A Cultural Misunderstanding

If you remember "Sose the Ghost," the outlaw biker who was talking about maybe supporting police against BLM/Antifa rioters, he's got a series going on now where he's trying to help newcomers to biker culture understand what patches not to sew on themselves if they want to avoid trouble. Mostly I think he's entirely well-meaning, and has good advice. 

One patch that he's particularly concerned about is the diamond-shaped 1% patch. This patch is worn by several outlaw clubs, and they feel a certain degree of ownership about it. He regularly cautions in the series against wearing anything that might be mistaken for this diamond 1% patch:  any sort of diamond patch, especially with a number on it, because it could be misunderstood. Outlaw clubs who see you wearing such things might make you take them off, and fight you if you won't. It's probably very helpful advice, telling people things to avoid so they don't get into trouble.

So about 5m and 20 seconds into that video, someone asks him about this patch:


He says, "This is a military patch that he got while out serving. My thing with this is, yes, military, nothing but respect. But I know that from brothers, in areas, that this won't fly. Just because you were in the military, they're not going to respect you walking around with a diamond patch... some states might have some military, and they know and they respect it, they're old timers or whatever, but there are some places where..."

I guess he's a New York guy, so maybe he's never seen that patch before. I've never heard of anyone having trouble for wearing it, probably because the guys out West know to respect the heraldry of the 1st Marine Division. 
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2 comments:

  1. Mike Guenther4:37 PM

    Yeah, in my experience, you don't want to mess with bikers. I had a friend who was/is in the Outcast MC, not to be confused with the Outcasts MC from Texas. (Outcast MC is a black club originating in Detroit.)

    I met him at a bar in South Florida. He came up beside me as I was standing waiting for a beer. I nodded howdy. He stuck out his hand and introduced himself to me...(Name), they call me (Nickname), one percenter.


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  2. Grim10:53 PM

    My experience has so far been that the 1%ers really do respect military/veteran bikers, who are doing something a little different and not competing with them anyway. Veteran clubs usually have no trouble at all.

    Now when I was a boy, as I'm sure I've told you, one time our Boy Scout troop made a winter encampment on a lake where the Outlaws MC and a group of Vietnam Veterans got into a gunfight involving many beers and automatic weapons. But that was many years ago, when the Vietnam crew was a lot younger than they are today.

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