Bikers Against Child Abuse make abuse victims feel safe
These tough bikers have a soft spot: aiding child-abuse victims. Anytime, anywhere, for as long as it takes the child to feel safe, these leather-clad guardians will stand tall and strong against the dark, and the fear, and those who seek to harm.
The 11-year-old girl hears the rumble of their motorcycles, rich and deep, long before she sees them. She chews her bottom lip, nervous.
They are coming for her.
The bikers roar into sight, a pack of them, long-haired and tattooed, with heavy boots and leather vests, and some riding double. They circle the usually quiet Gilbert cul-de-sac, and the noise pulls neighbors from behind slatted wood blinds and glossy front doors.
One biker stops at the mouth of the street, parks in the middle of the road and stands guard next to his motorcycle, arms crossed.
The rest back up to the curb in front of the girl’s house, almost in formation, parking side by side. There are 14 motorcycles in all, mostly black and shiny chrome. The bikers rev their engines again before shutting them down.
The sudden silence is deafening. The girl’s mother takes her hand.
The leader of this motorcycle club is a 55-year-old man who has a salt-and-pepper Fu Manchu and wears his hair down past his shoulders. He eases off his 2000 Harley Road King and approaches the little girl.
He is formidable, and intimidating, and he knows it. So he bends low in front of the little girl and puts out his hand, tanned and weathered from the sun and wind: “Hi, I’m Pipes.”
“Nice to meet you,” she says softly, her small hand disappearing in his.
The unruly-looking mob in her driveway is there to help her feel safe again. They are members of the Arizona chapter of Bikers Against Child Abuse International, and they wear their motto on their black leather vests and T-shirts: “No child deserves to live in fear.”
I’ll admit – this made me tear up. I’d never heard of BACA before. Now I want to find the WA and OR chapters, and give them some money. I can’t give them a lot – I live hand-to-mouth – but they deserve my support. Surviving abuse is not – *not* – easy. These bikers have taken on a nearly-impossible task, struggling to make it a little easier. Amazing. Absolutely wonderful.
The bikers aren’t looking for trouble. They are there so the kids don’t feel so alone, or so powerless. Pipes recalls going to court with an 8-year-old boy, and how tiny he looked on the witness stand, his feet dangling a foot off the floor.
“It’s scary enough for an adult to go to court,” he says. “We’re not going to let one of our little wounded kids go alone.”
In court that day, the judge asked the boy, “Are you afraid?” No, the boy said.
Pipes says the judge seemed surprised, and asked, “Why not?”
The boy glanced at Pipes and the other bikers sitting in the front row, two more standing on each side of the courtroom door, and told the judge, “Because my friends are scarier than he is.”
This is the most beautiful, awe-inspiring thing I’ve read in a long time. I wanna write a book about these guys, Jesus Christ. Where’s the blockbuster movie about these badasses?Actual tears right now. This is amazing.
Most bikers are incredibly warm, welcoming, charitable people. Pretty much every club my father’s been part of has done massive fundraising, usually for charities involving minorities, the impoverished, and sick children. They have rides where the fee to join is either a donation to the Red Cross, or a toy for a fundraiser, etc.
The image of the dirty thug biker perpetrated by the media are approximately one percent of all “bikers”. They even refer to themselves as “One Percenters” – if you ever see a biker with a 1% on their vest somewhere, that is a sign to avoid them. Also, bikers you can often tell a biker’s affiliation by the rockers on their colours/vest. The rockers are the curved banner-like patches that go across their shoulders and down at the bottom of the vest. The club/gang names will be listed there. If you ever see a biker with their vest inside-out, they are trying to hide their rockers, and this is usually a good sign to avoid them.
Othewise, these folks were like second fathers to me growing up. As I got older and more, uh, womanly, they were there to watch my back, to make sure nobody made inappropriate remarks or tried to fondle me.
Unfortunately we don’t ride much anymore due to health problems, but my dad still keeps in touch with these guys, they are some of the best friends he’s ever made.
I’m a biker. Not one of the big scary ones; I’m a 5’ tall girl who rides a bike so dinky that I invite people to laugh at it. But when I’m on the road, these big scary tough men and women look out for me. They’ve stopped to help me when I broke down, they’ve stopped to chat when I was pulled over to admire a view, and I’ve occasionally caught them at rest stops keeping an eye out just in case anybody gets any ideas due to my being a 5’ tall girl biker. And I’ve done the same for them.
I didn’t know about BACA, but it doesn’t surprise me. It does, however, give me great joy. 🙂