by Sonny Barger
1
Treat Me Good, I’ll Treat You Better. Treat Me Bad, I’ll Treat You Worse.
Be careful how you treat people. It can come back either to help you or come back and bite you on the ass.
Nobody ever confused me with being a priest, a minister, or a holy man. “Treat me good, I’ll treat you better; treat me bad I’ll treat you worse” is my personal take on “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.” Except with a modern edge. The phrase is on a plaque and is hung on an honored spot on my wall, whether at my cycle shops, my office, at home, or in the garage. It serves as a warning to whoever reads it. I’m a serious, determined man destined to be treated fairly.
I like to take fairness to its logical extreme. When somebody bucks the trend by really going out of his or her way, by going the extra mile and respecting me as opposed to treating me rudely or behaving like an asshole or an idiot, I respond by treating him or her better. People are like animals, and I mean that in a good way. Horses. Dogs. Cats. I love animals because they instinctively respond to kindness and discipline with loyalty. Kindness, like violence, can be an effective tool, especially when it’s unexpected. When somebody is fair and decent, everybody wins, everybody’s happy. But if somebody dares burn me, look out. Rip me off or steal my bike and you’ll be nursing broken bones and drinking salt water.
On an everyday level, there’s the example of the guy at the bar pushing you out of the way and stepping on your toes in order to get himself a beer. Three things to consider in this situation: he’s either trying to prove something to you, he’s showing off to his compadres, or he is in desperate need of a drink and is oblivious to his actions and the world around him.
Let’s start by discussing the third. He’s got his own troubles and not worth bothering with. The first guy is something you have to obviously deal with and right away. The second guy, these are the unpredictables and they’ll do about anything to show that they are something they aren’t, namely tough.
Guys, especially those just out of prison, notice immediately how rude our society has become. Inside the joint, it’s “excuse me” and “pardon me, brother.” Outside, it’s “outta the way, buddy.” Dog-eat-dog way of life. Think about it: What is it like where you live and work, and how do you deal with it?
Another example of being treated badly that annoys the hell out of me is not communicating. If someone tells me they’ll get back to me or give me an answer to something and they simply don’t get back, it says to me they don’t give a shit either about the situation or me or both. It’s not being treated fairly, and when the situation arises when they ask you for something, your natural tendency then is to not deal with it at all. If you don’t respond, then you’re playing the game, too. Treat someone the way you want to be treated.
It reminds me of a story a fellow bike rider told me about being in the navy. When he was assigned duty on a ship, he and all of its crew sailed out into the Pacific Ocean to begin a series of military maneuvers. The first couple of days out, he kept hearing the words Roger Wilco and he started wondering who this guy Roger Wilco was that everyone was talking about. So he asked some other sailor and he laughed and told him it was part of the basic etiquette in the navy and stood for “Roger,” “will comply.” First used in the signaling system, it later came to be used when orders were given by a superior and the inferior would make the gesture of saying “Wilco,” to signify not only that he had heard him but that the order would be done. That to me is respect and compliance.
When somebody treats you good, see to it that you respond to them. It can be with a simple thank-you and/or a nod. Then you come across as the noble one, as appreciative, a rare quality in an individual these days. And guess what—what you give is what you get. People value respect; they fight against the opposite. Treat someone badly and it is bound to come back at you sometime. And it does, just when you don’t expect it.
There was a young man that joined the club and I immediately noticed that he was being a bit reclusive and standoffish. I liked him and had definitely voted for him to be inducted; I just felt that maybe he wasn’t feeling too comfortable yet, was a bit intimidated, and had a little fear. I approached him and told him first that I was glad he was with us, then asked him to clean up some of the trash and garbage that had gathered behind the headquarters. That’s all it took. He respected me for approaching him one-on-one and he respected the fact that I told him to do something as well. He became a brother for life and one of the best members an organization could ever have. Very dependable.
2
Put Together Your Own Family
Can you rely on your family? What if you could choose the members of your family?
My mother abandoned my sister, my father, and me. My father drank himself to death. My older sister and I learned to fend for ourselves. I’m not remorseful or crying about my life; I have happy memories of my childhood. All that talk about parents holding you back doesn’t wash with me. Blaming your mother is just another way of clinging to her. While I’ve had the benefit of living and growing up in simpler times, I did not fully understand the meaning and feeling of family until I formed my own.
When I’m asked about family, my reply is simple. Five words.
My friends are my family.
My definition of family is someone who will do anything for you, anytime, anywhere, without regard for their own health and safety. I don’t need much of a reason to help out a member of “my family.” It’s a natural reflex. One of the things the cops keep forgetting about motorcycle riders is that we tend to stick together. And even if you have never climbed onto a motorcycle in your life, you should remember this, too.
