“And you came running?” the officer asked.
“Seven of us were in the parking lot setting up for the charity show,” the bearded biker explained. “When my wife called, we all came. We have a protocol for this.”
Another biker spoke up. “We do a lot of charity events. Toy runs for kids. Hospital visits. We’ve learned that predators sometimes show up at these events. So we watch. We protect. We’ve stopped three attempted abductions in the last five years at various events.”
The officer looked stunned. “Three?”
“That we know of,” the bearded biker said. “Sometimes just us being present makes them leave.”
As the police were wrapping up, I approached the bearded biker. “I’m Frank. Security here. I wanted to apologize for assuming—”
He cut me off with a raised hand. “No apology needed. You saw what looked like a bad situation and responded. That’s your job. You did it right.”
“But I assumed you were the threat.”
He smiled sadly. “Everyone does. We’re used to it. Doesn’t matter that most of us are veterans. Doesn’t matter that we’ve raised families, run businesses, served our communities. They see the leather and the bikes and assume we’re criminals.”
“How do you deal with that?”
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