Biker In Court
Unruly behaviour took centre stage in a London, Ont., courtroom Tuesday as the Crown began making its case against eight people charged in connection with last spring's Bandidos massacre.
Six people face first-degree murder charges in connection with the killings of eight biker-gang members found shot to death in a farmer's field last April near the southwestern Ontario town of Shedden, 25 kilometres south of London. Two others face accessory charges.
One of the bikers under arrest is ex-policeman Michael Sandham.
Sandham, 36, is a former police constable who held positions of authority in several Manitoba communities. Police said he is a full-patch member of the Bandidos, and believed to be the leader of the Winnipeg chapter.
Sandham was a police officer in the rural municipality of East St. Paul from June 2000 to October 2002, court records show. He trained for that job at the Winnipeg Police Training Academy.
He was suspended and then resigned from the East. St. Paul force after Winnipeg police provided his employer with pictures of him attending a Bandidos function when he was on leave from work, sources told CBC News.
CBC News has an excellent backgrounder on
Biker Gangs In Canada.
I owned a bike many years ago and I can understand those that ride them - there is no better feeling than soaring down the open highway. I've worked with several people that rode bikes. We shared a mutual feeling. If you should ever see two bikes passing eachother on the road, you'll notice one hand is always raised off the handlebar in a wave to his fellow rider - they're saying to eachother, "Hi brother, looking good. Take care."
What I have trouble with is understanding how a person dedicated enough to get himself through a police academy, whose regime is not for the faint of heart, can put all those principles behind him and take up the colours of a motorcyle gang.
If convicted, Sandham will have plenty of time to sit in his cell and think about how it felt to lift a hand to a passing biker.