I remember a judge looking down on us from his high bench, getting ready for a hot and heavy conspiracy trial. All through the pretrial bail hearings, the cops were boasting about how bad I was, that I was a flight risk. Then, peering through his spectacles, after it came up that one of our friends had put his farm on the line so that another friend could make bail, the judge looked astonished. He asked, “You’d honestly put your house and home on the line for somebody who’s not even related?” He was stunned. “I wouldn’t.”
To which the friend replied, “That’s where we differ, Your Honor. We do.”
The judge was impressed and immediately granted bail.
Of course the friend that put his farm up got his money back. I didn’t skip bail and went through the trial as I had planned to.
Part of the beauty of my “family” is the unquestioning, steadfast support we give to one another. If I’m sitting in jail, I don’t have to sit and worry about making bail or getting out. I know that my “family” on the outside is on the case, trying to work things out. I also know that my girlfriend has someone looking out for her. For most inmates, the safety of their family might be a primary concern. For me, my family is not even a remote worry. I can concentrate on other things, like a defense.
You might be thinking, having such a “support group” is a privilege only extended to someone like me, a fifty-plus-year rider. I’m here to say that my family extends the same treatment—from the oldest to the youngest of our people. Everybody helps the others in times of trouble.
I’m not here to lecture you on the breakdown of the American familial, social, or corporate system, although I find it deplorable that even blood brothers and sisters fail to look after one another. That’s partly the reason we have so many homeless people living on the streets today. There seems to be a lack of commitment to extended family. I remain committed to my core family as one I can trust and depend on. The end result is the assurance that I’m surrounded by the people who will help me, stick by me, and fight alongside me, through good and bad, life and death.
It all comes by selecting the right people for your own “family,” loving them, abiding by them, respecting them, and treating them as equals on all levels, an extended household of commonality.
3
Stick Together, Even
If It Means Taking One for the Team
Stick together and people will think twice before messing with you.
When I was standing trial on RICO charges, I reaped the benefits of victory by simply locking arms with my brothers. By sticking together, we created an unprecedented and united front against those who attacked or opposed us. Along the way, quite a few loyal friends took one for the team. Like the song says, “All gave some, some gave all.”
RICO—Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations—is a federal law originally designed to prosecute criminal groups. With RICO firmly in place, the feds first came after the mobsters. After they had been divided and suppressed, next came the motorcycle clubs. Now RICO targets all organizations, from companies, street gangs, terrorist organizations, labor unions, protesters, religious groups, bookstore owners, bankers, Wall Street investment firms, doctors, cops, and politicians, whatever. Through the group’s association with one member who has done something illegal, they try to bring down the whole group. (RICO is a good example of a law whose original bad intentions have run further amok.)
A lot of organizations crumbled under the pressures of RICO prosecution. When the long arm of the law tapped you on the shoulder—or more accurately, kicked your door down and charged you with RICO—it was time to fold up the tents, rat out your friends, and plead guilty. It was the convenient way of getting a lesser sentence. “It wasn’t me…it was all of us!”
But not me. I didn’t take that road. I was the first to lock arms and make a rule. Nobody pleads out. Some might do time, but nobody points the finger at another friend. Nobody testifies against another part of the team. We stick together, even if it means hard sacrifice.
I once was being held at the Manhattan Correctional Center for not cooperating with a grand-jury investigation in New York. While there, I met a couple of mobsters. They were curious about how I had been able to be found innocent. I told them just what I’m telling you. We did it by staying focused, and most of all, by not turning on one another and maintaining a united front. It’s much easier for an antagonistic force to push around one individual than mess with a team of fifty, who are all standing tall, and ready and willing to fight as one.
I was the first individual to successfully defend against RICO. Later on, friends went on to beat conspiracy charges, notably in Kentucky, using the same strategy. After a long and costly trial in Kentucky, even the judge recognized the fact that we had stayed unified as one force. We had not changed what we had initially said at the beginning of the trial. This unwavering quality is what the judge respected.
As a result, I took the heat and served almost five years while my other friends were acquitted. (The only other friend convicted besides me died fighting outside a bar a few days before having to serve his sentence in a federal penitentiary in Atlanta.) Everyone else was set free.
Serving almost five years in the pen might not sound like a victory to you, but it was to me. I believe my conviction helped keep a couple dozen of my friends out of the pen. That’s when I began writing. I left the federal prison stronger, smarter, and more respected.
The lesson is this: Betrayal and blame in the long run won’t get you what you want. If you are guilty, you pay the price. Pulling others in to try to save your own ass does not work. Work with your group if you have one. Numbers rule.
4
Recognize Your Enemies!
