salveya

Wow, I've never heard it put so nicely. I don't think I've ever heard that argument, about if you can afford mods you can afford track time, but it makes sense.

TeamRX8

iTrader: (25)

fyi, only cars that are stolen or have stolen parts are going to be crushed

MrSuicideDoor

did you just make this up? or did you read it in a book of totally incorrect facts?

LionZoo

I think when someone runs for the cops they believe that they have a chance at getting away and already know they're in big trouble if they can't so the additional penalties probably won't have much of an effect.

I loved that car crushing overlord comment though. It reminded me of The Simpsons episode where the aliens end up taking over the earth.

LionZoo

They can't actually afford the money that they're spending on mods, but due to the miracle of modern credit they think they can. Also, many of these races are for money, which isn't exactly encouraged by the local dragstrip.

For what it's worth, I'm not defending racers; I don't race and think it's absolutely stupid to race. However, I don't think the punishment fits the crime and I believe that based on all that I know, these kids are probably being taken advantage of by LA cops.

9291150

I’m willing to bet that most on this site raced somebody else atleast once in their lives. Or, if not, have easily passed the speed limit while enthusiastically running their cars through the gears or trying a high-speed run. So by definition, you’ve been guilty of street racing or at least careless driving…so do you all mind handing over your keys?

And I can’t stand monetary fines that can hit someone so much harder than the next. Take my car away now; no real hardship. At 18, I’d be devastated. But back then, tinkering with my car kept me out of a shitload of trouble, which should be encouraged, not the other way around. And swap meets got me most of my used parts, maybe they were hot, but how was I to know?

Just bugs me that some of you here are being so righteous. We’re talking about a culture where every car ad has manufacturers pitching you on their horsepower. Even the latest ad on the new lowly Mirage ads show two teens using onramps as a figure 8 racetrack.

Fact is, street racing has existed for 100+ years, and there have always been laws against it. There are a dozen places I’d focus on first if I wanted to make our roads safer, starting with outlawing drivers distractions such as cell phone use (as many countries have), and more stringent licensing guidelines. I’d also have a more severe demerit point system to root out bad drivers, and actually force cops out of their radar traps and onto the roads to find them.

toxin440

I will say that crusing a car just because you put a "performance enhancing product" is bullshit.

Worst case scenario -- all the kids that put **** on their cars... that in REALITY degrades performance... just because it looks like **** they want to crush it? What about a flame job, makes the car look faster and meaner, oops we gotta crush it.

I don't condone street racing - but I'm not uber **** against it. What i see happening is that with this SUPER stiff penalty - you will see kids REALLY trying to out run the cops, I wouldnt put it past some of the nut jobs to actually try to take OUT a cop who's coming down on them for street racing. If they know they are losing their car to a crusher... what else do you really have to lose?

I agree on the above post - if you want to make the streets safer lets start with the BIG things before you start with the little ones. Drunk drivers? how about if you are drunk and you kill someone - you are now on death row with a speedy trial and execution. I'm 100% for outlawing talking on a handset/******* with your makeup/reading/whatever while driving. Get a hands free headset or face a VERY stiff fine. Anyone can get a license - but do you actually know how to drive? I go thru a 4way stop every day - NOBODY knows how to work a 4way stop. Elderly people: much respect to the older population but when you drive 40mph in a 70.... you are asking to have an SUV rammed up your ***. If you can't see properly, or react fast enough you have no business on the road.

ChuLooz

i agree with the fact that these people will have harsh reactions to cops. But when you ask a question like that one i find a quick and easy answer...their lives. i can imagine alot of people will get brave with the police in fear of having what they think are their live being crushed, instead they'll end up in jail or dead for doing something crazy in the presences of a cop.

over all i think that in this instance these kid's punishments did not fit the crime, and a good lawyer could pickup a case here.

Rock

+1 Not to mention that Street Racing is an epidemic now because all the race tracks are being closed. Look at California 10-15 years ago compared to now, I bet there were tracks all over the place, now there's only a handful. Where's a enthusiast who wants to "have some innocent fun" to go when the closest track is 2hours away?

This is a big problem where I live. Jacksonville, FL. 2years ago we lost our 1/8th mi. track. Now that there's no track within reasonable distance most of the enthusiasts take it to an industrial area and get thier jollies on. The guys that are killing people are the idiots that are racing in broad daylight in rushhour traffic, not your responsible adults that try to go to the safest place they can find.

I can't stand that all the police and politicians spout thier nonsense about "take it to the track" when they are lobbying for tracks to be bulldozed and made into an airstrip, or a amusement park. I agree that the penalties certainly don't fit the crime, and that they should be worrying about far more serious infractions.

