Any marine who acted like the guy who took this video would most definitely be an asshole.
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A black vest with a patch doesn’t equal a biker gang. Like I said actual biker gangs are probably outnumbered 10 or 20 to 1 to people who are just in clubs. So how is a black leather vest exactly wearing the clothing of a biker gang? I concede the point if the patch was an actual gang like Hell Angels.
Most military guys don’t care if you wear BDUs or Camo. A unit patch probably wouldn’t matter. I used to wear a coat covered in Air Force patches, including private stripes from my great uncle. Anyone who would threaten violence over that is an asshole. (Fun fact - I lived near an army base, and a lot of people in the military are assholes - just like any place that is full of 18 to early 20 something year olds.)
The only place they might have a reason to get up set and call someone out is them wearing medals or ribbons they didn’t earn, i.e. campaign ribbons, bronze stars, a SEAL emblem, etc. Even then violence isn’t condoned.
With your logic I should never wear a bandana, plaid shirt, have my underwear showing, wear a hoodie, wear "urban’ apparel, a ICP shirt, or any thing other than a business suit lest I be mistaken as a criminal and get beat down by a rival gang.
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Or getting a beat down because my tattoo of a unicorn is just like a gang tattoo.
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i’ve walked into a couple biker bars wearing a wedding dress, and that takes some serious nerve, lemme tell you. they really don’t take kindly to dudes in wedding dresses – until 20 or so of your friends, ALSO in wedding dresses, walk in behind you and you all start buying everyone drinks. then everyone mellows out and the discussions can start.
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If you’re in an area with a lot of gang activity, you know it, and then you dress like that, well, I’d say you were making poor life choices or, you know, you’re just a member of the neighborhood. You’re also describing standard urban wear in places.
Bikers have been telling people for more than five years (I remember old stories in the news) not to cosplay “Sons of Anarchy” riding around on bikes if they didn’t want random bikers getting twisted up and starting something. Not all of them are assholes but enough.
Just don’t let that shit show in prison unless you’re a fully initiated member of the Happy Mutant Nation. You might just find yourself with a banana shank buried in your ribcage before you even get a chance to look at it.
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I don’t know what you’re talking about, man. How could this be a big meeting if the Orphans wasn’t there?
You think the Orphans ain’t with it? You think the Orphans ain’t well known?
We got a heavy rep.
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Dress like what? Because other than the silly examples of Clockwork Orange and The Warriors, gang members more or less dress like everyone else in their community. Colors might be the one exception, but if one started beating up everyone wearing RED or BLUE in Kansas City (home of the Chiefs and Royals - red and blue), they wouldn’t have any more time to sell drugs and play video games.
Oh well, they have been telling people not to do something. Why didn’t you say so! I guess we better stop mixing the races because the KKK said not to.
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There are specific laws on the subject. And some commonly accepted etiquette. Legally you aren’t supposed to wear anything that can be construed as an actual military uniform in a way that implies your a member of the military (if your not). So no full sets of current issue uniforms with all the insignia and patches, except maybe on Halloween.
Etiquette wise you’re supposed to strip any insignia that aren’t integral to the garment. I’ve got button down mess uniform shirts from family members, the rank insignia aren’t removable. So that’s considered OK. Similarly name or unit patches should be removed unless there’s a family connection. So wearing your dad’s BDU jacket with his name patch on it is OK, especially if that’s also your name. Its likewise OK to keep a unit patch on there if a family member served with that unit, or a similar historical connection to that unit exists. There a couple of units one Army and one Airforce/Air National Guard that multiple members of my family have served with for over a century and half century respectively. They’ve very old units, that are big on the whole legacy membership thing. So its cool for me to keep or add patches for either, even though I’ve never served. Medals, ribbons and rank insignia are generally verboten. I can take the rank and mission ribbons family members have given me and stick them on a non-military garment. But not on a military one. And they especially can’t be mounted on a garment in their regulation space. And noone’s gonna being taking their grandfathers medals and wearing them on anything. Anything sufficiently out of date is generally cool regardless of its state, baring those medals ranks and ribbons.
