2008 Laughlin River Run Police Review

In the coming days we will have more info about 2008 Laughlin River Run and all the exciting times that we had but I wanted to address one issue that has been burning in my mind since the first day we arrived.

Laughlin is a small town and really depends on tourism dollars to keep the city afloat. To attract tourists such as bikers, cities such as Laughlin need to host events like the Laughlin River Run to bring biker money to them. Without the bikers, businesses such as the casinoes and support businesses would find harder times. With attendance reaching 70,000+ bikers a year, you can imagine the type of money that is brought in during the week.

Bikers are very fickle and when they think that they are being dis-respected or treated like trash, they will find another spot to spend their money. During the Lauglin River Run, the police presence certainly gave many bikers the idea that they were just that, trash that needed to be hauled away. During the first two days I was there, I certainly got the impression that Laughlin wanted our money but really did not want our presence there.  My partner Joan was sure I was just imaging things and that the police presence was not anymore than any other rally or that they were looking for excuses to pull people over.

 During our time at Laughlin, there was almost no time that we could remember when the police did not have someone pulled over or were “talking” to bikers. I have spent alot of time at other large rallies and have never seen the amount of police presence nor the number of bikers pulled over for whatever reason. Even in Sturgis, I never saw so many police as compared to the number in Laughlin and that event has many times over the number of bikers in Laughlin. 

Even as we were getting ready to take photos of a Bikini Contest, we were near two police officers sitting in their patrol car when we overheard one officer say to the other “I will cuff him if he does anything.” We could see that the two officers were looking at two bikers down the row from the police car and we could tell that neither of the bikers were part of any club. We did see that the two bikers just seemed to be talking and not doing anything illegal. Joan was quite surprised to hear the officer’s comment and I only felt confirmation that my feelings were right when I heard him.

Ironically as I bought things from different vendors and casinos, I kept asking people how they thought the run was going. The general theme from the local employees is that the Laughlin River Run is slowly diminishing as the police presence seems to increase. Even the vendors kept saying how attendance was down and the number of vendors seemed to be fewer each year.

Bikers really just want to do a couple of things especially when they are in a state that allows gambling. Watching bikes cruise up and down main street is probally one of the most enjoyable parts of any rally like Laughlin or even Sturgis. By watching the bikes ride by or cruising on your own biker, you can see all types of motorcycles and get to hear them roar by. Of course, bikers want to be able to drink, eat and be merry but with the heavy police presence it seemed unwise to drink because of the possibility of a DUII charge or dis-orderly conduct charge.

In talking with two different motorcycle clubs, I asked members of the clubs how they felt about the police, they all responded that they felt that they were heavyhanded and did nothing to make it a peaceful event.

One of the motorcycle club members said that their whole group had been pulled over just so the police could get their names and check to make sure that their bikes were not stolen. I asked if they believed if all or just one of the bikers in the pack had comitted any type of moving violation to cause them all to be pulled over. While they thought one of the bikers could have done something wrong, they did not believe that the whole group had.

It is kinda odd that the police are allowed to pull over a group of bikers and  take down all their information. I have never seen any other group such as the Antique car club or even the mini-cooper car groups get pulled over en masse so that police could check their license and make sure their cars are not stolen.

Even though there has been violence at the Laughlin River Run in the past, it seems that over the length of the existence of it, it has been limited to the number of occasions. The most recent being in 2004 when two rival motorcycle clubs actually fought inside one of the casinos.

Do not take me wrong though, the Laughlin River Run was a fantastic event and everyone should go to it if they have a chance. But be aware, unlike alot of other rallies held in towns, the police are out in force and seemed to want to see what trouble they could find.

Compared to the Sturgis Rally, police presence is totally different. At the Sturgis Rally, police tend to stand in the background and just watch for people endangering others or doing something that is totally illegal. While they would ticket people for different things, the Sturgis police would pull the bikers aside and try not to draw attention to themselves because it seemed that they wanted bikers to feel welcome and not harassed. 

I for one am usually happy to have the police around because they really do help keep these kinds of events safe for all attending. There is nothing wrong with the police making sure that an event remains safe and that people are not doing bad things to other people or property.

Hopefully the police presence in Laughlin will find a better way at keeping the peace instead of using the heavyhanded approach that they favored this year. If they do continue, Laughlin will have to expect continued declining attendance as bikers chose to go to more biker friendly events.

It is sad to see that the police really are the ones bringing down the attendance because I can say without a doubt that the casinoes (management and employees) and other businesses in Laughlin and BullHead City were some of the friendlist and most helpful wherever we went. I would even say that I would chose Laughlin over going to Reno for Street Vibrations or Las Vegas for a vacation for another chance to go to the Laughlin River Run.

Overall we had a blast and you will see more about some of the things that we covered while we were at the Laughlin River Run. But the way the police acted will continue to stick in my mind and will certainly temper me returning to the Laughlin River Run.