This Black August, I want to honor a force of resistance in Baltimore City that continues to fight every week against police repression, builds community between generations, race, sexuality, gender, and age, creates spaces of empowerment and education, and, through their actions, shows us that artificial borders and boundaries are nothing more than lines that can be erased.
The 12 O’Clock Boys, also known as The Pack, is a community formed around the love of dirt bikes, four-wheeled ATVs, three-wheeled Slingshots, other all-terrain vehicles, and tricked-out cars. Every Sunday, The Pack has weekly rideouts through Baltimore City or others across the East Coast. (They are even sometimes seen out in Ohio and New Orleans.)
These riders are not only masters of actually riding these vehicles, they also are extremely talented performers who use their vehicle as a stage, prop, and co-star on the road while they are all riding. The name 12 O’Clock Boys comes from the practice of hitting a wheelie and having such perfectly stable control of the vehicle that it points straight to the sky, like when all the hands of a clock are aligned at the 12.
More than just street performers, those in The Pack are also mechanics and educators. Mostly everyone who rides out can fix their own vehicles and also the vehicles of their brothers, sisters and siblings around them. They host competitions, where it isn’t just races and riding skill, but also who can fix and repair their vehicles the fastest, who can identify problems the quickest, who can change parts out on the fly in the least amount of time. It reminds me of the practice in the Cuban Revolution, where it was a badge of honor and a sign of commitment to the Revolution for revolutionaries to make their own hammocks after learning and being on campaign with veteran comrades in the Sierra Maestra mountains.
There are also camps and workshops they host for new riders of all ages to attend, where they teach safety and introduce the basics of what it takes to ride and be with The Pack and maintain a vehicle like the ones they ride.
It does not come without its risks. The Pack is constantly harassed and targeted by the police and residents who want to see them gone.
Recently, residents of Federal Hill and Fells Point (2 of the most gentrified areas and major economic / tourist zones in the city) have ramped up calls for the police to put an end to the dirtbikes that ride through those areas. Residents also attempt to interfere with the rides, using their own personal vehicles as blockers and weapons against the 12 O’Clock Boys.
Before Fells Point and Federal Hill became major hubs for tourists and nightlife, they were areas home to long-existing Black communities pushed out due to anti-Black urban renewal planning, redlining, police oppression and city disinvestment. The Pack riding through these areas is no different from Palestinians fighting to return to the lands illegally taken from them by the U.S.-backed Zionist state of Israel.
In Baltimore, police are not supposed to engage in chases with the dirtbikes for the sake of public safety. However, there are many instances of the Baltimore Police Department chasing the bikes with multiple police interceptors and helicopter coverage. Police Officers also attempt to force the riders in The Pack to crash by trying to run them off the road. Most sick, however, is the tactic of the police turning their cars into battering rams and charging towards the dirtbike riders with their high beam lights on in an effort to blind the rider and force him to hit the car or have an accident. Houses are raided and residents are forced to line up on the sidewalks of their neighborhoods while police conduct violent raids, kicking in doors and destroying people’s stuff looking for dirtbikes and spare parts.
These attempts by the police to stop the 12 O’Clock Boys are not just because of the weekly rideouts. There are videos of dirt bike riders recording police as they harass community members around the city. In these videos, cops always attempt to stop the rider from filming what is going on or even arrest the rider and confiscate their vehicle.
Recently, The Pack was in D.C., riding in defiance of Trump’s federal occupation of the city and complete terrorizing of the Black neighborhoods and Black existence.
The narrative linking those who ride in The Pack to crime is racist fear-mongering meant to create false consent for the government to continue and escalate their constant oppression of Black spaces with the heavy hand of the police. There have been many petitions and campaigns to build parks to accommodate The Pack, but every attempt was shot down and sunk into the political quagmire.
Finally, The Pack is not just a Baltimore city thing. Their rideouts stretch from the city into the county. Through their rides, you can see the connection of Black communities that are only divided by arbitrary lines made by racist politicians to keep us divided. The roads they ride on are the lifelines that connect the Black existence in Edmonson Village to our siblings living in Woodlawn, they connect the Black communities in the county to communities deep in the city, from Reisterstown to Park Heights to Upton and Sandtown / Winchester.
The Pack are the city’s visual reminder of what liberation and freedom look like, and their constant struggle against the police and government at large is a reminder of the effort it will take for people to come together and fight back to end the racist practice of redlining and ultimately defeat white supremacy.
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Bike riders and other community members come out in the streets following an officer-involved shooting.
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