The Biker Task Force meets again
By Bill Kelly
The Biker Task Force, code-named the Barbarian Task Force, met for the second time in Elwood Kirkman’s penthouse apartment atop the Flanders Hotel on the Ocean City Boardwalk. It included representatives from the Ocean City and Somers Point police; the Cape May County Prosecutor’s Office; the FBI Biker Gang Unit; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF); the New Jersey State Police Gang Unit and a colonel from the New Jersey National Guard.
The meeting was chaired by the FBI Biker Gang Unit representative who reported that since the riots in Watts the previous week, where more than 30 people were killed and the National Guard was called in to restore order, there has been a serious rise in the level of federal concern about the potential for the Ocean City situation to escalate into a similar incident, especially since the original confrontation was between some Hell’s Angels and a black police officer.
The Watts riots began when a white police officer pulled over and arrested a black man for drunk driving. Things got out of hand when the alleged violator’s mother appeared on the scene as her son was being handcuffed and placed in the back of the police cruiser. It degenerated into a riot that left 34 dead, thousands injured and caused widespread property damage.
The incident brought to the surface long-standing tensions over police brutality and racial injustice. Before the week was out, rioters were using rifles to shoot at firemen as attempts to reach a negotiated resolution between the mayor and black clergy failed. Eventually the Army was called in to put out the fires.
Since Ocean City Ptl. William Warren was black, and the Hell’s Angel whom he ticketed for speeding had threatened to return on a Labor Day run with the rest of the gang and ransack Ocean City, as they had done to other towns, this incident was being placed in the same federal category as the riots in Watts, Harlem and the South Side of Chicago.
As the FBI official explained, federal emergency public safety funds were being made available, and both Ocean City and Somers Point were being furnished with new paddy wagons, state-of-the-art mobile communication command centers, riot gear and special trainers to give instruction to the riot squads of both towns.
The FBI guy also announced that the President was taking special interest in this issue, was being briefed and may want to add his input before the meeting was over.
Ocean City Public Safety Commissioner D. Allen Stretch said the matter was under control, but new information was being developed daily and the chief of the OCPD Criminal Intelligence Division, which was monitoring the hippies and suspected drug dealings at Shriver’s Pavilion, had some things to report.
The officer from the ATF was given the floor. He said a new, young police officer from Somers Point was in training and would shortly be sent to Ohio to join the other undercover ATF agent who had infiltrated a one percenter biker club. He was the first to report on the threat from the Hell’s Angels to return on a Labor Day run with the rest of the gang.
His mission was to wait in Ohio for the Hell’s Angels to come through and try to join them as they headed for Ocean City, giving the ATF an inside perspective on what they were up against.
Then the representative from New Jersey Gov. Richard Hughes’ office reported that the New Jersey State Police were fully engaged in this effort, and would have many of their officers stationed nearby, their gang unit on the Ocean City Boardwalk and 300 State Police Academy cadets bused in to create a visible presence on the streets and Boardwalk. In addition, the New Jersey National Guard colonel said his men were being put on alert status. Two hundred were ready and 2,000 men on reserve at Fort Dix were on standby to be deployed within two hours’ notice.
The FBI guy was then called to a phone that was set up on a desk, and after listening intently for a few moments announced that “the President of the United States has something to say to us.”
Kirkman flicked a switch to activate the speakerphone which crackled. Sitting in his chair in the Situation Room in the White House basement, with his National Security Advisor McGeorge Bundy at his side, President Lyndon B. Johnson glanced at a telegram in one hand as he picked up a blue telephone with the other.
“Ah certainly do appreciate all the hard work you boys have been doing to stem the tide of this serious threat to our communities,” the President began. “But we must take this threat seriously and nip it in the bud so it doesn’t get out of control like the situation in California did last week. Now I’m depending on you guys to get to the bottom of this, and I have approved the governor’s request for assistance from the U.S. Army and New Jersey National Guard, if it is necessary. And if the Army can’t do it, then I’m going to draft them Angels and send them to Nam to kick those Congs in the arse.”
Johnson added a few choice expletives before stating:
“I believe this Ralph Barger, president of the Hell’s Angels, is the root of your problem and I just got a telegram from him that read:
“DEAR MR. PRESIDENT: ON BEHALF OF MYSELF AND MY ASSOCIATES, I VOLUNTEER A GROUP OF LOYAL AMERICANS FOR BEHIND-THE-LINES DUTY IN VIETNAM. STOP. PERIOD. WE FEEL THAT A CRACK GROUP OF TRAINED GUERRILLAS COULD DEMORALIZE THE VIET CONG AND ADVANCE THE CAUSE OF FREEDOM. STOP. PERIOD. WE ARE AVAILABLE FOR TRAINING AND DUTY IMMEDIATELY. STOP. PERIOD. SIGNED
SINCERELY, RALPH BARGER, OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA. PRESIDENT OF THE HELL’S ANGELS. STOP.”
“Now I want you boys to take care of this on your end, or we will send the Hell’s Angels to Vietnam if they want to fight.”
Then the line went dead as the President apparently hung up, and the FBI guy, shuffling around and a little embarrassed by LBJ’s remarks, said sheepishly that, “The President has been very upset by the situation and all of the publicity over the motorcycle gangs, and he’s focused on doing whatever it takes to make this problem go away.”
The FBI officer also noted that local one percenters, notably the Pagan Motorcycle Club, detested the Hell’s Angels and were preparing to fight them whenever they came into Pagan territory, so there might be a biker gang war in the works as well.
Ocean City Mayor Waldman spoke up for the first time, saying that he appreciates all the work the various agencies and departments were putting into this effort to protect his city, and thanked Mr. Kirkman, for hosting the meeting, and that a new operations base was being set up on the second floor of Shriver’s Candy Store on the Boardwalk at Ninth Street, where the observation post that kept track of the hippies and drug deals at Shriver’s Pavilion would be used as a command post for the Barbarian Task Force until the day after Labor Day.
In addition, the mayor noted that Prince Rainier III of Monaco would be visiting Ocean City with his wife, Princess Grace over the Labor Day weekend, and additional security would be needed for them.
The FBI guy then took a glass of wine from a tray held by Mr. Kirkman’s private waitress and valet in her black French maid uniform and he once again emphasized the need for complete secrecy and that there would be no press releases, leaks to the media or any discussion of their operations with anyone.
The Flanders Hotel waitress would, as she had done after the first meeting, tell her lifeguard boyfriend that “the Barbarians are coming,” and before the day was out, it was common knowledge in town that the Hell’s Angels and Barbarian Bikers were coming to Ocean City to ransack the town on a Labor Day run.
Next Up: The Noise Ordinance Kicks In.
To comment on this story or series: Billkelly3@gmail.com.
