CNN published the mugshots of all of the biker gang members who were arrested after the recent shootout in a Waco, TX restaurant. There were a total of 171 pictures, all in the same standard pose and most in the same standard orange jumpsuit:
Seeing all of these pictures got me wondering if it was possible to create an image that represented the typical gang member. I had seen a technique called “pixel averaging” applied to a series of wedding photos many years ago and I was able to find a tool called ImageJ that helped me with the processing.
It was a fairly straightforward effort … just upload the individual photos into an image stack and then apply a z-filter to each pixel of each “slice” or picture in the stack. The result is as follows:
Despite a wide variety of ages, facial hair, and ethnic backgrounds in the mugshots, the combined image looks like some guy you might see at a weekend softball game. It certainly gives no indication of how dangerous some of these men (and women) can be.
Updates:
- 11/12/2015 – Indictments handed down: http://gawker.com/106-indicted-in-waco-twin-peaks-biker-shootout-with-mor-1742071194
- 10/05/2015 – Many questions arising about police misconduct in the Waco raid: http://www.gq.com/story/untold-story-texas-biker-gang-shoot-out?mbid=social_cp_twitter_tny
- 7/22/2015 – Looks like some of the folks arrested in Waco aren’t getting a fair shake from the local police: http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/07/waco-is-suppressing-evidence-that-could-clear-innocent-bikers/399047/
- 4/5/2019 – “Almost four years after a gunfight among rival motorcycle gangs left nine bikers dead at a Twin Peaks restaurant in Waco, Texas, this story of wild misconduct and ineptitude in the criminal-justice system came to a predictable conclusion on Tuesday.” https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/04/waco-biker-gunfight-conclusion/586381/