Bikes drag dead bodies through Gaza

By

gaza-2

Motorcycle lore is full of tales of hard men and harder actions. Crime, violence, murder. Hell, the entire image cultivated by most bikers is one of danger. But right now, as the entire world watches, motorcycles are actually being used as instruments of terror and the scene doesn’t exactly resemble something out of “Sons of Anarchy.” Gangs of motorcycle riders in Palestine are using bikes to drag the bodies of alleged informants through the streets of Gaza City after publicly executing them.

NSFW

If this were a western action movie, the guys on the bikes would likely be Danny Trejo and Ron Perlman, the bikes would be Harleys and the people being dragged would soon be avenged by some square-jawed hero. I use this not to make light of the situation in Palestine, but instead to illustrate the disparity between image and reality. There’s places in the world where people actually use bikes to do bad things and those people and those things don’t necessarily look like what we expect them to. The idea of dragging bad guys through the streets behind motorcycles is also likely one disseminated or seeded by western media.

Reuters reports that six men were executed in this fashion today after being accused of serving as Israeli spies and providing information that allowed more precise targeting of aerial strikes within Gaza.

A Hamas security official was quoted stating the men had been “caught redhanded” using “high tech equipment to take footage of positions.”

The demonstration of violence by Hamas comes as Israel warns Palestinian civilians to evacuate ahead of a potential ground invasion. Leaflets dropped in the city include a map of areas under threat and read, “The Israel Defence Forces are not targeting any of you and they do not want to harm you or your families. For your safety, you are required to evacuate your residences immediately and move towards central Gaza city.”

  • paulo

    Shit Wes I come here to get away from the woes of the world. BBC and the Guardian for my News, Fox “news” for comedy and HFL for the important stuff.

    (hope this shit gets sorted out for the sake of both sides and all the innocents)

    • jonoabq

      a big +1. Not needed.

      • Rosario

        +2. What the hell.

        • Josh

          I disagree. “…to illustrate the disparity between image and reality. There’s places in the world where people actually use bikes to do bad things and those people and those things don’t necessarily look like what we expect them to.”

          I think humanizes the horrors going on, because I identify with motorcyclists the world over.

          It also plays to the farce that has become the cruiser segment of American Motorcycling culture, where half the riders are playing dress-up to look ‘bad.’

          • paulo

            Bollocks you are over thinking this, if you’ve ever been to Asia or the Middle East or a number of countries where EVERYONE rides a motorcycle there is no concept of ‘Biker’ it is just a form of cheap transport used by everyone from poorly paid workers to Grandmothers or doctors. Trying to legitimize this post as somehow relating to motorcycle culture by applying some cultural construct is lame. If they had horses to drag the body or a Toyota Hilux what’s the difference?. It’s got nought to do with HFL and why I come here. sorry but this post of Wes’s really bugged me.

        • Kevin

          +3 for fuck’s sake.

    • Porter

      +4. Ew.

      • http://rideapart.com Wes Siler

        Motorcycle culture is motorcycle culture, for good and bad. Bikes and bikers mean different things to different people around the world and those differences, particularly when in relation to a larger event, are relevant to a motorcycle lifestyle publication.

        Because the conversation elsewhere essentially consists of numbers and boobs, you might not be used to that, but we never set out to adhere to tired convention.

        • commsala

          Keep straining, Wes, maybe you’ll reach Mt. Coherence. As paulo ably pointed out above, this story has fuck-all to do with “motorcycle culture.” It’s appearance on HFL has everything to do with using the lurid and sensational to draw attention to oneself, which is one tired media convention with which HFL is in perfect lockstep.

          • http://rideapart.com Wes Siler

            I don’t understand the misconception that this article will bring traffic to us. From where? People googling some bizarre , morbid search term? Forum referrals? Syndication? Social media? There’s really no scandal around publishing this and there’s no extra traffic.

            Plain and simple: this is what motorcycle bad guys look like now. That’s different from what they used to look like, hence the story.

        • atgatthd

          What a lazy argument. This is to HFL what scandal rags are to the Wall Street Journal.

          If you’re deciding what you include here based on if it’s “relevant to a motorcycle lifestyle publication” than you’re sure as HFL not making your decisions based on what’s relevant to your readers.

          Bad execution of updates and now this crap?

          If I wanted to look at gruesome pics and get my guilt on, I’d google “motorcycle death” and “why HFL thinks you’re not culturally aware enough.”

          Lets just hope this is a hiccup and not the new norm.

          P.S. those “numbers and boobs” were published as “relevant to a motorcycle lifestyle publication” by someone in your shoes elsewhere.

          Your argument defending this decision is the same one used by those defending “tired convention?” seriously???

          Weak.

  • Mikesee

    Thou shalt not kill. What the hell is wrong with these people? And I say this as a 100% atheist (or maybe deist; I haven’t decided yet).

    • Ben NYC

      1) “Thou shalt not kill” is a mistranslation. The correct translation is “thou shalt not murder”. Killing in the course of defending your land from invasion is not murder.

