If you are not familiar with this story, you can click here to read my original article.
Since I have written the article, I have been contacted by bikers and motorcyclist who reside in Canyon Lake, California about potentially initiating legal action against Canyon Lake for their practice of blatantly discriminating against residents who own motorcycles.
Canyon Lake you are now on notice that we may be coming for you in a Court of Law real soon! It might be better if you just let residents who own motorcycles ride in your city!
The President of the Canyon Lake Motorcycle Club recently informed me about more hypocrisy from the Brain Dead of Canyon Lake. It appears that they care more about banning motorcycles from their city than their own children! No shit; true story. You can read a newspaper article about it here.
Apparently speeding cagers have been putting kids who are getting on and off of school buses in and around Canyon Lake in danger. What idiot would speed by a school bus or school bus stop with children standing by? This is another issue that will not be discussed in this article.
The residents of Canyon Lake complained, so the Riverside County Sheriff assigned motorcycle officers to go after the speeders. Guess what; those brain dead residents of Canyon Lake, California complained that the cops were using MOTORCYCLES to correct the problem. Can you believe it? Here the cops go out to try to help their kids and they complain because they are using MOTORCYCLES?
The President of the Canyon Lake Motorcycle Club calls it an embarrassment. I call it lunacy.
Discrimination in all of its forms is in plain language “Ignorance.” Ignorance and Discrimination walk hand in hand.
So if one of the brain dead residents of Canyon Lake loses a child to a speeder because they complained about the cops using motorcycles to catch the speeders, than guess what; you asked for it.
How can a group of people be so dumb that they would put their prejudice against bikers and motorcyclist above their own children? The Answer is simple; PURE IGNORANCE.
By Norman Gregory Fernandez, Esq. ,© 2007
Welcome, my name is 
Norm: This is a growing trend across the Land of the Free and Home of the Brave. In and around Indian River County, Florida, and St. Lucie County,Florida beachside condos are located on State HWY A1A. AIA is beachside oceanfront. Many of these condos forbid owners from having motorcycles. I have two friends who live in $500,000 condos over there who have to rent storage units to keep their motorcycles in. They are not allowed to even stop by their condo and go inside to get something they have forgotten. Motorcycles are not allowed on premises. Hard to believe and hard to swallow when you see how much they pay for monthly condo fees and property taxes.
I live in Canyon Lake and I am an Officer in the club. The CC&R was not in place when I moved there, but it was common knowledge the there was a rule in place. At the time I didn’t care because I wasn’t riding.
The CC&R was put in place based on a lie that the roads in the city are unsafe for motorcycles. YEA RIGHT! We probably have the cleanest streets in the state. All we have to do is get someone to fess up that the ruling was based on a falsehood, like that is going to ever happen. We have exausted legal options in Canyon Lake and with a non puplished decision, there is no presidence for future litegation. So our only other option is legislation, unless someone else in another county wins a case and at the appeals level and it gets puplished.
Meanwhile, we struggle to get our bikes in and out. We really could use some help in getting this done if there is anyone out there that can help. We established a web site where we can be reached “canyonlakemotorcycleclub” .com. I am tired of this crap and want change yesterday!
Ed
I live in Menifee, which borders Canyon Lake. Canyon Lake sits in the middle of several towns that the general public considers “white trash” towns, Perris, Lake Elsinore, Quail Valley, Wildomar, and Menifee. Canyon Lake on the other hand, is an exclusive (gated) lake front community.
Furthermore, Lake Elsinore is the domain the ### ### MC, ( Motorcycle Club Name Edited Out!) while Menifee and other nearby areas is the domain of the ### MC ( Motorcycle Club Name Edited Out!) . I can’t tell you off-hand which MC is claiming Canyon Lake, but my guess is that no club is claiming it because of the ordinance. These clubs only pass through the main thoroughfare of Canyon Lake.
In my neighborhood, just a couple of houses away, there used to be a ranking member of the #### ( Motorcycle Club Name Edited Out!) . Mostly remained quiet, until the parties started. There was also that incident where his wife drove a golf cart over another neighbor’s lawn, and tore it up. That neighbor got decked in the face when he protested.
The reason why Canyon Lake has a rule against motorcycles within the gated community is to prevent ### ### ( Motorcycle Club Name Edited Out!) and ### ( Motorcycle Club Name Edited Out!) from moving in. If they can live in my development, they can live in yours. Albeit all these incidences are isolated cases, the President of the Canyon Lake Motorcycle Club is going to have to convince other property owners that there is no threat from the 1%ers.
