The biker-gang shootout that left nine people dead in Waco on Sunday marks an appalling new low in lawlessness. The fact that scores of rival bikers were welcomed to gather at a single location in a Mafia-style sit-down meeting suggests their hosts also have much to answer for.
The Texas Alcoholic Beverages Commission is correct to issue a summary suspension and force a seven-day closure of the Twin Peaks restaurant. The groups involved in the shootout weren’t weekend bikers out for bluebonnet appreciation.
The two groups involved in the shootoutthe Bandidos and Cossacks—reportedly were among five gangs who had gathered at Twin Peaks to divide up territorial and recruitment boundaries. An FBI report in 2013 listed outlaw motorcycle gang members as posing a threat potential far in excess of their actual numbers.
The restaurant denies that it refused to cooperate with authorities beforehand, but the uncommonly adamant nature of the Waco police criticism suggests the restaurant had other higher priorities. Twin Peaks is located in Waco a short distance from the local Harley Davidson dealership. The restaurant uses plentiful beer and buxom waitresses in revealing outfits to attract clientele. If that had been the extent of the restaurant’s exercise of free enterprise, we’d have no quibble.
But police had been on alert for such a gathering, and uniformed SWAT officers and Texas Department of Public Safety troopers were outside the restaurant on Sunday. It is particularly troublesome to learn that plainclothes officers were made to feel unwelcome inside while the doors flung wide open for gang members.
The Twin Peaks chain is owned by Addison, Texas-based Front Burner Restaurants, founded by Rockfish Seafood Grill co-creator Randy DeWitt. The company said Monday it was revoking the Waco restaurant’s franchise rights.
It’s not enough for the chain to revoke the franchise rights, because this restaurant could keep operating with a liquor license under a different name. All business operators who turn a blind eye to nefarious activity on their premises should be forewarned: It’s not just criminal gang members who must be held accountable.