      2) There is nothing particularly unusual about this, other than the motorcycles. Ever read the Iliad? So, we don’t use horses or chariots anymore. Doesn’t matter, dragging your defeated foe around for all your enemies to see has a profoundly demoralizing effect. What you see in this video is a time honored tradition.

      • Mikesee

        People also used to beat their wives, employ slaves and drill into peoples’ skulls to cure disease. I understand the situation is complex, and I also understand that this is a motorcycle website, and therefore most likely not the appropriate place for this discourse. I just feel that this sort of bullshit antisocial behaviour should be condemned for what it is: a few sadistic self righteous pricks who get off on killing people.

        That’s not how I roll, man. That’s not how I roll.

        • jc_thorn

          Uhh ok, but surely everyone here is with you in condemning the behaviour… Some might disagree with your depoliticising view of it as just “antisocial” used to “get off”, though.

          Incidentally, I’ll join those who are complaining about the article. This is not relevant to HFL, even with the pissweak “exploration” of what this means for motorcycle culture attached. It’s fair to say this article is an actively inappropriate and exploitative. Please do yourselves justice.

          • Mikesee

            I’m with you there.

  • Bronson

    Are those guys wearing the new icon safety sandals?

  • Anthony

    Totally unnecessary Dude. Definitely not related in any way to why I come here.

  • Tyler

    I don’t mind the article being here because I don’t really watch the regular news channels. It’s not like anyone is forced to read the article or watch the video. The first paragraph gave a pretty good idea of what was going to follow when clicking the link. We shouldn’t just sweep things under the rug or pretend they’re not happening just because it’s unpleasant. Just my $0.02.

    • paulo

      Not pretending it’s not happening I source my news broadly and am well aware of this situation (friends working in Gaza) my issue is with this being on HFL just because there’s two wheels involved. But yes you are right I should just ignore this post , as you were.

  • Lawrences

    Bad taste HFL.

  • lurk

    Thanks for the news. I don’t see why this bothers people so much, who cares if it’s irrelevent.

    • Trevor

      It bothers people because like motorcycling we come to this site as an escape, not to see this crap.

      There are other news sites I can go to if I want to see this “irrelevant” horse shit.

      Wes maybe your time would be better spent working out the kinks of the new site format?

  • nopro

    You guys can’t seriously be surprised that Wes ran this story. Can you? I myself dont see what the fuss is about. Some would rather hide from reality than face it and realize what it is I guess. I guess wes should also apologize for abruptly interrupting your pleasant view of the world.

    • Tyler

      +1. Too much complaining. If you don’t like the article then skip it next time and go read one that does interest you. It’s easy to pretend like it’s a cake walk running a website and writing articles when you’re sitting on a couch or office chair. Get over it people.

    • jc_thorn

      It’s not about coddling HFL readers from the big bad world. The fuss is about HFL subjecting complex and politicised events to incredibly weak analysis in a way that comes off as superficial and exploitative.

  • Earl

    It is motorcycles and mayhem–very appropriate—go look at Martha Stewart if you don’t like it

  • Steven

    Regarding “I come here to escape.” You haven’t “come” anywhere. You are in your chair, in your house, choosing to look at things that are clearly labeled. There is a war happening. Do you think 1940s issues of The Saturday Evening Motorcycle Post didn’t have articles about war motorcycles?

    Lead a life you don’t need to escape, nerds.

  • Bruce Steever

    Well, we’ve certainly proven a point that for many, motorcycles = escapism.

    • atgatthd

      You’re right. Some of us deal with enough death at work. There are those who “come here” to decompress. Telling someone how to live their life on this thread is taking it in a fruitless direction.

      Wes, may I just request a “gratuitous pictures” warning in the future on stories like this? Not that you have to by any means (especially since I’m a newer
      reader here). But that would be cool.

      you guys have a sweet website here, and I think that’s why everyone is so passionate about their views. I can dig the reasoning you stated

      “Plain and simple: this is what motorcycle bad guys look like now. That’s different from what they used to look like, hence the story.”

      I can get behind that, just say that in the first place without the corporate mumbo jumbo. The pics were just something I don’t want to have to look at to read the story.

      p.s. Thanks for all the hard work you do, this is one negative out of a ton of stellar work on hfl.

      • http://rideapart.com Wes Siler

        There’s a clear NSFW marker above the jump and the top pic is obviously censored.

        Some people don’t like articles on sportsbikes. Some people don’t like articles on safety. Some people don’t like articles about the actual real world. Can’t win em all.

        If you want more of a specific kind of content, then ask for that. The bitching is just dumb.

  • http://www.facebook.com/carlos.zr.9 Carlos Zr

    MUY FEAS ESTAS IMAGENES

  • flyin_flip

    “There’s places in the world where people actually use bikes to do bad things… ”

    Right on. Here in Davao City in the Philippines, men riding in tandem on blacked-out dirt bikes without tags almost always mean one thing: some poor bloke is off to meet Death. Presumably under the orders of our dirty-harry-personified-mayor.

  • Mark

    I hope they were shot dead before being tied to the bikes. Fucking horrifying,

    • http://twitter.com/Mr_Paynter Bryan Paynter

      So very horrifying. Fuck!