Joe Bruno on the Mob – Who is Mike Yevtuck And Why Is He Badmouthing the Hells Angels?

I never heard of this guy Mike Yevtuck, and I don't know why he has an ax to grind with the Hells Angels. But his comments about the Hells Angles are obscene, and in my opinion, uncalled for.

In the article below, Yevtuck, using the most vile language, goes on a racist rampage against the Hells Angels, then claims "I'm not a racist."

I'm not going to comment directly on Yevtuck's remarks, but I do want to tell you that branding the Hells Angels as drug dealers and worse, is like calling all Italian/Americans like myself — members of the Mafia.

I know the Hells Angels have gotten a lot of bad press lately, with the murders of Jeffrey Pettigrew and Jonathan Bacon, the shooting of Larry Amero, and the arrest of Cesar Villagrana. But as far as I'm concerned, these are isolated incidents and in no way indicative of the behavior of the vast majority of the Hells Angels.

I grew up in Manhattan's Little Italy, which northernmost boarder is Houston Street, just three blocks from the Hells Angels Manhattan headquarters at 77 East 3rd Street. I've always felt that the Hells Angels were to their neighborhood, what the wise guys were to my neighborhood. You might not like them personally, and maybe some of them committed crimes, but they kept their neighborhoods safe. Going back to the 60′s, 70′s and 80′s, Little Italy, and the area around the Hells Angels headquarters, were the safest neighborhoods in the five boroughs.

And you'd think with the close proximity of the two groups, both sometimes known for violence, that there would have been problems between the two factions. But to my knowledge, and I lived the Little Italy area for 48 years, the Italian/Americans and the Hells Angels got along just fine, because we basically left each other alone. We practiced mutual respect, which is much needed in our world today.

In the 1970′s and the 1980′s, there was an Italian/American after-hours joint on 2st Street, just off First Avenue. Many times I'd be cruising in my car through the neighborhood with my friends, looking for a parking spot, so that we could spend some quality time in the social club. And many times, while looking for that parking spot, we'd pass the Hells Angels headquarters, where a few Hells Angels were congregating outside their club. They knew who we were, and we knew who they were. We'd wave a greeting to them to them, and they'd wave back.

No trouble. No animosity. No "What are you doing in our neighborhood?" nonsense.

And as far as I know, this peace has continued until today. (I moved to Florida in 1995)

In fact, when Robert DeNiro, who was born and raised on Bleeker Street and hung out in Little Italy, was starring and directing the film "A Bronx Tale," he hired several actual Hells Angels for the classic bar-fight scene, which was supposed to have taken place in the Bronx's Little Italy.

Sure, there's bad apples in the Hells Angels. But like the Italian/Americans in Little Italy, most Hells Angels are law-biding citizens, who just like to enjoy the camaraderie of a biker gang.

I don't know what Mike Yevtuck's problem is with the Hells Angels, and frankly, I don't care. But stereotyping an entire group because of the actions of a few of its members, no matter what group, or no matter what nationality, is not what America is all about.

The article below can be seen at:

http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/vall...

Hells Angels Hater Mike Yevtuck Wants World to Know He Aint No Racist

By James King Tue., Feb. 1 2011 at 2:39 PM

Mike Yevtuck: Not a racist.

​The Hells Angels Motorcycle Club and this newspaper have an (ahem) interesting relationship. Every time we write about the gang (literally every time), the comment section of each blog post erupts with comments from people accusing the group of molesting children, cooking meth, and various other crimes. Members of the group counter by threatening New Times writers, spelling things wrong, and apparently posting racist comments under the names of those who oppose them.

One of those in frequent opposition to the "8-1″ is Mike Yevtuck, who tells New Times his hatred of the gang dates back to when he was 14 years old. More importantly, Yevtuck wants New Times readers to know that he's not a racist, despite there being some very racist comments left on blog posts under his name.

For example, the following comment was left under the name "Mike Yevtuck" on a blog post about a few guys who stole about 5,000 OxyContins from a pharmacy last week (all sic):

"those drug addict spooks and pecker woods in the pictures are friends with new times hack writer james king.he hangs out with a bad crowd and always has. the hells angels are his main local drug connection for meth. talk to james king at new times if you want these drug addict bandits caught. james knows good and well where they are and where they live."

Yevtuck wants the world to know that he's not a racist and the rant quoted above, and other racist comments left on the New Times website in the past, were not left by him. He suspects the people leaving the comments are members of the Hells angels trying to discredit him.

"[The Hells Angels] are out there runnin' around, doin' what they do," Yevtuck says, "but they're too pussy to do anything about it."

Yevtuck says his problems with the gang date back years and stem from the way it's historically treated women and children.

"They've been beatin' 'em up and fuckin' 'em up for as long as I can remember," he continues.

So, just to clear things up, Mike Yevtuck wants the world to know that he's not a racist. If you see racist comments on this website under his name, they were not written by him.