I agree with everything you said Norman. I’m just explaining to you the circumstances around Canyon Lake, and why the city has this law. The 1% clubs around that town is why this law is there. It’s not a matter of Canyon Lake being “brain dead”. They just don’t want 1%ers in their neighborhood.
I realize you may have lots of friends who are in 1% clubs, and they’re a great group of guys. Fine. But I’m not the one to convince, convince the property owners of Canyon Lake.
Here in the Inland Empire, a couple of Christmas’ ago, there was the matter of members from a 1% club that opened fire on members of another 1% club at a bar in Norco, CA, during a toy run. It turned out that firemen were hit instead.
It’s violence like that that worries people. It’s not a predjudice against bikers. It’s not a First Amendment issue. Address the 1%er violence that always gets reported by the main stream media. That’s the issue.
The worst part is Sandie that no matter what we do, there will be people that will buy under such conditions.
I feel the only answer is through appropriate State Legislation that prevents homeowners associations from banning any resident from possessing or using a legal form of transportation. There is a significant State and Federal interest in doing so, especially considering motorcycles use less gas than cars!!
In the case of Canyon Lake, they are more than just a condo unit. It is a private city that has been incorporated. Therefore they should be treated like any other city and not be allowed to ban legal forms of transportation.
Norm
There were a couple of legal argument’s that were not made in your previous case! I don’t want to reveal them here in case you guys still want to litigate.
Norm
I edited out the names of the clubs you mentioned.
There may be members of motorcycle clubs, mafia, drug dealers, child molesters, robbers, murderers and whatnot living at Canyon Lake right now and nobody would know it. Using your theory Canyon Lake should ban cars too because all of the above drive cars. It is ludicrous.
I do not buy the argument that Canyon Lake is discriminating against all motorcyclist, because they are trying to keep members of certain motorcycle clubs out of the neighborhood.
Have you ever heard of the 1st Amendment to the Constitution? It gives all Americans the right to associate with whoever they want. A homeowners association cannot legally discriminate against someone because they may belong to a certain organization, or they associate with people that others may not like.
With respect to 1%ers; I am an attorney for one of the clubs that you mentioned. They are simply a motorcycle club. A bunch of guys that have families, have jobs, pay taxes, and happen to belong to a motorcycle club that is a major part of their lives. Any organization or club may have one or two bad apples but the vast majority are good people.
You cannot paint a club or organization in a bad light simply because one or two guys may break the law. If we did that then Congress should be banned because some of its members were just convicted of felonies, the Executive Branch of the government would be banned because that idiot Scooter was just convicted of a felony, etc. You could even try to ban bowling teams and leagues because one or two of the members broke the law.
My position is that Canyon Lake just flat out is discriminating against bikers. There are newspaper articles about residents complaining about law enforcement using motorcycles to protect its kids from speeders. What does this have to do with motorcycle clubs?
I have a legal theory that can be used to sue Canyon Lake that has not been used yet. There would be a good chance of prevailing against Canyon Lake by using this legal theory. If I am retained by the motorcyclist of Canyon Lake, I will pull the trigger and file a lawsuit.
In the end Canyon Lake is just flat out discriminating against bikers for whatever reason. I believe that their ban is unconstitutional.
Norm
I am familiar with the incident you are speaking of. I heard it was a group of guys in a car that opened fire. I was not there so who knows what really happened.
Unfortunately there is violence in all walks of human existence. In all cities and in all towns.
I do not buy the argument that Canyon Lake is banning all motorcycles because of an alleged 1%er club problem. There could be members of 1%er clubs living there right now.
The problem with mainstream media is the they demonize 1%er clubs into something that they are not. Just because there may be one or two bad apples does not mean the whole bunch is bad.
Going back to Canyon Lake; they complained about motorcycle police using motorcycles to catch speeders that were putting their children in danger! What does this have to do with motorcycle clubs?
Canyon Lake is banning a legal form of transportation; they even complained about the cops using motorcycles!
The trouble with these types of bans is where do they stop? I firmly believe that the Canyon Lake ban on motorcycles in the quasi city is unconstitutional. This is a free nation. If someone has a problem with an individual who is breaking the law then they can call the cops.
I do not have to convice anyone except a jury if it comes down to another lawsuit against Canyon Lake. Imagine if Riverside, or San Bernardino were to ban motorcycles? Imagine if Los Angeles were to do a blanket ban on SUV’s? The issue is that Canyon Lake is a quasi city for purposes of the law. They cannot just ban a legal form of transportation on a whim.
In the end we will see how this goes!
Norm