I’ve got a little story to tell and I think you’ll be interested in the end result.

Once upon a time, a motorcycle club, decided to have a little get together at one of the local Harley dealers in the valley.  The club that sponsored the party was not in good standings with the local Henderson P.D. so the local coppers decided to stop every biker that was going to attend the party and give them the choice of either turning around and not supporting the event or getting a ticket if they decided to continue on.  A lot of people decided to continue on and were promptly stopped under the guise of unsafe headgear, and once stopped they were written tickets for everything from helmets to high bars.  Some of the riders that got tickets went ahead and paid them or plead them down to parking tickets and just paid the fine as fighting the system didn’t seem like a good idea.

Fifty-six of the riders, however, decided that they were sick of this form of harassment and decided to stand up for what they believed in and got in touch with an attorney. This attorney had no experience with motorcycle law, as his specialty was in mortgages, but he was willing to take a stab at it. Now this attorney, although strong on constitutional rights, had no idea of what he was getting himself into so he connected with Dave Stilwell and got a crash course in motorcycle rights. To make a long story short, and between the two of them, all fifty-six tickets were dismissed prior to the court date, which is tomorrow. These people stood up to the Henderson Police Department and scored a victory that will set precedence for all cases to come.  

The fact that they were cited under the helmet law and charged with everything under the sun, when investigated, it was revealed that it was against the law for two reasons.

The first is, that in order to be stopped for a helmet violation, law enforcement must have probable cause.  This means in order for the law to pull you over, they have to believe that you are committing a crime or you are in violation of the law, and seeing as how Henderson Police Department has no specified training for their officers to determine what constitutes approved headgear according to the Nevada Revised Statute 486.231, they do not, nor will they ever, have the ability to pull you over for a helmet violation and make it stick.  THERE ARE NO STANDARDS!

The second reason is a legal term that is called “ fruit of the poison vine”, when translated into English is: that if the cop stops you under the guise of unsafe headgear, i.e. the helmet law, and writes you two dozen more tickets for insurance, endorsement, no registration and whatever else, they will all be dismissed because the cop doesn’t have the ability to determine if your helmet is compliant or not, so without probable cause he would not have been able to write the ticket in the first place.

I was ecstatic about the decision even though we didn’t get to see the Judge, because if the City Attorney cannot prosecute on the grounds that were presented in discovery by the defendant, the helmet law as we know it is on its way out.  Henderson has always drawn a hard line with the motorcycling community, especially with clubs, and it is not due to the attitude of the cops but the directives from supervision.

We are collecting helmet tickets for the legislative session in 2011 to show that this law is used as a direct tool by law enforcement to discriminate against bikers in this state and in no way has anything to do with the safety of the rider. The fifty-six riders that won were stopped for no reason, their civil rights were violated and with this decision we will all be able to ride a little freer in the community of Henderson.

My hat is off to you and I applaud your decision to stand up for the rest of us, now let’s see if the rest of us are ready to stand up for you. We need to challenge authority when we suspect wrongdoing and hold those in office responsible for their decisions. It’s not so much about fighting the system but about fighting the abuse by the system.

As I have said in previous articles, why should motorcycles be the only privately owned vehicle that requires special equipment, special license and extra fees for registration when motorcycles are highway friendly, ozone friendly, fuel-efficient and will reduce congestion on the busiest of Nevada’s roadways?

The primary elections are coming in May and the people that have applied these restrictions will be running for office. Will you allow them to concoct even more restrictions on your freedom? What will you allow them to do to you this term?  Help us help you protect your right to ride free!

WHEN INJUSTICE BECOMES LAW

RESISTANCE BECOMES DUTY

BONES

P.S. I forgot the part about they lived happily ever after and didn’t have to pay the $190.00 fine.