HELLS ANGEL SAYS PEOPLE ARE RUDE TO HIM

Spokesman Tells Court He Feels 'Fear And Loathing' Since Group Was
Ruled A Criminal Organization

A high-profile member of the Vancouver Hells Angels says people have
been rude to him and he has experienced "fear and loathing" from the
public at supermarkets, restaurants and other places after an Ontario
court ruling last year that found the Hells Angels is a criminal
organization, a Vancouver judge was told Monday.

In an affidavit filed in B.C. Supreme Court, Rickey Ciarniello, 61,
the president of the Vancouver chapter, who has been a member of the
Hells Angels since 1983, says he has always proudly worn his Hells
Angels insignia, known as colours, but since the Ontario ruling he
has experienced "harassment, stigma and ostracism that membership
would now seem to entail."

He was wearing a black jacket in court Monday that said in small
letters on the front: Vancouver Hells Angels.

His affidavit, obtained by The Vancouver Sun, claims he is a
law-abiding Hells Angels member who is "not responsible for the
criminal acts that have, at times, been committed by some of its members."

His affidavit recalled that after the Ontario ruling, Ciarniello went
to a restaurant called Joey Tomatoes wearing his colours and
overheard a couple asking to be moved because they didn't want to sit
next to a criminal.

"Following that I was quite uncomfortable and decided to leave the
restaurant," said the affidavit.

"I have noticed a marked difference in the way that people respond to
me when I am wearing my colours," Ciarniello said in his affidavit.

"The mood has gone from friendly and casual curiosity to fear,
loathing and avoidance such that I am now made to feel uncomfortable
wearing the HAMC [Hells Angels Motorcycle Club] insignia."

Since the Ontario judgment, his affidavit says, staff members at the
local Safeway near his Port Coquitlam home -- where he has purchased
groceries for 20 years -- are not as friendly as they used to be, and
he's received similar treatment at a Shell gas station.

His affidavit also states that John Bryce, president of the East End
chapter of the Hells Angels, was refused as a customer of the Bank of
Nova Scotia, after two decades of business with it, after the Ontario ruling.

And Ciarniello says while he regularly spoke to the media on behalf
of the Hells Angels in B.C. and nationally, he has generally
refrained from speaking out to the same extent after the ruling
because he is concerned that "I may be charged with participating in
the activities of a criminal organization...."

He said the effect of the Ontario ruling "is to declare me a member
of a criminal organization notwithstanding that I have never engaged
in the promotion of criminal conduct."

His affidavit was filed as part of his constitutional challenge of
all the sections of the Criminal Code making it illegal to
participate, direct or instruct people for the benefit of a criminal
organization.

He claims the Ontario Superior Court ruling in the case known as
Lindsay and Bonner has caused a stigma to belonging to the Hells
Angels in B.C., which infringes his section seven rights of life,
liberty and security of person.