BIKERS AGAINST CHILD ABUSE: POWER OF PROTECTION

Nine and a Half: We exist as a body of bikers to empower to not feel afraid of the world in which they live.  

DogCatcher: It's not about the bad guy, or this or that. It specifically about the children, 
and the more we can reach out, the more children we can help. 

Nine and a Half: In order to be a member of Bikers Against Child Abuse, the first thing is you have to go and get a federal NCIC background check. Now, this is a nationwide check. We check for everything – and it's all arrest records, period--okay? Now, we know who we are, and most of us do have records. If there is any domestic abuse, if there's anything for a child, or any sexual, then you cannot be a member of this organization. 

And, there are other things that will keep you from that as well, but we do a very strenuous background check. It takes a minimum of 12 months of riding with us before we even consider you to patch. Time for us to get to know you, to make sure your heart is in the right place, and the heart has to be with these kids. It's not about wearing a patch.  It's not about being cool.  It's not about the "Sons of Anarchy".  It's about these kids. In that 12 months, there are hundreds of hours of training that we have to go through.  

DogCatcher: We only take cases that come to us through the guardian because we want to make sure that the family is on board, obviously. So, DHS's part is to explain to the family who you are and what we do. 

Nine and a Half: The first call comes in, and what we'll do is just a very brief interview.  We want to find out if there is a valid case. We will ask, in a nutshell what happened. We don't want to know details. We don't need to know details to help these kids. Is there a DHS report on file? Has a police report been filed?  These let us know that this is a legitimate problem--that there is a legitimate issue here. There are several questions we ask on that first initial interview. What we'll do – the child liaison who carries those phones, the child liaison will take that back to the E board, which every chapter has an executive board. We will take it back to the E board and we'll discuss it, and what we'll do is schedule what we call an ICT, an initial contact. 

DogCatcher: Everything we do, we ask the child's permission. If the child says no, we respect that. And, we give that power, that control back. 

Nine and a Half: Once we schedule a level one, we will ride over there in force. Now what I mean by that is--you have the entire chapter, several chapters from other areas. When we get together, there's people in the state who travel hundreds of miles just to go to a level one, just to empower a child.  Imagine a child that's been afraid, and all of a sudden he knows or she knows that this group is coming to help me, and protect me, and be with me. And, 40 and 50 bikes roll up, and they see us get off and know that we're there for them. 

We take them through the court process.  We escort them to and from court.  We sit in the courtroom with them to give them the strength to do what they have to do. If there is a risk of further abuse, that's called a level two. A level two, we will go to the house, and we'll surround the house with BACA members 24 hours a day, seven days a week, at the drop of a hat.  All the child has to do is say, "I'm afraid," and we will be there.  That's what we do. 

DogCatcher: We are all in the same boat. We are all doing the same thing. We just go about it a little different. Nine and a Half: We're not vigilantes. We are not looking to take care of justice. We have got a judicial system for that. Our focus is on kids, to make sure that kid is not afraid anymore.