Everyone is not on the same side. I can attest to that.
I’ve had plenty of disagreements in my life and they’ve stemmed mostly from people out to get me for what I had done to them or represented to them. The lines of demarcation are pretty hard to see at times and you have to turn your radar on. Keep it on. It’s constant vigilance.
With the authorities and the cops it’s easy. You assume they’re thinking, I’m right, you’re wrong. I play by the rules and I know it, so they got nothing on me.
It’s the other, more subtle enemies that you have to watch out for.
While I was touring for my first book, I got a lot of calls from the national press for interviews and appearances, from the newspapers and magazines, radio and television. I felt it was a duty to myself and to the publisher to do as many as I could and get as much exposure as I could. I did a lot of them, but I skipped some, too. The ones I skipped were ones where I felt like I was getting set up, that there was an agenda and they wanted me to perform for them or say something that they wanted to hear. Something they could sell. Media is a business, after all.
When I was asked to appear on the program Politically Incorrect, it seemed like a perfectly reasonable thing to do. Not that I am a political person in any sense of the word, but it was a program that a lot of people were watching at the time. When they asked me to report to the studios at a certain time, I was there early. But I sensed something funny was going on. I was told shortly after getting there that there was to be no rehearsal. I wasn’t given any type of script and I wasn’t even introduced to the host.
Suddenly I was put on a stage and a producer who was off behind a camera started counting down: “Twenty-five seconds…twenty seconds…fifteen seconds…”—this being the amount of time before the cameras would start rolling and I would be on live television. I thought, Fuck this, and got up, walked across the stage and out of the studio, got on my bike, and rode away.
Later I learned that the Politically Incorrect team did have a whole set of questions for me and one of them had to do with getting me to talk about all the sex-slave girls in motorcycle clubs. Yeah, right.
The lesson here is, keep those you don’t know or trust either at a distance or out of your life altogether. It’s that simple. The “others” are the enemy until they prove they are not. I’ve lived by this rule so far in my life and it has worked. Trust yourself first and the others second, but recognize the enemy at all times.
5
Leaders Exhibit Strength, While Bullies Prey on Weakness
I can’t stand bullies. No one really can, but few go up against them. Many times bullies can turn into rats and liars. Bullies use their physical (and sometimes mental) strength to gain control of a situation.
When I spot a bully, I act immediately, decisively, and sometimes violently. Then I step back and try to look deeper. What’s motivating this guy? Why does he do what he does? That’s where I find problems. People show their true colors when they become loose and comfortable around a group of like-minded individuals. So pay close attention to any warning signs before you accept someone inside your organization. “All talk and no walk” is a problem. Boastful behavior. Preying on smaller people or workers further down the chain of command. Cocky behavior. Think of yourself honestly and be honest and objective. Despite the strengths this person might possess, don’t ignore their weaknesses and liabilities, and trust your instincts. Give yourself ample time to check out and get to know any potential new team members you’re ready to take on.
Bullies I’ve known in the past usually had a father or a big brother or an elder who drank or slapped them around as boys. Later in life, a bully puts on a facade, a bluff and show of superiority. It’s what worked on them when they were younger. Outside, they’re big and tough. Inside, they feel weak, rejected, and vulnerable. Bullying others gives them a temporary high. Once that high fades, they go back to their pathetic natures and the cycle begins over again. Bullying is a prime example of weakness hiding as strength.
In the end, a bully can endanger your entire organization by chasing the most valuable people away and by taking a lot of good people down with them. A bully can be a convincing sort and hard to spot a lot of the time. They are people out to hurt, frighten, or tyrannize those they feel are below them. The original bullies were thugs hired by the rich in order to get things done. Because they worked for the rich, they felt they were superior.
Today, a bully can be a coworker who screams in the office just to get things done his way, or it could be a cop who uses his shield to hide behind and push people around. Whene
ver or wherever you find them, don’t trust them and don’t give them the time of day.
Having a bully in your organization in the end makes you vulnerable. As a member of the group, you have to do something. Don’t be afraid to confront them because bullies crumble at any sign of strength. I’ve seen examples of bullies ratting out their own people, selling themselves out to the competition in exchange for flattery and approval. The last thing you need during any type of confrontation is that kind of disloyalty and weakness.
A bully in your midst, pushing people around, is a major warning signal, and whoever’s running the show in your organization has the obligation and responsibility to step in and quickly take care of the situation. Otherwise, the rank and file will take matters into their own hands, and as a leader, you don’t want that.
Bullies bring nothing to the table except themselves and their own needs and wants. They lack loyalty and they are not the warriors they pretend to be. Weed them out of the group, and put them out with the trash, where they belong.
6
Screw Fightin’ Fair
