The other day a Brother and I were meeting up with a biker who was expressing interest in our club. Our conversation eventually came around to the topic what an “outlaw” club is. Well there are a lot of reasons why clubs that fly their colors on a three piece patch with the MC cube are called “outlaw” clubs. One popular reason dates way back to the early days of outlaw biker culture and how some nonconformist bikers went against the American Motorcycle Association (AMA) and since them labeled as “outlaws”. I cover all that in depth in my book, Get Patched. But it goes further than that…
It so happens that the man that we were talking to was a military veteran, Marine, and I am a veteran as well. So I explained to him that in the MC world we have our own way of doing things. We have our own traditions, protocols and laws. We hold up those traditions, protocols and laws as being higher and more dear than those of “normal” society.
I went on to explain to him that it is like back when he was an active duty Marine. Back then he was held to a higher standard than civilians are held to. The laws that covered his behavior were written out in the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ). He was judged by that standard and would be disciplined accordingly.
If this biker were to become an official hang-around with my MC, or any real three-piece patch traditional MC, he would be expected to live according to “Outlaw” standards. Learning our traditions, protocols and laws would be a big part of the time he spent hanging around and eventually prospecting. This is because once is patched, if that ever happens, then everywhere he goes whether he is wearing that patch at the moment or not, he is expected to live according to our way of life. How he behaves reflects on all of his Brothers, his whole club.
Some who try to get patched aren’t up to living our way. But for those of us who are patch holders, we would not dream of living any other way.
Maybe this is one reason why so many active duty military and veterans are attracted to the “Outlaw” life, our way of living.
