EDITOR: My name is Ed Aki, I am president of the Henchmen
Motorcycle Club, San Jose chapter. We had a party and raffle at the
Quail Canyon Inn on Saturday. This is our first year in existence
and we wanted to let people get to know us.
EDITOR:
My name is Ed Aki, I am president of the Henchmen Motorcycle Club, San Jose chapter. We had a party and raffle at the Quail Canyon Inn on Saturday. This is our first year in existence and we wanted to let people get to know us.
Instead of a traditional “Poker Run or Chili Cook-Off,” we chose to have a party (barbecue, music and vendors). Along the way people who support us and some of our friends started donating items to give away. We than decided to raffle these items to recoup the cost of the party and give back to the community. Our party was raided by the Santa Clara Sheriff’s Department. Everything having to do with the raffle was confiscated.
Many reasons were given for the raid, from problems that other clubs are having (we had none), fights were breaking out and things were getting out of hand (we had none) and the last was we didn’t have our non-profit or a charity posted anywhere and our raffle was illegal. If the raffle was in any way illegal, the most it would have garnerd was a misdemeanor.
Those who left early or afterward, all traffic stops were felony – out of the car or off your bike at gun point. There were 14 police vehicles, 20 to 30 officers (M16s, Roit shotguns and teargas) along with support from San Jose AirOne.
This is our first year as a chapter, but many of us have lived in the Santa Clara Valley for 25 to 30 years or more. Many of us have raised our families here and they now are starting to raise their families here.
In the history of the Henchmen MC there has been “no” reason for this to have happened other then we ride Harleys, have long hair, tattoos and live life to its fullest. We are all family men, have jobs (some our own businesses) and many of us have college educations. We just ride. We ride hard, we ride fast.
Ed Aki, Campbell
