From the NYT op-ed page, this is some pretty good parody:
This [Waco] tragedy stemmed from the criminal actions of a fringe minority that does not represent the democracy-loving values of the majority of tolerant biker gangs devoted to freedom, denim, mutual understanding and leather accessories.
As a moderate biker gang member, who has never met the suspects, visited Texas or even seen the TV series "Twin Peaks," I offer a full-throated condemnation of, and apology for, their violent acts….
In a familiar pattern of rhetorical retribution, people are demanding: When will moderate bikers take responsibility for crimes committed by these violent extremists?
The op-ed's author, Wajahat Ali, a playwright and Al Jazeera journalist, goes on to amusingly assault the Republican presidential field, Fox News, and in general our culture of hysteria:
[P]otential presidential candidates cynically exploit the issue with anti-biker memes like "biker gangs are at war with the West" and "the biker gang world needs a reformation." One prominent governor has accused bikers of belonging to "communities of people that don’t want to integrate" into America, while cable TV news pundits warn of "no go zones" in towns and cities allegedly infiltrated by radical biker gangs.
Ali concludes by urging "peace-loving citizens to reject this worrying trend of Bikerphobic bigotry" and promotes the social-media usage of "#notmybikergang." His funniest line: "The liberal mayor of New York has invited local chapters of Hells Angels for a beer-and-prayer meeting this weekend."
Which reminds me … If you've not read H.S. Thompson's Hell's Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs, you may want to. This mid-1960s work launched Thompson's national fame, which held up with good cause until its strange, terrible, and incoherent end. It's a riveting read, an exploration into the psychosociological pathologies of horrifically violent young men who could also be eerily cordial to outsiders such as Thompson — until they weren't, which Thompson discovered the hard way.
I've never known any hardcore bikers the way Thompson did, or for that matter, not even the more sophisticated members of a #notmybikergang. As a rebellious teenager I did, however, consort with some rather rough types, some of whom had been in and out of reform schools and state penitentiaries virtually all their lives, which was a way of life in their impoverished community. Crime's acceptance was best reflected by my best friend's casual remark at a late-night poker game. I had said to my friend, "Hey, where's your brother? We could use another hand." My friend replied, "Oh, he's robbing a warehouse. He'll be a little late." Everyone in the room shrugged. The brother was merely "at work," at the office, so to speak.
About a year later the brother was dead. And about a year after that, my best friend was shot and killed in a bar dispute. I never enjoyed the culture's violence — in fact I never understood it; the whole macho thing — but as a permanently expelled would-be high-schooler I admired the added "freedom" from what I'd soon be calling "bourgeois values" and I positively reveled in the culture's way of telling authority what to do with it.
I have, as you've probably noticed, somewhat mellowed since then. And I remain thankful that I never indulged in Thompson's extreme psychosociological research. I might not have survived it, and I would have missed Ali's parody this morning.