Recent spate of "hoon" articles and coverage

[chfowler]

Hey all,

This is a copy of a letter I sent to the Brisbane Courier Mail in response to recent press coverage which in my opinion labels anyone who drives a performance vehicle as a hoon. I would be interested in any feedback and ideas on how we as a group can act to change this stigma. Letter follows:

Re - "Hoons" - Leave the labelling to the printers!

For some time now I have been an avid performance car enthusiast, hence why I choose to drive a turbo charged Nissan Skyline, it’s fast, its flashy, it’s my pride and joy, but I am not a “hoon”. Furthermore, I find great enjoyment in attending vehicle gatherings so as to admire the effort and hard work that other vehicle enthusiasts have put in to making their vehicle something other than ordinary.

Unfortunately however, a stigma seems to attach to people who, like myself, find enjoyment in owning a performance vehicle, a stigma that is especially evident in a Brisbane Courier Mail article by Richard Finnila appearing on Monday the 23rd of August where he labels a Brisbane northside carpark as a “hangout for hoons”. Richard, in between my working full time and completing my Bachelor of Law degree I take great pleasure in attending this “hoon hangout”, not to do burnouts, but to mingle with friends and admire vehicles that have been lovingly restored. I would agree however that some of the twits who attend this venue are less than admirable.

There is no doubt that young drivers in command of performance vehicles often results in a dangerous combination. I don’t know what will resolve this dangerous combination, but granting police additional powers to enable them to simply move private car park “loiterers” on is not the answer. What is the use in giving police the power to tell people to move on, just so they can then go and gather some where else?

I think the Queensland Police and the State Government need to think a little harder and take a more proactive approach to monitoring and controlling gatherings such as this. Band-aid patch legislation that would further erode civil liberties is short-sighted and would prove ineffective.

[Fro-Daddy]

just outta curiosity, what would be your approach to stop what many people consider these places to be? by that i mean, what can police do to govern acts of stupidity in these places?

[chfowler]

Fro-Daddy - what would you do?

Me - I think there needs to be a bit of give and take. For one thing the police to promote a sense of cooperation with venue attendants should not use the culmination of cars as an excuse to set up vehicle inspection points on the opposite side of the road, or video tape cars coming and going for that matter.

There should be an increased police presence within the venue as I have viewed numerous fights and issues arise due to overly intoxicated people that frequently appear to be underage - for example an empty beer bottle was thrown at ambulance officers attending to injured people last friday night.

If people want to do burnouts and brake the law then i believe the police should book them for whatever law they have broken. If you dont break the law then there will be no dramas. I mean i always hear people asking other skyline owners how often they get pulled over by police - I have not been pulled over once. Maybe that is just luck, or maybe its because i dont drive around like an idiot showing off.

If police can be tollerant and allow gatherings like this to occur, and attendants can be tolerant of an increased police pressence within the venue itself then i think it would make for a great night. And who knows, after a while the police may no longer be required to keep an eye on things.

I mean i get sick and tired of having to check for empty beer bottles placed under my tyres by losers or keeping an eye on my vehicle when i am trying to eat a meal or talk to friends etc.

I dont want to come across as the "moral barometer" or act like i have all the answers - but I think things are getting a little out of control and a bit of give and take would allow "decent" people to better enjoy themselves

[Revhead]

Well said, and I could not agree more.

[owned]

very political of you..... but also very correct from my point of view and i hope from others as well.

[TeamKrazy]

nic your a hoon

[chfowler]

I have just been reading some commentry on calaisturbo.net - who seem to have attempted to build some sort of a relationship with police and crimestoppers so as to work together in finding a solution to the "hoon" situation. Maybe we need to look at doing something like this.

Probably a step in the right direction at any rate.

[owned]

Neil i only learn from the best. .....

[knore]

Nice work

If more people wrote in stuff like that they might actually begin to understand.

The police are going beserk at the coast though;

On the weekend i was driving up cavill (through all the shops bit) and a bloody taxi decides he wants to sit there waiting for someone, and holding up all the traffic. Im sitting there like wtf are you doing?! eventually he decides to park, but leaves just enough space for me to keep driving (like 1 inch either side) so i stab the accelerator a bit to get outta there.. 10m up cavil a cop runs out, point to me to pull over. He goes on treating me like im a serial rapist, saying i could of killed someone etc etc then proceeded to say i will get a fine in the mail for 'Excessive Accelleration' which he told me is 3 points!!!!! i pressed up on my AVCR, oh god, i reached 16km/h :uh-huh:

I was in shock that that he could be so serious about it, im still in disbeleif, if this is what they are doing to stop hoons, then they need to go back to police academy.

I understand police have a very hard job, and i respect them for that, but certain times, like the above, they need to be a human being and not the law incarnate.

end rant/

[krawler]

Why did you have to mash the accelerator to pass a taxi if you only had 1cm either side?

What exactly did it achieve, except for making you look like a hoon?

I'm with chfowler. Of all the stupid hoon cars I've owned, the only time I've ever been "randomly" pulled up was when we dropped a friend home at 2am on a sunday. It was suspicious, I got RBTd and it was all good.

I wrote this on another forum regarding Harrys and buggered if I'm gonna reword it. It applies to most of the "hoon" locations:

QUOTE (bub)I was there earlier in the night before the accident. Its funny seeing the reaction on the forums around the net. Everyone there on the night was cheering on all the burnouts, egging people on to get up it and even laughing at some clown who had no control and almost hit a poll then slightly missing oncoming traffic. But someone eventually stuffs up and its all "i hope they throw the book at him" and "stick the tool in jail!!1!1!!".

Amen to that.

