Fayetteville police Tuesday morning released their law enforcement statistics from the 2011 Bikes, Blues & BBQ motorcycle rally.
According to Sgt. Craig Stout, police made a total of 27 arrests in the Dickson Street during the rally. Stout said 13 of those arrested were local residents and that the majority of charges were for Public Intoxication, Disorderly Conduct, Driving While Intoxicated and Resisting Arrest.
Besides the arrests, police issued five citations including two for Criminal Trespass and one each for Disorderly Conduct, Reckless Driving and Obscene Materials.
NWAOnline’s Joel Walsh reports that the Obscene Materials citation was issued to Daniel Biede of Phoenix for selling explicit T-shirts at a booth in a private lot behind Jose’s Restaurant.
Biede wasn’t the only vendor selling t-shirts that could be considered obscene (see above photo), but according to Walsh’s report, Biede’s merchandise was much more sexually explicit.
Stout said police received 19 calls regarding motorcycle accidents, with no reported fatalities.
Also, five motorcycles were reported stolen during the event, two of which were recovered.
For some perspective, KNWA is reporting the number of arrests is down from 2010, but the number of accidents is up. According to the report, there were five less arrests this year and eight more accidents.
Fayetteville City Code Chapter 112.02-Obscene Materials
(A) No person shall import, print, publish, exhibit, display, sell or distribute any book, pamphlet, ballad, printed paper, stereopticon slide, moving picture film, or other thing, containing obscene language or any obscene prints, figures, pictures, or descriptions.
(B) No person shall buy, procure, receive, or have in his possession any book, pamphlet, ballad, printed paper, stereopticon slide, moving picture film, or other thing for the purpose of sale, exhibition, loan, or circulation containing obscene language or any obscene prints, figures, pictures, or descriptions. Whenever any police officer arrests any person charged with any offense under the provisions of this subsection, he shall seize one copy of the book, pamphlet, ballad, printed paper, picture, slide, film, or other thing, and take it into his custody as evidence of the offense.
(C) A person commits the offense of distributing obscene materials when he sells, lends, rents,
gives, advertises, publishes, exhibits, or otherwise disseminates to any person any obscene material of any description, knowing the obscene nature thereof, or who offers to do so, or who possesses such material with the intent to do so.
(D) Material is obscene when the average person, applying contemporary community standards, would find that the work taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest; the work depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by applicable law; and the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.
Penalty
Any person violating any of the terms of 112.02 or failing or refusing to comply with the provisions thereof, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction thereof, shall be fined in an amount of not less than $50.00, nor more than $200.00, and each separate showing shall be a separate offense.
Source: accessfayetteville.org
I just thank god it is over!!!
Well damn. Guess I need to rethink my plans for an exhibition of sexually descriptive stereopticon slides…
Not bad! Those of us that come to NW Ark for BBB & beautiful riding appreciate the hospitality shown to us by the local residents and the law enforcement community. The invasion must be pretty nerve-wracking to residents but the money this event brings in is likely much needed and appreciated. I know my normal hotel I stay in (I come quarterly for business) increased their normal price by $50/night.
People tend to behave pretty well I’ve noticed. The daily rides in the beautiful countryside is invigorating and replenishes the soul. Having a fun evening on Dickson, some good food and maybe a brew or two while listening to some good music is the icing on the cake and it’s early to bed – have to ride the hills in the morning!
So thank you Fayetteville & the neighboring communities. I wish everyone behaved properly but considering the numbers of people around, coupled with the freedom to do whatever, the fun attitudes, the beer…I’m surprised that the number of arrests weren’t 10 times as many. It’s a tribute to all – the organizers, the bikers, the police…a very good time.
You are welcome. I am glad you enjoyed our area of the state. Please do come back on other weekends and spend your money.
on your belly! on your back!
I too am surprised the arrests weren’t 10 times what they were. Law enforcement admits to using much ‘discretion’ which is a way of saying they let bbbbq offenders off with no tickets or fines – punishment that locals get for the same behavior any other time. This is not equal justice. Its an unwillingness or inability to enforce the law during a big money event that is dangerous to everyone but profits only a few who already do very well in Fayetteville’s tourist trades.
I personally was told by 2 small businesses that they might as well close during the biker festival because it hurt their business so much. The big boys certainly don’t care – the chamber of commerce, hotels, bars, chain restaurants and dickson street grub & pubs. They feel entitled even though lots of others are hurt by bbbbq especially in this weak economy. Same ones that want millions spent on a new parking deck that will condemn private property.
I am very interested in knowing how many tickets were handed out for excessive noise output/revving, driving too slowly/blocking traffic, speeding (especially on smaller residential streets), littering, etc. If the Fayetteville police had seriously pursued these infractions, they surely could have offset the costs to the city of the additional police hours required.
yet no one complains when Dickson Street is reduced to one lane every Sunday by two church,s members parking in a no parking zone on both sides of the street. Yet let one bike make a little noise and wah, wah, wah. The police do stop excessive noise, maybe not by writing a ticket, but they do control the levels. It only lasts four days. Are people so sensitive and self centered that a four day disruption in their humdrum daily routines can cause a life time trauma?
