{"id":496495,"date":"2010-03-31T10:51:53","date_gmt":"2010-03-31T14:51:53","guid":{"rendered":"tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c630a53ef01311001e404970c"},"modified":"2010-03-31T11:08:16","modified_gmt":"2010-03-31T15:08:16","slug":"motorcycle-gang-denies-role-in-hemet-police-attacks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/496495","title":{"rendered":"Motorcycle gang denies role in Hemet police attacks"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Riverside<\/img><\/a> Members of a Riverside County motorcycle gang have denied having anything to do with a string of attacks on Hemet police officers.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, authorities arrested 30 members of the the Vagos motorcycle gang<\/a>
\nin a major sweep. Authorities never directly linked the string of attacks on Hemet police to the gang. But Riverside
\nCounty Dist. Atty. Rod Pacheco called Vagos "an extreme threat to law enforcement."<\/p>\n

The attacks have involved booby traps at the
\nheadquarters of the Hemet-San Jacinto Gang Task Force<\/a> and the targeting of officers
\nassigned to the unit, officials said.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\t<\/a><\/p>\n

In December, a gas utility
\nline was redirected to fill the offices with gas; a spark could have
\ntriggered an explosion. In February, a modified handgun was hidden by
\nthe
\ngate to the office and rigged to fire. When a gang officer opened the
\ngate, the weapon went off, narrowly missing him. And recently,
\npolice said, a "dangerous" device was found near the unmarked car of a
\ntask-force member. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Several Hemet city trucks
\nwere torched late Tuesday night.<\/p>\n

In an interview with the Press-Enterprise<\/a>, one Vagos member said his gang had nothing to do with those attacks and that police were trying to demonize the gang.<\/p>\n

\n"They demonize us and start locking everyone up left and right. In
\ntheir eyes, everyone’s a criminal," said Harry "Doc" Hart, 61, a Hemet
\ndentist and Vagos member. "They can cry ‘gang’ and ‘terrorist’ to take
\nDNA from people never arrested. We’re subject to this because someone
\ncries wolf."<\/p>\n

Authorities say the gang is a criminal enterprise.<\/p>\n

— Shelby Grad<\/p>\n

Photo: A scene from the sweep by authorities earlier this month in Riverside County. Credit: KTLA<\/em> <\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Members of a Riverside County motorcycle gang have denied having anything to do with a string of attacks on Hemet police officers. Earlier this month, authorities arrested 30 members of the the Vagos motorcycle gang in a major sweep. Authorities never directly linked the string of attacks on Hemet police to the gang. But Riverside […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4131,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-496495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4131"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=496495"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496495\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=496495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=496495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=496495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}