There was a basic difference between the kind
of pressure the Angels got in Oakland and the kind they felt
elsewhere. In Oakland it was not political, not the result of
any high-level pressure or policy decision – but more of a
personal thing, like arm-wrestling. Barger and his people
get along pretty well with the cops. In most cases, and with
a few subtle differences, they operate on the same
motional frequency. Both the cops and the Angels deny
this. The very suggestion of a psychic compatibility will be
denounced by both groups as a form of Communist
slander. But the fact of the thing is obvious to anyone who
has ever seen a routine confrontation or sat in on a friendly
police check at one of the Angel bars. Apart, they curse
each other savagely, and the brittle truce is often jangled by
high-speed chases and brief, violent clashes that rarely
make the papers. Yet behind the sound and fury, they are
both playing the same game, and usually by the same rules.
The heat was so obvious that even respectable
motorcyclists were complaining of undue police
harassment. The cops denied it officially, but shortly before
Christmas of that year a San Francisco policeman told a
reporter, We're going to get these guys. It's war.
Who do you mean? asked the reporter.
You know who I mean, the policeman said. The
Hell's Angels, those motorcycle hoods.
You mean everybody on a motorcycle? said the
reporter.
The innocent will have to suffer along with the guilty,
the policeman replied.
When I finished the story, the reporter recalls, I
showed it to a cop I ran into on the street outside the Hall of
Justice. He laughed and called another cop over. 'Look at
this,' he said. '