Clearly not everyone know the real story. Please find us on fb. Fbvdot com backslash allornothing.lifestyle and for the record I am proudly from Iowa not Arizona and it seems to me personal responsibility is out the window in fayetteville and these people not enjoying our shirts could keep walking rather than wasting the police departments time. Cops are not here to help raise your kids.
aonvendor–
I tried to take some personal responsibility and go to your web page, but apparently you didn’t take the personal responsibility to post it anywhere near correctly enough for me to reassemble it. Would you be so kind as to take some personal responsibility and post a functional link?
Your satire is adorable. We will be posting our side of the story on our page tomorrow, here you are with a full link. Sorry for failing to make it easy enough earlier. Facebook.com/allornothing.lifestyle
It wasn’t the difficulty– it was the lack of search results on Google and the numerous possible pages on Facebook, which I did not care to slog through.
Bike rallis have had a stigma since the Hollister event in the fourties, parents bringing their children into that environment can utilize what they view as negative behavior to educated said children. That is what I ment by personal responsibility and cops not raising your kids. Parents need to protect and educate their kids not city council members.
When you sign up to be a vendor at a rally that is advertised as being “family-friendly”, you need to take the responsibility to be family-friendly, not family-I’m-going-to-put-you-in-the-position-of-teaching-your-children-a-lesson-that-is-probably-not-an-appropriate-one-to-be-forced-into-teaching-them. The festival management and the cops shouldn’t have to explain that to you.
I look forward to the thrilling denouement.
It is quite a relief that I can disabuse my children of the lessons of history, ancient or modern. I can see that I have wasted a lot of time and energy learning from the past– that the lessons I wish to convey upon my progeny are as simple as “don’t look at those t-shirts.” However, as a new convert to such a successful system of child-rearing, is it necessary for me to make a new t-shirt to express every nuance of what I would prefer to not have harbored in their formative minds? If so, I can do that. If, however, going through the throes of naval history, I might need some help explaining the fates of the HMS Hood or the Bismarck with the t-shirt-aversion-morality education. I’m sure that there is a “if you can see the hull hull of this ship, and the surrounding waters are freezing and full of dying sailors, but this was an important shipping lane during WWII, then my bitch fell off the bike.”
The truth is that Bikes, Blues, and BBQ has nothing to do with “Hollister” or any other historical event or condition involving early motorcycle gangs or clubs. It is an annoying manifestation of a hobby that many citizens of the town find disruptive. There aren’t two sides of the story, as you seem to contend– there is the event and how it passed. If you, or any other vendor, displayed untoward merchandise, then that is what happened. It didn’t happen in some way that an internet forum might soften obscenities or alter history.
I’ve been trying to figure-out where I was going to organize my “Alcohol Funny-Car, Classical Music and Appetizers Festival,” I’m thinking there is a town in Iowa somewhere that cannot get it’s fill of absurdly loud engines, annoyingly loud symphonic music and delicious lil’ smokies. I’ll need to urinate in your yard. I’ll make a t-shirt beforehand emblazoned “I’m taking a leak in your hydrangeas,” that way the youth of your town will know it is not acceptable to do so.
Ya know what forget fb. Here it is. Before entering this state I talked to a man who was renting the booth to me I said we sell shirts that say drink f#@* fight ride. He said rent is 500 . We have never seen or heard of any advertising for this event so we didn’t know about the family friendly deal. I handed this man his money he saw our booth several times and never said a word. Next day the police came and said use duct tape and cover it up, we did. Next day new cops came up said not enough use more duct tape, we obliged. Next cops came up same deal, again we obliged even shaking an officers hand. Final night they shut us down due to complaints….now during this whole time t shirts are being sold that say eat @#$# and die mother @#$%*+, and not fourth fee from our booth someone could buy a bong. Was this all due to our booth or was it due to the individuals who bought our gear and wore it there? I don’t know but we could not be happier about our citation, we sold more due to it and its free publicity. Had the man we paid 500 dollars to told us the event was family oriented we would have never come. You can post all you want and we will enjoy the read but this has become a waste of our time. End of story is we infracted a city ordinance that we were not properly informed of and now we will see our day in court. The company is allornothing, not someoralittle.
Thank you for shedding light on the situation. I feel that your umbrage is with the event organizers and not with the City of Fayetteville or the citizens of Fayetteville.
it’d be interesting to know the name of the festival organizer who saw your @#$# and die mother @#$%*+ tshirts, took your booth fee and said nothing. Its looking like the bbbbq organizers are dodging responsibility as they stuff their pockets.
Odd you should bring that up as we have tried to reach the individual since the event but with no avail. However I don find it necessary at this time to out them.
I was wondering since you made so much money, maybe you will be paying back your $2000+ debt to me. Not sure how many people you owe money to in Phoenix, but if there is more then just me… how about you pay us ALL back!
It isn’t just 4 days, its a good 2 weeks on either side of the event plus year round increased noise as Fyvlle’s reputation as biker friendly grows. Then there are the constant attempts to create more biker festivals as if anything at all is justified if it makes enough money for a certain strata of the merchant class. Dr’s advice: If you don’t care about other people- just yourself and what you want- go stand before a mirror with a good definition of ‘sociopath’ and and enjoy a free moment of insight.