Google translated from German
According to the police, more than 2,000 rockers and motorcyclists drove through Berlin on Saturday afternoon in a parade under the motto “Freedom is our Religion”. Accordingly, 3,500 participants were registered, including the Bandidos MC motorcycle club and the Hells Angels Nomads with 1,500 motorcycles.
The route led from Alt-Biesdorf (Marzahn-Hellersdorf) to the Brandenburg Gate, where a rally was planned – and back again.
The drivers were out on noisy machines and mostly wore leather clothing or T-shirts – but no frocks. The demonstration should set a sign for freedom and basic rights of motorcyclists, announced the organizers on their website.
Demonstration against tightening laws
The participants from all over Germany feel restricted by possible driving bans, cowl bans, internet censorship and license plate scans. Before there are new or tightened laws, the existing ones must first be exhausted, according to a press release from the organizers.
According to the police on Saturday afternoon, the event initially went without any special incidents.
The rocker scene and the law
Parts of the rocker scene are repeatedly associated with organized crime. In mid-July it became known that almost 700 criminal proceedings against rockers had been initiated in Berlin since 2015. However, the Hells Angels Nomads do not belong to any fixed local group – internally called Chapter.
In 2020, according to the internal administration, the focus was on 30 OMCG groups or their support clubs, in the previous year there were 27. The abbreviation stands for Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs and denotes rocker groups relevant to the police. According to the Federal Criminal Police Office, this primarily includes the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club (HAMC), the Bandidos MC (BMC), the Outlaws MC (OMC) and the Gremium MC (GMC) as well as their supporter groups.