Fact of the matter is if they continue on this course of action, they will end up shooting themselves in the foot b/c people will not just hand over thier keys and let thier cars be crushed. They'll fight anyway they can and that means, more accidents, more shootings, stabbings, and other violent offenses.

saturn

I personally know 5 people that have gotten DUI's (and not all in the same state either). It's a joke. None had their license suspended for even a single minute.

saturn

Good points. I think there are bigger issues to confront most definitely. I think it's obvious drunk driving is a very big issue. But whatever the problem without stiffer penalties I'm not sure there'll ever be an improvement.

I would drive 100mph in every direction constantly if I wasn't worried about getting a huge ticket and more importantly losing my license. There have to be penalties that match the crime or nothing will stop.

I guess in the end I don't believe this is a complicated problem. If we really cared about making the roads safer we would make tough laws and enforce them. England has 68 billion speed cameras, helicopters, and other forms of technology to address the problem. All we seem to do is have random DUI checks and cops sitting on the side of the road pulling people over when their quota is due.

636

Lol , i agree with you. I use to been a biker and i have to say it always enraged me to see how people drive these days. All these things like defensive riding , take ultimate precautions just because the drivers around you are 20% driving and 80% doing something else...there brains wander off. Its not only driving , i think its SOCIETY itself that has degraded to such a state. I honestly think if there were no automatic cars , the roads would be a much safer place because for one , you cant really do anything else but drive. Second when you're only doing one thing you concentrate and have better awareness of what you're doing. But then again , everyone these days are becoming lazier and lazier depending on something to do the job for them , thus comes the automatic transmission lol. Yep i might not own a bike anymore but im always a biker at heart. Drive/ride safe . Seems most of everyone on this topic agrees that the punishment those kids recieved were unjust...it really is.

MazdaManiac

iTrader: (3)

Or have parts with modified or destroyed VIN info on them.
Some OEMs have stopped putting VIN stickers on individual parts of the car.
If you have a vehicle with parts on it that don't clearly match the dash VIN, for any reason, the police have stated that they will crush your car.
All engine swaps get crushed too.
And conversions.

Its a "law" that is just waiting for a kid with deep pockets to get caught.

Wilson

Why haven't they thought of returning the stolen parts to their rightful owners? Then crush what is left of the car.

ToguePirate787

iTrader: (1)

I have been reading this thread for a while. A lot of you guys have so many interesting feedbacks. I know one thing that made a BIG!! difference in helping out the racing on the streets problem. Its simple and its effective "I" think... Over where I live they have installed Speed Bumps... Now in my opinion those speed bumps on the major straight away streets are very effective. I would REALLY hate hitting that bump at even 30 miles/hour. My alignment and my advan RS rims would get F*ed up.... Thats a * to replace or fix... I dont know but i was noticing it did bring down the racing in my area... Have you guys seen those speed bumps?

I also had an incident where i was on my way to work driving down Amar going towards Baldwin Park. On my way i was noticing that EVERY SINGLE CAR that "looked" modded was pulled over and was ticketed or inspected. I mean c'mon The cops pulled over ANYONE that they thought was modified and like the god gifted bad luck that i have, I was pulled over myself. Now all i have is rims and a bodykit. I was like "man, of all days!" I was pissed and felt that my rights were being violated when they pulled me over for "thinking" that i was illegally modded. Seriously if they were going to pull me over for rims and a bodykit then why not pull over people that have whack DUBS and a Loud *** sound system that says "hey, Look what my mom and dad bought me" Its like they are just as bad as my car. I mean, You dont see them being pulled over everytime. Or even the RAISED trucks. What? they think they are in the monster truck rally or something? Their damn tires are louder than my damn engine. Jesus, seriously. I think the cops are taking it WAY too far. Me personally think they are crossing lines left and right that they know they shouldnt be doing in the first place.

Now back in the days my friend was caught street racing and the whole experience was-i-think pretty bad, but it coulda been worse. Now imma skip the entire story but when my friend went in on his court date i saw people that had multiple DUIs and had hit and runs and had been stopped for pos. of drugs. Do you wanna know what his juctice was compared to theirs?

friend = street racing:
$3000 in impound fees/court fees/sherrif release fees

$1500 to put back to stock

Jail time: 2 days

Community Service: 150 hours


Now the DUIs:
$550 in court fees

Community Service: 30 hours
Jail time: Suspended


Now the hit and runs:

$600 in court fees

60 hours community service

Jail time: suspended


Can anyone tell me what is wrong here? Now i am not making this **** up. I am dead serious about the punishments.

Oh and the Pos. of drugs:

Jailtime: 1 day

25 hours community service

$400 court fees.


I just thought i would share this with you.

