takes their mind off of what they're going through."
