Finaly Someone With Some Sense!

[Si]

Wonder what the reaction is going to be following this:

Boy racers get bad rap from ageing rebels
By ROSEMARY MCLEOD - Sunday Star Times | Sunday, 15 February 2009

The one redeeming outcome of the disaster in Victoria is how it sidelined the panic over boy racers. Death sure has a way of putting things into perspective.


In Christchurch people turn feral at the very mention of the problem, a satisfying result for the boy racers, surely.

Don't we all remember what it was like to be young and rebellious, though, and don't we recall previous panics? In hindsight, what did they amount to?

There were bodgies, ages ago, who got drunk and upset blossom festivals in Alexandra and Hawke's Bay. An annual orgy of outrage could be counted on over their antics.

We don't have blossom festivals any more, or borstals to send bodgies to, and I guess they got married, made homes, had kids and got boring like everyone else.

Their kids became hippies who wore bare feet and lived in communes. How outrageous. Long-haired schoolboys were made to have army haircuts for no real reason other than to humiliate them, and old men wrote letters to newspapers wanting to bring back public floggings, or send them to compulsory military training.

The Beatles, they said, were the spawn of Satan. Time makes idiots of all of us if we're not careful.

More recently skateboarders were the scum of the earth - until we came to our senses and built skateboard parks where they now congregate instead of hooning around car park buildings.

Now it's boy racers. As far as I know, they're not noted for serious criminal activity and they don't kill anyone; they even drive their own cars, which means they don't want to wreck them.

But they drive in an intimidating way, risk their own lives and those of other people, act aggressive, and make an appalling din.

For this we want to take their cars off them, squash them, and - just to show them who's boss - make them watch. The closest parallel I can think of is a certain kind of rape.

For every outburst from a policeman, a politician or a mayor, boy racers give an equal and opposite reaction. As young people do. And yet again we're amazed at the effrontery of youth.

What on earth gets into us? Aren't there laws about speeding? Is it really legal to have such noisy vehicles? Can't you already be booked for dangerous driving and drink-driving? Haven't we got laws about riots and unlawful assembly?

And what do we really expect when we send a sole policeman out to deal with 100 boy racers and their girlfriends? That they'll cringe and slink home with their tails between their legs? High school teachers will tell you how realistic that is.

I'm shocked at the clamour to destroy these kids' cars, the only thing they own that really means a lot to them. That should be a truly desperate last resort, only for repeat offenders, and perhaps might apply to other lawbreakers while we're at it.

What about the middle-aged creeps in business and the law who've stolen fortunes from investors and trusted clients, only to go home after jail to their mansions in leafy glades, where their purring BMWs wait in the garage, and all their assets are untouched because they're in family trusts?

Which is more antisocial - the cocky kid who keeps you awake at night, or the sleek private schoolboy who gambled away your life savings, condemning you to poverty in old age? Whose car would you wreck first?

Not so long ago we had public floggings, and not long before that we still had public executions. Some people still feel nostalgic for their special charm. But there are other ways of dealing with social pests, surely, than by just taking an aggressive stand against them.

These boy racers, like their parents before them, will have their own kids, make homes of some kind, get a job, grow older - and deep down they know it. But until that happens, we all live in an eternal now.

We found places for skateboarders to use; why can't we find somewhere for boy racers to do what they love to do, away from built-up areas?

Give them a site, maybe have them administer it themselves, ensuring the safety of everyone there, and they'll get the hang of what responsibility is.

If that won't work, try something else, but make it constructive. Whatever you do, though, don't demonise the young. Like it or not, they're our only future.

[Cakky]

Yeah I read that today and was absolutely amazed to see a non bias piece of journalism towards young people and cars.

[FST4RD]

That was a jorno?
Hell thats a good read... and very fair to...

[Akane]

It's true. When I was young, I've done all sorts of stupid shit in a car that I'm pretty sure some of you will never heard of.

