Randy Gettings, event organizer of B-Town Bike Rally, said the city of Belen's decision to cancel the event caught many vendors off guard.
“We left a lot of vendors, a lot of hard-working people hanging," Gettings said. "They spent money making stuff for this event."
After cancellation of the scheduled June 10 rally, many people voiced their concerns at the June 5 Belen City Council meeting, KRQE reported.
The bike rally would have been Belen's third, but the city council denied the event permit, due to safety reasons, the station reported. The decision came one week after a deadly shooting in Red River during that community's annual Memorial Day Motorcycle Rally that left three people dead and five injured.
According to police, all involved were outlaw motorcycle gang members. A resident said, “We can’t sit there and just crucify everybody just for the circumstances of a few individuals who are kind of ruining it for everybody else."
Belen's rally was postponed several times after the shooting, before ultimately being canceled, KRQE reported.
“If you would have just said, ‘Hey, look you guys are shut down' that would have, I believe, been easier for us because then we would have had to move on," said event organizer Welky Theodore.
Although Gettings said he understands why the city canceled the event, he also believes he was left out of the final decision. He said he thinks there was a way to postpone the rally and hold it safely, adding, “It was just throw it all away. All of our hard work, all year."
Gettings and others understand the city’s concern for safety, but believe the council's decision was a violation of their freedom.
“If we start canceling stuff because certain individuals or certain things or certain events that happen, we’re going to end up canceling the Fourth of July," a resident said.
Belen Mayor Robert Noblin said the event is popular but came at a bad time. Two city council members admitted that the decision could have been handled better, but they backed city staff, the city manager, the police chief and the fire chief signing off on the final call.
Police Chief James Harris said he received a tip of planned violence at the rally and another tip from outlaw motorcycle gangs that holding a rally in the current environment would be a “terrible decision,” KRQE reported.