I remember one of the few cons I’ve ever gone to (generally not my thing). There were a lot of kids there who were big fans of your modern military shooters. The CODBlops and such. Wearing full, accurate, current military uniforms. With their own names printed on them. Actual units they had no apparent connection to. Ranks. Ribbons. Even some medals of various sorts (lots of Purple Hearts). There were also lots of actual military guys in attendance. Many of them on leave from tours in Iraq. And a really nice Airforce kid I met who was stationed in Germany. Those actual soldiers were pissed (as was I). Noone got stomped. Noone picked a fight. The soldiers in attendance just smoked cigarettes and bitched about it. Calmly explained to the offenders that what they were doing wasn’t classy. Then made sure everyone else in attendance made sure to avoid those guys. Because they were horrendous dicks to the actual soldiers who asked them respectfully not to do that.
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The section you quoted said that…from me.
At this point, I feel like you’re the paid half of the argument clinic so I’m done. People can dress how they want, obviously. There may or may not be consequences to cosplaying a biker.
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I thought that was struck down as a 1st Amendment issue.
Rank and ribbons you didn’t earn should be stripped. But at the same time, it depends on context. I have worn military surplus shirts before, but no one thought I was impersonating some anonymous airman from SAC.
I don’t want to derail. Most people don’t care about military clothing or accessories. Stolen valor where you pose as something you are not and attempt to get something for it I oppose.
Right, you pointed it out, I pointed it out. How is one in “danger” for dressing like a “gang member” if gang members look like everyone else in the area?
Again, what about the THOUSANDS of people who are “bikers” but not in “bike gangs”. They didn’t jump in to wear it. Sturgis attracted over 739,000 people last year. How many of them wore black vests? How many of them were in biker gangs?
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You’ve heard of this thing called “gang colors,” right? Strangely, gangs do have indicators to indicate membership. If you wear those around a gang (or its enemies), you will probably get a reaction. I know you know this so, why ask questions to which you know the answers unless you’re just looking to argue?
Did their “black vests” have attachments on the bike indicating their membership in fictional, from TV, motorcycle clubs claiming territory in a local town?
People aren’t objecting to black vests when these fights start. They’re objecting to people pretending to be in an MC when the MC doesn’t exist and they’re just playing at membership. MCs don’t like “fake bikers.”
Like I said, blue and red are the two most well known colors. Also the color of the two main sports team in my town. They aren’t harassing everyone who wears those colors. While criminals aren’t the brightest group, they also aren’t attacking everyone wearing a certain color.
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Because simply wearing a color doesn’t indicate gang membership. Wearing certain colors on certain items of clothing in a certain way does.
It is almost like you answered your own question. I’ll defer to your deep knowledge of gangs in your town. I only know the ones here in Oakland (and hardly all of them).
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I love that movie so… the scene with that gang killed me. We had to watch it like 3 times.
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Perhaps parts of them. But it still brushes up against the same impersonation issues as wearing an accurate Police uniform. Its dangerous to have people falsely presenting themselves as authority figures. I saw a guy run into a problem with that on the NYC subway once. Again full, current, accurate Army uniform. We weren’t far from Penn Station and some actual Army Reserve guys were on the train commuting to run guard duty there. They called the cops about the guy, I believe he was ticketed and forced to change. In the end it turned out he was on his way to an off season costume party in a borrowed uniform. So its pretty situational.
Yeah context is the thing. If you can be construed as passing yourself of as an actual soldier its at best rude. I would never wear those uniform button downs with anything other than jeans. But more than once I was asked (by soldiers and politely) if I served, I responded also politely that I did not.
But to wrap it back around to the point. Counter to @enso’s claim. I had that sort of interaction with a Marine while wearing a Marine uniform shirt. We had a nice conversation about the family member I had cribbed the shirt from, who was in Iraq at the time. That was sort of the point of wearing it in the first place. And then he bought me a drink, despite my attempts to buy him and his friends one.
Dude its STURGIS. 80% of the crowd was probably wearing Sons of Anarchy merch.
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That sounds like an amazing day!
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Sigh…
Your statement is deeply offensive and inappropriate.
Bikers are people with feelings, and pride, and a cultural identity, and we must be careful not to offend or upset them. Bikers have suffered tremendous discrimination and prejudice and if you are not a biker you cannot imagine the frustration, despair, anger, and hurt they experience every time they put on their official Harley-Davidson tribal teeshirts, bandannas, gloves, hats, wallet chains, underwear, socks, and grime-stained club vests. Please understand, whenever a biker wakes up the neighborhood at 6 am by needlessly and repeatedly revving the throttle of his earsplittingly-loud CO-belching motorcycle, he is asserting his cultural identity and proudly announcing, “I exist, and I am here,” in defiance of the non-bikers who look upon him with disdain. We must respect and appreciate these delicate and fragile people, their rich tribal heritage, and protect their feelings.
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