But nowdays when some shitty auto N/A skyline hoon up and down our street with their loud exhaust, I get a bit annoyed - because now I am old and senile.

And also I'd be more than happy to pay $20 and go slide my ride around on a small track as long as it's close enough.

[l1ttle_d3vil]

Now it's boy racers. As far as I know, they're not noted for serious criminal activity and they don't kill anyone...

...Aren't there laws about speeding? Is it really legal to have such noisy vehicles? Can't you already be booked for dangerous driving and drink-driving? Haven't we got laws about riots and unlawful assembly?

interesting thing about laws - they make noisy exhausts illegal virtually overnight, rushing it through before they can even ensure a proper way to measure the noise level.

yet they take years to consider whether or not to outlaw criminal gangs who are more present in society than boyracers. WTF?!?!

maybe john will do some good

[MercuryFree]

Amusingly, that's the one editiorial she's ever written that I haven't raged about how much of a tard she is...uh-oh...

[Adamal]

But nowdays when some shitty auto N/A skyline hoon up and down our street with their loud exhaust, I get a bit annoyed - because now I am old and senile.

I don't mind a loud exhaust. Theres a couple of Skylines up the road which have 'louder than factory' exhausts, but they have a low sort of hum to them, which I don't mind.

But theres also an S15 Silvia down the road which sounds like its got a 10" from the turbo back with no mufflers or resonators and I just about want to kill the guy. And I like S15's!

[solitaire]

But nowdays when some shitty auto N/A skyline hoon up and down our street with their loud exhaust, I get a bit annoyed - because now I am old and senile.

We all did stupid stuff when we were young... but im pretty sure we didnt try and take over roads and take the cops on eh? its a different beast now.

Every idiot with his hat on the wrong way and jean round his knees thinks hes on fast and the furious these days.

[shihad]

but im pretty sure we didnt try and take over roads and take the cops on eh? its a different beast now.

i guess cellphones these days means more people will turn up to the drag train these days or where ever the skids are and create a crowd mentality but i dont think boy racers take on the cops very often. a 1 off in christchurch is all iv heard of and it sounds like christchurch has a bigger boyracer problem than most.
[/quote]

Every idiot with his hat on the wrong way and jean round his knees thinks hes on fast and the furious these days

lol i agree with you there 70% of the modified cars i see driving down the main street fall into this category.

my brief run over the star times website i couldn't find a place to submit comments.

[Si]

We all did stupid stuff when we were young... but im pretty sure we didnt try and take over roads and take the cops on eh? its a different beast now.

If they fix the underage drinking problem I think alot of it will go away. Perhaps the police need more powers to deal with people under the age drinking in public, rather than powers to crush cars. Power to deal with underage drinkers involves some form of punishment for both the drinker AND their parent(s).


A 12pm curfue for anyone under 16 sounds like a good idea to me. If you dont have a damn good reason why your out in public without your legal gardian, then your going to be dragged home, and your parents slapped with a nice fine.

Because if the parents are not responsible, then who the $&#$% is.

[1I1]

Like it or not, they're our only future.

I find that the sadest part. (reminds me of when i was at school and having to put up with retards)

[FXGTV]

I did a bit of work experience with Rosemary when she was the editor of the Upper Hutt Leader. She is one of the better journo's out there.

[shazeal]

Really good article, pretty much what Ive been thinking for ages. Except that, if that kinda crap is allowed to go on, the boyracers will get more and more agressive. The police need to come down on them now even if it was really their own fault.

I remember walking down Columbo street with about 300 other people to smash up some skin heads when I was younger after they killed a guy in the South City car park. All because the police never bothered to try and stop the bastards from getting together in public places, we took matters into our own hands and it stopped. Im not sure we could have built them a Nazi park to go play in... Nor do I think a "Racer" park would work, thats what a race track is.

So while I think the extremes they are talking about with regards to smashing up cars is stupid. They do need to keep the pressure on them or it will go to hell. You cant just ignore the problem because theyre young idiots, they still need limits and consequences.