Are Biker Gangs Fighting a Turf War Over Key West? [video]

Posted on by Arnaud and Naja Girard

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11 thoughts on “Are Biker Gangs Fighting a Turf War Over Key West? [video]”

  1. Say what?!
    Three people get beat-up in a normally peaceful bar by bad-ass bikers wearing colors. Presumably SOMEBODY called 911. Unless they were all tourists raiding the bar or till.
    One police officer shows up AFTER the fighting, does not get any backup on the scene, leaves the several assailants unattended with the command “Stay!”, turns his back and walks into the bar while they all run off. Brilliant police work. He’s lucky to be alive. Was his body camera on, recording the assailants’ faces close up?

    No charges.
    Did they ride in on bikes?
    Do you suppose they would come back for them?
    Do you suppose the tags of bikes in the vicinity would have given a list of suspects and drivers licenses to match with surveillance recordings? (or the body camera)
    How many roads out of Key West? Could facial recognition software identify the assailants by matching the DMV photos of bike tag registrants leaving town? (Seems like a simple database programming task, and we spent how much on spy cameras on US1?)

    Wasn’t it nine police cars arrived on the scene when KWPD murdered defenseless, peaceful Charles Eimers? But much less chance of getting punched in the kisser or knifed by a lone hog-tied senior with health issues, right? Therefore, safe to attend.

    Assuming the KWPD intent to maintain the peace and lawfulness (and giving a damn), this may take more than additional training to improve.

  2. “Do what you want!…ask for forgiveness when caught”????

    Key West & County, your going to have to grow-up.

    Your children/grand-children, are at risk, forget about your stupid Keys ways while the real mob takes over lock, stock and barrel….I have lived in the no rules environment and the keys police do not have a chance, when their hands are always tied behind their back…sooner or later you will untie them or the police will leave to just stay alive.

    The TDC get half of the city budget of $80 million are we really getting our money worth or is just another RED Neck City doing Its thing?

    I liked the electronic sign coming in, said we like bickers and their mufflers…now who dreamt that one up?

    This fight on Green is or going to be another cover up – if it was not for the Blue Paper.
    Why not drunk and disordered – Don’t piss off the Outlaws or TDC, it’s their turf.

    Just like the 25 ticketed plus speeder that dumped his lady rider and worry about his bic…now that is your real Key Wester.
    All you, Mayors and Commissioners you make us so proud for the love of the Holy Dollar.

  3. Only one KWPD officer responded?

    How many KWPD officers arrived at the apprehension, mauling and murdering of unarmed, surrendered, Charles Eimers?

    Ten days ago, 5 KWPD officers in 4 police cruisers apprehended my homeless girlfriend for sitting on a curb under shade trees behind the Overseas Market Shopping Center, and charged her with state criminal trespass after warning. She’s on probation. If convicted, her probation is violated, she goes to prison. She was sitting here waiting on the post office in the shopping center to put up the daily mail. She had a post office box in the post office. She was looking for a letter from her mother in Missouri.

    All that aside, I personally detest bike week, because of the super loud motor cycles and their super loud sound systems, both of which the bikers appear to thoroughly enjoy using to crash the sound barrier and the city sound ordinance all over Key West,and not just on and near Duval Street. I told my homeless girlfriend it’s just little boys jacking off, all that noise they make. Wouldn’t bother me if Bike Week is canceled.

    After seeing what the blue paper video of what happened during this recent Bike Week, maybe the only sane thing to do is to cancel Bike Week. How else does the city keep the gangs from coming down here during next year’s Bike Week? How does the city keep the gangs behaving, when the city and its police force apparently had no cops massed to deal with what they had been alerted ahead of time was headed to Key West?

    Sloan Bashinsky, your write-in mayor candidate, Nov. 8 ballot

  4. donie lee and his jackboots displayed their true colors once again. against women and old men, their fearlessness and bravery know no bounds… against guys that can, and will, fight back, these pansies hike up their too toos and slink back into their holes to cower and shake in abject fear.

    hey lovette, why didn’t you drop like an f..ing bomb on one of their heads?

    tough guy indeed.

  5. This does cause concern about safety. Up till now we always felt reasonably safe when in Key West. Would like an explanation from Lee for the lack of enough cops to handle a situation in the most active location in the city. Really , just tell them STAY like you would a dog. The first cop should have requested back up before getting out of cruiser.
    Somehow this looks like a cover up of something. Lets hear about how many 911 calls they received. You never send just 1 cop into a biker type fight alone. That was one brave cop to even try this alone.

    Yes, look at how many cops for Eimers and he followed orders to lay down.

    If not able to handle bikers then do not have the event. Is that bar safe ? Think we will stay away.

    With Fantasy Fest only 4 weeks away do hope we can count on KWPD to keep things safe and under control.

    Can only assume this was a group of very drunk and drugged bikers. There is more about this than we are being told.

