Massive Hells Angel Funeral Addressed by... Tucker Carlson

D29 wrote to ask if I'd known about this. I knew about Sonny Barger's death, which was memorialized here, and about the massive funeral being planned for it. I did not know, and would not have imagined, that Tucker Carlson would be invited (or even allowed) to speak there. Maybe they didn't know who he was. 

I'm amused that he thought he needed to explain to bikers that Maine was "at the other end of the country," as if they didn't know the physical layout of America better than anyone except perhaps truckers. 

UPDATE: There is surprisingly minimal coverage of this event, because the press generally wasn't welcome. Video of the event was controlled by the biker community, available online on a pay-per-view basis; I haven't seen any pirated clips floating around, which is indicative of how self-supporting the community is. Nobody seems to be giving interviews.

Here's a local TV station who found a vendor from inside the event who was willing to talk to them; and the police, who of course spent "millions of dollars" on whatever it was they did to 'secure' a perfectly peaceful memorial gathering.

  

2 comments:

Joel Leggett said...

I have no doubt they knew who Tucker Carlson is. If you have ever met a member of that organization, it would not be surprising they would invite a conservative commentator to speak at such an event. Interestingly, in the 1983 documentary, Hells Angels Forever, the club's lawyer said they would represent a very conservative wing of the Republican party.

Grim said...

I have seen that documentary, which is pretty good as documentary films go. The line you are quoting was from their defense attorneys, as I recall; they said that they thought they were best fit into the Goldwater part of the Republican Party.

Perhaps they watch the news for entertainment, like a lot of people do. They did seem to make an effort to keep journalists at arms' length for this event, though. It seemed strange to see this one given a spot to speak, although the video didn't look like it was on the main stage.