I want to punch various people in the face because I know for a fact they cheer for the burnouts but are currently online riding the moral highhorse around on a soapbox calling for the head of the old digger on a stick.

Imagine how bad that guy is feeling right now .. Hmm.

Also, the people knocked down were off boobslosing FWIW and are fine. The media hype is interesting cause AFAIK the worst injury was a bruise? Terms like "mowed down" and "carnage" inspire a mental image and subsequent knee-jerk reaction more akin to a terrorist bombing of a kindergarten or something.

I used to like going to harrys. We used to park in the next car park down from harrys, walk up and look at the nice cars then watch the burnouts as people left. It was what it was all about. The trouble (imo) started when underage car ****s started getting stuck into alchoholic lollie waters out the front. I dunno how the group dynamics at work here, but once you get drunken car ****s wearing short skirts flirting with a bunch of testosterone charged guys you get trouble. The guys get louder and start doing stupider and stupider things to attract the females. Those stupid things tend to involve blocking the view of the entrance, yelling abuse at the drivers leaving, reaching through the window and telling them to do skids and if they dont do things like tell them its ok to go, even when a car is coming ... etc

Urgh I get so frustrated that alchohol ruins places like that. If you wanna drink, go somewhere licensed and get blind, whatever. Cars + alchohol DO NOT MIX! Urgh. To fix harrys they just need a marked car that ISNT doing defects and a few uniforms wandering through the crowd busting up the underage drinkers. Yay, fixed. We enjoy cars again. w00t.

Ditto all of the above for BWCP

Another point that is relevant in general, not just the pack coming back on the M1:

As dave (cams116) once pointed out, the greatest success the cops ever had with the "M1 pack" that heads back from the coast around midnight on the M1 was a sole motorbike cop.

His presence meant that no one raced. He was a lone vehicle which cost the government basically nothing to buy and because he could move through the traffic so quickly and easily, there was no chance at all of getting off a quick race while he was at the other end of the pack.

Look at all the nights they fill the pack with undercover cars with cameras. They let the people do the dangerous racing (including the goddamn fscking retards that slow to 20k/hour!@#!@#! AQRRRRGHH!) and then later on, when noone is there to get the visual impact of a bust in progress, give them a piece of paper which says bye bye license.

How does that stop people racing? It might stop that one exact person racing, but what about everyone who never knew they got caught? All they saw was someone racing without any initial smack-down. They never saw the piece of paper.

What happens if someone is killed while racing and all the undercover car does is film it? Sure theres some nice pretty pictures for a court room, but it would never have happened with a marked police presence.

Anyway, what would I know. I'm just a dumb fridgie not some intelligent Gumbyment arse-licker writing 10000 page documents for some other arse-licker Gumbyment weenie to pass on to the Gumbyment weenie above him.

[chfowler]

It is good to see that I am not the only enthusiast on here that can readily identify the problem that we, as car buffs, face the moment we drive out of our driveways.

I mean we have all done stupid shit at some point in time, I know I have, but there is a time and a place for being stupid. If people want to drag race and do burn-outs, then piss of out the back of woop woop where there are minimal people and other vehicles.

I agree that the police have a very difficult job to do and I know they are not all idiots (I applied to the police force and went through the entire selection process and it is very very difficult - then they rejected me so now i study law - go figure) but the kind of stuff that they get exposed to ie going to car wrecks and seeing mangled bodies (Been there and seen that). That kinda stuff just wears down their tolerence to stupid behaviour, which i am sure is what they see when young wanks attend harry's all boozed up and after some 16 year old slapper!

I think we as a forum should take it upon ourselves to initiate some form of credibility with police and other relevant authorities so that they can see that we are not (all) "hoons".

[strutto]

chfowler + krawler = smart things

Well done guys...

[bretto]

yeah good work guys, what you's have said is exactly what i think when i read these articles and reports the media always like bringing up to boost their ratings.

[chfowler]

Hey Guys (And Gals)

I dont want to overstep the mark here but I have emailed the reporter that wrote the story regarding Harry's Diner (an article which pretty much just about sums up the media's views on "hoons") in an attempt to try and put across another side to the story and build some credibility!

[chaos]

I wouldnt think you have overstepped the mark in emailing him...isnt that whats its all about, he writes an article and gets feedback on it.

[knore]

krawler: in this case; mash pedal = about 10% throttle

i have a perfect record for anything to do with driving and i plann on keeping it that way, but to get a fine for this would be ridiculous.. im still thinking he was only scaring me though.

Some laws definately need to be revised;

Particularly 'the Hoon/Excessive acceleration/Excessive noise' laws mainly because they have NO guidelines at all, its simply upto the officer involved. Meaning he determines what is too loud or too fast, not the law.

[myR32]

did we all notice the car involved in the accident @ harries was not an import or a hotted up street car but a hotrod driven by a bloke that should have been old enough to know better

also the 'vette that hit the person last time was driven by an older bloke

its a shame to see harry's closed but i'm sure we'll find somewhere else to go.

[chfowler]

Apparantly Mercury Motorsport has meets on Thursday nights and the owner - Trent - has zero tolerance for dick heads! Maybe an opportunity for further meets there?

Edit - Hey all, just been speaking to trent at Mercury Motorsport. Each thursday night they put on a BBQ and have the dyno up and running so ppl can come down, have a meal and watch us poor auto skyline boys produce minimal rwkw I'll be heading down tonight if anyone is interested (26/08/04)

Further edit - Trent is happy to make wednesday night "skyliners night" - comments & opinions ?

[Eug]

Neil i only learn from the best. .....

make sure u wipe around the sides of ur mouth afterwards...

chfowler and krawler have pretty much summed it up...

but for now all we can do is drive responsibly and make sure we do proper things

at proper times - and maybe? slowly people will understand