-- by Gary Kiser

First I would like to thank ABATE of SC and the AIM/NCOM attorney John Daugs for sending me to this convention.  It was an educational experience for me to attend such a convention.  Next year it is going to be in Fl and if you can you should go.  Hopefully it will be as beneficial to you as it was to me.  It reaffirmed that the fight for our rights we are fighting here is SC is being fought all across the country.  We may have different issues but we are all fighting the same fight, to live our life as we choose.  I met people from across the country that are willing to help us, if we ask and only if we ask, any way they can.  One of the people I met was Jesse, I don’t remember his last name, who was one of the founding members of ABATE of SC.  He was an interesting person to talk to.  I learnt some things about ABATE of SC early days.  I also learnt about what he is currently doing.  He is a good contact person who understands our constitution.  Soldiers for Jesus, a Christian club and Survivors, MC, a Clean and Sober club, hosted hospitalities rooms.  I attended both and was made welcome without having anyone’s personal beliefs being pushed on me.    

It started on Thursday afternoon with the NCOM Board of Directors meeting.  The meeting started with the Pledge of Allegiance followed by committee reports.    

Some of the main topics of the weekend were how to fight tickets, reaching out to the Sport Bike community, and RFID and your Rights to Privacy. 

Some things I learned about fighting tickets were oblivious but I did not relate them to traffic tickets.  First is be polite.  What you say can and will come back to hurt you.  If you get a ticket for speeding you have the right to full disclosure, before trial, of all of the evidence being used against you.  Which includes all records of the radar used to determine the speed you were traveling and when, and by who, they were certified.  You have the right to subpoena anyone who certified the equipment and anyone who trained someone how to operate the equipment.  If you are stopped and the Officer wants you to perform alongside the road by conducting roadside tests, or whatever they call them, you can refuse.  Tell the Officer to either arrest you or let you go but you do not have to perform for them because it can and will be used against you.  They can not hold that against you but refusing to take a sobriety test can be.

There was a founding member, Brian Lawson aka Seven, of PRO Convention, USA, a public relations group made up of Sport Bike riders attending the convention.  They are concerned about losing their rights as motorcyclists.  They invited Doc Reichenbach, CEO of NCOM, to speak at their convention and talk about the Bikers Rights movement and Doc in turn asked Seven to attend NCOM.  Seven talked about how the sport bikers are coming of age and need to start joining the biker rights fight.  He said how the SMRO’s have been fighting for all bikers and that the sport bikers need to join up with them.  He said that there may be a barrier, real or imaged, between the ‘Harley riders’ (not all of us ride Harleys but it is the perception) and the sport bikers.   He talked about how we must work together and how some sport bikers are willing to join the fight.  The problem is how to bring the sport bikers into our fold.  He said that if there is a sport biker club that you may want to contact, and the club is a member of Pro, contact him and he will contact the club and make an initial contact with them and help set up an introduction between the club and the SMRO.  The Sport Biker riders are becoming ready to join us in the fight but as the non-sport bikers not all sport bikers may be willing to fight.  Seven, and other sport bikers, will help us any way they can to reach out to the ones who will.  Remember no matter what we look like or what we ride, when we put our leg over the seat on a motorcycle, we are all bikers.

Another issue that has to do with our right to privacy is a new technology.  RFID, Radio Frequency Identification.  The use of this technology is becoming the greatest invasion to your security and privacy rights.  Some background:  A new technology that promoters say will change motorcycle events forever was introduced in Texas for the Lone Star Rally in Galveston, this past December, In order for a bike to come onto the main street of the rally, a $10 parking pass had to be purchased.  Each numbered pass was embedded with an RFID chip.  The link on the Lonestar website said this, “the Chip technology will allow us to pinpoint you and produce a DVD of the entire rally event with personalized footage of you and your bike on the Strand!”  There was no option to buy an unchipped pass; the majority of rally goers were not informed that an RFID chip was attached to their bikers and being videotaped.  Miles of videotape of all chipped motorcycles, the riders and belongings was taken by wgps inc, a dvd company.

This technology is now being used in animal control, medical and law enforcement.  Current RFID legislation does not address RFID industry abuses.  Do you want to be tracked and photograph while you attend an event or during your daily life.  This technology has the impact to track you anywhere and anytime.  Do you want your life to be an open book for any government, or private, organization that may want to see what you are doing, where you are going and to whom you are talking to.  I don’t.  What can we do?  We can start now and work with our legislature to control the impact of this new technology.  This may not be all bad but if abused, and our government would never abuse this technology, it could cause grave infringements on our freedoms.   Christians, in particular, become upset, when they discover how the use of RFID technology is accelerating, because of Bible prophecies which state this: “And he cause all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads.  So that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.  Here is wisdom.  Let him that has understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is six hundred threescore and six, 666.” Revelation 13:16-18.

I attended other sessions.  One was the ringing of the bell.  A list of our brothers and sisters who passed away in the past year was read.  A bell was rung for each name when the name was read.  I attended a mock legislature session, a Confederation of Clubs general patch holders meeting and a regional meeting, where I gave an update on Myrtle Beach.  I explained what we are doing and asked them not to come to SC and get a ticket if they would not come back to fight it, and for a $100.00 ticket most would not come back.  I asked for their prayers and moral support and if we need their help we will ask for it.  One session mention that it’s not enough to make our legislatures into bikers we need to make bikers into legislatures.

While I tried to attend all of the sessions that I could I noticed that most attendees did not.  However, it was something to see members of various clubs attending a conference and standing united in the fight for biker rights.