Merced County event held same weekend as Hollister Motorcycle
Rally
HOLLISTER
Attendance was sparse at the Los Banos “Valley Rally” held July 11 to July 13 in Los Banos – the same weekend as the Hollister Motorcycle Rally – while some locals there estimated there were about half as many cops as visitors at times.
Law enforcement personnel consisting of the local sheriff’s office, the Merced County Multi-Agency Gang Task Force, the County Narcotics Task Force and representatives of the police departments of Los Banos, Livingston, Merced and Atwater made up more than 100 officers at the motorcycle rally at the Los Banos Fairgrounds.
There were no more than an estimated 200 or so rally attendees at any given time, said Sal Dimaggio, co-owner of S&M Motorcycles, one of the Los Banos rally’s sponsors.
“It seemed like a huge waste of taxpayer dollars, to be honest with you,” he said.
Sgt. Jason Goins with the Merced County Sheriff’s Office remains adamant that the presence was appropriate and successful.
“You can never have too many officers when you are preparing for the unknown,” said Goins. “We had just had a motorcycle gang-related shooting and stabbing – that’s why we beefed up. There were no arrests and no violent incidents, and that is what we wanted.”
Hells Angels and Mongols, rival gangs, two weeks before the event were involved in a confrontation ending with six shots fired from a handgun and a man getting stabbed. It happened, ironically, at a “Stop the Violence” rally in Pacheco Park. Law enforcement agencies, as a result, increased patrols at the rally.
Those that had booths at the event were disappointed by the low turnout.
“I think I paid about five hundred bucks for the booth,” Dimaggio said. “None of the vendors were happy. It seemed like everything was double booked, too many different people selling the same things, and no one there to buy the stuff anyway.”
Goins agrees.
“Yeah, they were told to expect between 30 (thousand) and 70,000 people, so I can see why they were very disappointed,” Goins said. “We expected there to be a lot of folks going back and forth between Hollister and Los Banos, and that just didn’t happen.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
