Terry the Tramp by K. Randall Ball

Author:K. Randall Ball
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Motorbooks
Published: 2011-06-14T16:00:00+00:00

WHEN RICHARD NIXON RAN FOR PRESIDENT in 1968, he promised to restore American values. Like damned near every other asshole running for that office, he meant the opposite of what he said. What he really meant—and most people understood this and supported it—was that he was going to gut the hippy movement and destroy the filthy, subversive longhairs who were scaring the shit out of the general public. The Vietnam riots, helmet-law protests, and student uprisings motivated government response against what vice president Spiro Agnew labeled the “effete corps of impudent snobs.”

Though they shared little common ideology with the hippies, one-percenters were lumped into the same free-wheeling category as far as law enforcement was concerned, and bikers were a much juicier target.

The government’s philosophy and actions ran directly counter to real American values. The United States had been settled by immigrants seeking freedom, and its people value freedom as the most American of principles. What Nixon set out to do, and in many ways succeeded in doing, was destroying our freedom, with the help of his corrupt Attorney General John Mitchell, who served nineteen months in prison for engineering the infamous burglaries at the Watergate Hotel.

But before Nixon resigned in disgrace and Mitchell was sent to a federal pound-me-up-the-ass prison, the pair managed to unleash law-enforcement agencies across the country in a violent, knee-jerk reaction to the hippy movement. Part of this attack against the counterculture involved equipping law enforcement agencies with the latest and greatest weaponry and surveillance technology. Though they shared little common ideology with the hippies, one-percenters were lumped into the same free-wheeling category as far as law enforcement was concerned, and bikers were a much juicier target. Any competitive edge the one-percenters might have had in earlier years was nullified by the increased scrutiny from enhanced capabilities of law enforcement.

The brothers survived the 1960s and hung onto their freedom, but only by the most tenuous thread; growing government entities spent formidable budgets researching enforcement technology and devious ways to pass legislation to control more segments of the population in increasingly formidable ways.

The government’s philosophy and actions ran directly counter to real American values. The United States had been settled by immigrants seeking freedom, and its people value freedom as the most American of principles.

Protests across the country beat back the initial wave of helmet laws, but NHTSA and the unforgiving Department of Transportation (DOT) didn’t give up their control-freak, budget-expanding extortion tactics. They conjured up the Public Burden Theory and suddenly the black plague of helmet laws slit the throat of freedom once again. Without warning, anyone injured on a motorcycle was branded a tax burden to the public, at least according to the media and much to the chagrin of the freedom-loving motorcyclist population.

The federal government leaned on states to pass helmet laws by threatening to withhold highway funds. The nefarious tactic was successful and forced several states to enact more restrictive legislation.

“They started jacking us up and writing tickets for bullshit reasons, like leaving our keys in the ignitions,” Terry said.

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