Flashwing

I've made a similar case looking at driving accident records and statistics for Arizona and the greater phoenix area. Being the 5th largest city, we clearly have street racing and thus the statistics point out how really small of a problem it is.

Street racing is still a crime, but with the amount of man power and police presence that is around to combat it...it's way out of proportion.

Phoenix has had a couple news broadcasts regarding street racing in which one said that street racing was responsible for "at least 2 accidents since March" here in the city.

DUI was responsible for 492 of the 1,177 deaths in 2005 behind the wheel in Phoenix. Likewise another area that is often overlooked is distracted drivers. I think one advantage of people who like to drive is they pay attention while doing so. When we get behind the wheel, we are there to DRIVE. Not to eat food, put on makeup, read the paper, or talk on the phone.

Take this report from the Arizona Republic:

"Driver distractions, ranging from cellphones to eating behind the wheel, are blamed for as many as half the 139,000 collisions that occurred in Arizona during 2005, killing more than 1,100 people and injuring 70,000 others, said DPS Officer Tim Mason, a department spokesman."

Again, no one here is defending street racers but I think it would be appropriate for the punishment to fit the crime.

climacus

Thank you. For every street ricer you see on the street, there are at least 500 *******/zoned-out SUV drivers who use their truck as a weapon in an equally dangerous manner. Personally I'm not afraid of ricers, cause I can hear their fart cans from a mile away, and I know with reasonable certainty that they'll pass me in a hurry. But getting tailgated, lane changed into because my car is invisible to some behemoth SUV's side mirror, that's a much bigger threat to my life.

If politicians are serious about road safety, the first thing they'd do is to ban cellphone use. But that'd require them taking the wireless lobby's hand out of their asses, which is much harder to do than to pick on a certain segment of the population.

yiksing

Wow Cali Cops sure hate Hondas

LionZoo

So I poked around in LA and here's the story behind the car crushing:

The area around Ontario Mills is pretty infamous for street racing and the local Honda boys were racing every Friday night. The police department actually infiltrated one of the groups six months prior and that guy was the one that set up the meet the Friday night that they busted everyone. (Shades of Fast and Furious anyone? Ponch and John apparently have an inspiration.) He determined the location and then had cops wait in ambush. As soon as everyone arrived they sprung the net and told everyone to get away from their cars and leave. The cars were then all confiscated and inspected. Any car with JDM parts was automatically suspected of having stolen parts unless you could prove otherwise (guilty until proven innocent). If your car was clean, they called you down to the station and issued you a ticket. If your car was suspected stolen, they called you down to pick up your car and crushed it before your eyes.

Finally, the cops are apparently receiving free lessons on the weekends from a local tuning shop to determine how to spot JDM parts so that they can ticket drivers that they pull over for the parts.

sldrmr21

some bullshit happened to my friend. we were the only car going down a two lane road that has NO ONE else on it, and the speed limit is only 25. we were sitting in his car and he punched it and spun the tires acclerated to about 50 or 60 and then backed off. unfortunately a cop was hiding on that road and pulled us over and gave my friend a ticket for STREET RACING. with no one else around, no one on the road near us. he even told my friend that, "i didnt even catch you on radar, but i dont have to to know your street racing, I heard you." something wrong here. Now, i do undestand that what we did is stupid but the dumbass tried to nail us with the heaviest thing he could think of, a little overzealous i think. its sad too, because its partly my fault, i haul *** down that road (not anymore) because its straight, long, and has no traffic on it. luckily his ticket was thrown out and he only had a careless driving ticket.

4g63Rotary

Wow I find all this simply amazing in a city where people are getting shot, stabbed, raped, robbed, harassed, murdered, beaten, kidnapped, molested, and so on. Our police department is in the position to crush rice rockets for racing in industrial areas and given punishments that out weight those of a DUI. Why?!?
I understand racing legal or not is dangerous, so is driving on the 405 during rush hour. I also understand that there should be a penalty for breaking a law DUH! I love racing in general but street racing is kind of pushing it, like stated before there are a multitude of reasons why people die in car related accidents, why is it that they aren’t blown out of proportion, the same way racing accidents are? Why is it that a kid can get a $1000 fine for having a tin can on his car and Harley can roll around plan as day without the worries of even a dirty look from an officer while shaking up an entire neighbor hood going only 25mph? Non of this $#!% makes any sense, The police department has a job to do “understood” does that job require them to single out a specific kind of people and punish them for modifying a car “within reason that is” for example body kit, rims, tint, air intake, and other simple mods that really don’t make a difference?
I respect cops, I don’t like them but I respect them, with that said cops and those higher than them (some not all) are making some really F’ed up decisions in where their priorities “seem” to be.Why?