Philadelphia - There is nothing like national headlines than a possible illegal act by an outlaw motorcycle club member.

Don't worry about the burglaries, assaults and murders commited by low-lifes in the community. It's those bikers you need to watch.

The latest in histaria has been displayed by the Delaware County District Attorney in the wake of the murder of Hells Angels member Thomas Wood last week. Police have been frantic since the shooting and word has been in every major newspaper in the nation about the possible biker war between the Pagans and Hells Angels.

Delaware County District Attorney G. Michael Green said that law enforcement agencies across the state will be on alert and monitoring activities of any biker who wear colors.

It should be noted that the Pagans and Hells Angels have hated each other for decades. It should also be noted that there has been violent episodes between the clubs. But Philadelphia has a lot more to worry about than the Hells Angels and the Pagans. Fact being, there are a whole lot more clubs than that in the Philly area with very little crime attributed to them.

Even Police Chief Walter Fife said that while there haven’t been major incidents involving outlaw bikers in Delaware County in years. In fact, according to a USAToday article dated December 31, 2004; crime has been on a downward slide in Philadelphia in recent years, which is exactly the time that the Hells Angels setup their first Philly chapter.

There were over 300 murders in Philadelphia last year, or 23.2 per every 100,00 residents. There were over 400 a year back in the 90's. There were over 1000 rapes, 10,000 robberies, 11,000 assaults and over 12,000 burglaries.

After all of this mahem, suddenly the sky is falling. The reasons are obvious to most people. If a newspaper reported that a man was gunned down in a south Philly neighborhood during the night, few but those in the neighborhood would care. Report that an outlaw motorcycle club member was executed in a hit in a prelude to a war...the papers fly off the shelves.

Same with the police. Crime is going down. Normaly during times of declining crime rates, funding increases are harder to come by. If the police say that there were 348 murders last year, most people don't pay too much attention. They expect certain levels of mayhem in a city, and besides, aren't things getting better? Report that there are maurading gangs of bikers running up and down the streets and it's a different thing. Even street gangs, whose numbers are vastly larger than that of motorcycle clubs don't get as much run in the press.