New ABATE group meets

[totalmotorcycle]

New ABATE group meets
Advocates' plan includes education, gang legislation
Monday, November 20, 2006 - By Lisa Fleisher - The Sun News - myrtlebeachonline.com



CONWAY - With a long salt-and-pepper beard, leather chaps and a Confederacy-era Civil War cap, Richard "Roach" Mercer did not look like a seasoned political activist.

But he sounded like one on Sunday, when he coached recruits to South Carolina's newest chapter of the motorcycle advocacy group ABATE at its first meeting in Conway.

He spoke about how to stick to the group's talking points and get out their message, visiting Columbia to lobby state lawmakers and the importance of keeping an eye on legislation.

He told of how he e-mails representatives even while they're in session and watches them on the state's Webcam.

"There's a lot of tools available out there for you to use," he said. "You just have to learn how to use them."

Jim Horton, who organized the meeting, said the new UCLA chapter - that's Upper Conway, Lower Aynor - is necessary for bikers who do not want to ride all the way to Myrtle Beach for meetings.

It also an opportunity for the self-proclaimed "leather-clad warriors" to show off their widespread clout to county elected officials.

"I believe we can have an impact on county politics," Horton said. "It's not so much that we want to affect particular issues, but we want to pay attention to what is happening, what's being voted on."

ABATE - which, in South Carolina, stands for A Brotherhood Against Totalitarian Enactments - is a national group that fights for bikers' rights. The group is most well-known for its stance against motorcycle helmet laws, its charitable work and its physical presence in the halls of government. In other states, the acronym stands for other phrases, such as American Bikers Aimed Toward Education.

"ABATE is the first group that greets legislators when they walk through the doors at the beginning of the session," said Alan Clemmons, R-Myrtle Beach. "The very first session of the year, you can look up in the balcony at the statehouse and it is standing-room only with bikers. ... When it's an important issue to ABATE, they always have impact."

The Horry County ABATE chapter, one of 30 in South Carolina, was active in the Myrtle Beach mayoral election that saw the downfall of Mayor Mark McBride, who had made inflammatory statements about wanting to harm bikers.

Statewide, the group has helped clamour to maintain the current helmet law, which allows riders 21 and older to ride without helmets, and last year saw motorcycle property tax sliced from 10.5 percent to 6 percent.

Their current agenda includes making sure that gang legislation does not contain references to bikers, toughening penalties for car drivers who cause crashes with motorcycles and increasing funding for rider education programs.

The underlying value that the group holds is keeping government out of people's lives.

That's why Sue Wall of Surfside Beach, who joined the UCLA group on Sunday, is against laws mandating the use of seat belts and helmets.

"I don't want them telling me what to do," she said.

Wall was one of 15 people - about half women - at the meeting at Thorny's Steakhouse in Conway. Some of them had never heard of ABATE before, and others had previously been members but had strayed from the pack.

Shirley Thompson of Conway said she has never ridden a motorcycle, but wanted to join because she believed in the group's message and because she wanted to be active in her retirement.

"We're growing, we're getting bigger, and we're going to stand up for our rights," she said.