    1. There is no reason to assume the bar Rumor Lounge is unsafe. This occurred during an event when thousands of visitors were in town. Rumor is not a rough bar by any means. They were very unlucky as they happened to be chosen as the venue by the visiting Outlaws. It could have just as easily been another bar…

  6. Doesn’t look to me where it happened is an issue, per se. That it happened is a very big issue. That KWPD knew a biker gang, or gangs, were coming here and no apparent preparation was made, no apparent alert was given, is bizarre, unless it was decided by KWPD, or by someone or someones in City Hall, that best to lay low, not sound an alert, not make a show of force, because that would be terrible for the local tourist trade for it to be known Key West was now a bad biker gang, or gangs, turf. And, yeah, real live bad folks, that is quite different from what KWPD is accustomed to dealing with. I doubt it’s legal, but why come KWPD didn’t suit up, locate the biker gang members, don’t their tattoos give them away?, and march them out of town and up US 1 with instructions to not come back, if they wanted to stay among the living? A bit wild west brand of protect and serve, but this is the wild west anyway, Key West, but only this past weekend was Key West ever really threatended by terrorists, which is what this gang is, based on what I’ve heard and how the blue paper video shows it. Home grown American citizen terrorists. Where’s the FBI? Homeland Security? The NSA? How about the US Navy. I bet they could have made a last impression on the biker gang. Meanwhile, we get to live to next year, wondering if it will happen again? Wondering if it will be handled any different from how it was handled this year? Maybe the mayor and city commissioners should put it out to referendum: How the voters of Key West want KWPD to deal with biker gangs during next year’s Poker Run? Or whether even to have a Poker Run next year? That’s sarcasm: putting it out to referendum. The City Commission is prone to put anything out to referendum it doesn’t want to deal with head on. KWPD’s mighty SWAT team should have been all over that gang.

  7. Now as for Fantasy Fest, Biker Week is a drop in the ocean, a flea on an elephant, when you are counting people on lower Duval Street. I can’t imagine anyway, even if the entire KWPD was on duty, stretched up and down lower Duval Street, from Truman Avenue to Front Street, that there would be any way to prevent a copycat of the Orlando gay night club massacre from happening. Anyone wearing, say, a toga, or a cape, I’ve seen people wearing togas and capes during Fantasy Fest, could wander to Duval Street carrying an AK 47 and plenty of extra magazines under a toga or cape; walk to the 801 Club, or Aqua, and start shooting and reloading and shooting and reloading and shooting, while any nearby KWPD officersare trying to figure out where the shooting in the mass of humanity is coming from, and once that is determined, how to deal with it with all the innocent bystanders all around the shooter. Fantasy Fest started out as a gay-promoted event. It still is viewed that way by most people. It has a national, even an international, reputation as a gay event. There are plenty more nut cases out there like the Orlando shooter, who hate gays. Quite a few people living in Key West hate gays. They tend to attend local Christian churches. They are not Muslims, which the Orlando shooter was said to be. There are plenty of Christians living in Florida who think gays should be exterminated. It’s God’s will. Fantasy Fest really pisses off a lot of people in Key West. It’s a giant target waiting for a radical shooter or two or three or more. And I see no way for KWPD to prevent it from happening. The mayor and city commissioners could prevent it from happening by cancelling Fantasy Fest. And by cancelling Bike Week. Not something I would hold my breath waiting for that to happen, though.

  8. Perhaps the problem is because handling 1 or 2 people out of control can easily be under control with 6 KWPD officers. How could any police department deal with such a gang ? As to my remark on Rumors , it is simply aimed at the bouncers it hires perhaps not tough enough. Bouncers usually are big , strong men that most would not take on. Did they wait too long to call 911 ? Yes agree could been any bar. As to the location my point is that the bars in the 100 and 200 block of Duval usually is the major area and very busy. At dam near 4 AM on a normal week nothing likely will get out of control other than the overly drunk party people. So with being warned of such gangs for Poker Run why was there not at the least 6 cops at that end of town ?

    Yes Fantasy Fest is a much larger crowd but no gangs. As to it being a gay event we never got that opinion. Sure plenty of guys in a TU TU but that is not gay. Cross dressers are often straight. We go to KW about 6 times a year and always felt safe in the Duval st area and for that reason we go so often. They seem to run FF with no major issues and the cops only seem to just keep it under control. If anything they look the other way to minor issues or just warn the people. We only had 1 problem in the many years of attending FF. We forgot and walked out of a bar with glass bottle. The cop handled it polite and we handed the bottles over to him an said sorry we forgot. So perhaps we have a false sense of security. Would see no reason to kill a major money maker like FF. Now as to biker events, most bikers are not like the Outlaws so maybe the need is to focus on gangs and not all bikers. Legally I am not sure how it can be handled. Can they ban gangs ?

    Still at question is why any one cop would even attempted to enter such a situation. At that point it was in best interest to protect and help the staff and customers. So yes that cop handled it as best as he could other than getting back up first.

    Can KW risk a future poker run ? Should it be cancelled ?

  9. If not for the Blue Paper many things in KW would never be known about. They do not want tourist to get scared off so they keep it as hush as they can. As to the gays they do not bother us one bit. Why hate anyone because of sexual choice ? They seem to know who is or is not gay. Now yes if a man goes into a gay men’s bar then don’t get upset if a guy asks you to dance. Even had that happen once at Cowboy Bills LOL. Does not need to be a problem, a simple NO should always work. If you live in KW and hate gays then one must ask why you live in KW. Yes it has a high percentage of gays but they seam to leave straights alone. What happened to the one huge human family attitude ?

    Yes , think maybe the mayor, commissioners , and Lee need have a meeting before it happens again. Do not know a lot about the Outlaws but do hope they are not stupid enough to assault an officer. That could and should earn them prison time. How do other cities handle them ? If indeed they are terrorists then let the big boys of homeland security shut them down.

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