First they came for the tuners, but I did not speak, as I am not a tuner...

Ruffle feathers= crush car. What reeking country is California.

 

It makes no difference what they were driving, they shouldn't have been harrassed like that. At the very worse the cops could have escorted them off the property. We have taken full blown drag cars to cruise nights, on a trailer of course, would that mean our cars would have been impounded for lack of paper work, insurance, etc? To say "if you're not street racing why do you need that modification" is absurd. Are they not aware that there are drag strips all over this country that have street classes? This is a serious infringment on these guy's rights, and if I were one of them, I'd get a lawyer.

 

BULL SHIT!!!!!!!!!!! THAT IS against the law, i would be in court with them tickets, a local officer friend of mine thats high up in the ranks said the same thing after i called him, they need to fight it

 

Ever watch those dumb "gang of hot rod punks" movies from the 50s? Hot rodders had the same press if not worse as ricers have today. I think ricers are really obnoxious but they are doing basically the same stuff kids have done since they first got ahold of cars.

If the kids were truly tresspassing they should get tickets for tresspassing. I think an open parking lot with no "stay out" signs could be considered an attractive nuisance like pool.

Unless the owner complained or requested the police to come I think it's a pretty flimsy case.

I think this is a pretty important case to other types of car enthusiasts. I bet half of the people on this board have at least one questionable item (heck, I own a bunch of cars and only one has the front plate on the front of the car). I hope the police get "busted" on this one and spend some more time on patrol looking for theives and real criminals instead of setting up gestapo style checkpoints.

Here in El Paso, the cops have months blocking off the bridge to Mexico so they can inspect all the cars registration, inspection stickers and check insurance. The bought a mobile office and have about 6 cruisers down there every day.

That's not what I want my local police force doing. If they have nothing else to fill the day with, perhaps it's time to lay off a few people.

 

Amen Brad54

 

Damn, can you imagine just hanging out in a parking lot b/s ing with friends and all of a sudden getting surrounded by fifty, yes FIFTY cop cars! I get nervous with one around. I'm sure it made for some good stories...

 

And so many on the board support it! All the comments about 'loud cars' and 'thumping stereos'. I guess everybody on this board has factory exhaust and never does anything to ruffle feathers for fear of being noticed.
As I said before...you get the government you deserve. Laugh this kind of crap off because 'it's just the ricers', but just remember to keep laughing when your car is being crushed on some trumped up b.s. ANY car guy/gal/whatever should be completely and utterly pi$$ed that this ever went down....and they would do well to remember who was responsible come election time.

 

I'm 59 years old and when I drive my old cars I get thumbs up and waves from the law in our area. A buddy and I had the conversation the other day that we old farts get away with stuff that a 20 something would probably get harrased over.

It has always been the norm that when your young you have to prove yourself, and the "establishment" (my old counter culture roots showing here) is keeping an eye on you. Not fair? Nope, but it hasn't changed since i was a kid. Be smart, don't ask for trouble.

The trespassing and other issues have been covered already. just wanted to point out that when your young you automaticly become a "person of interest"

My 2 cents.

 

George, I am 38 but many folks think I am 28-30 in person.........I get the same thing from the fuzz.

 

I also find that it has something to do with the officers likes/dislikes about cars too... I've gotten out of a lot of tickets simply because the cop wants to check out the car/truck and talk about it more than he wants to write a ticket... So it makes sense that cars that target younger drivers arent' going to interest the average cop as much as a vintage car would...

 

When did standing up for your rights become 'asking for trouble'? If my son were involved, and they wanted to crush his car because they thought it may have this or that....weelllll now, there's gonna be a long, hard road ahead for some Sheriff!

All in all, when you allow your employees---the government---to run buck wild, you're already 'asking for trouble'. Just a matter of when it will come, and who will stand to stop it. It's one thing for a cop to ask you to eat a $hit sandwich, another thing entirely to smile and ask for seconds of your own accord.

 

I said that with a bit of sarcasm. I guess you didn't get that. There is no room to see anything but the ability to assemble is a constitutional right... period. It's one of the basic reasons this country was founded...

crafted to take away the rights of the many not to do a job...

yet...

 

Fucking gestapo...

 

I have worked on a few police officers homes and I always try to start a conversation about modified cars with them. The answer I almost always get is that if you are cruising down the street in a classic car, most cops will leave you alone. Unless you are "trying to draw attention to yourself." Basically they said that unless you are "dancing" the airbags, or doing burnouts/speeding, cops will leave an old car alone. HOWEVER, as far as tuner cars go, they see them as a threat because there is so much illegal street racing in Cali. So if you have a tuner car, they will pull you over for anything they can. Once again it boils down to a few people ruining it for everybody.

There have been several times that I have had cops checking out my 51 Chevy in a parking lot. Even when its totally laid out, they never give me a hard time. You just need to treat them with respect and they will say how cool they think your car is.

 

It seems to me that neither the large sum of money or the 50 squad cars would have been authorized for use w/out some prior incidents having taken place at this particular area. As far as our right to assemble is concerned, we used to have a great cruise night every Friday at a local "big box" store parking lot. This went on for a few years until some of the less responsible among us started doing stupid things. Now the parking lot is FULL of "No Loitering" signs. The police did not get involved to the extent that they did in the Cali story, but they did disperse the crowd. In a busy, public place like that it doesn't take many bad apples to ruin it for everybody. Now I guess it's on to the next big parking lot 'til somebody ruins that. I do agree with a previous poster about getting away with more as you get older. I'm only 36, but I know my car would definately be stopped for noise violations if someone younger were driving it.

 

I cruise Lindbergh all the time nowadays and it's still the same way. You can cruise for a while but as soon as you stop somewere, the cops come swarming in. Sometime's they just flag you out of the parking lot, other times they will pick on you for no reason. It's stupid.

I don't drive a ricer and I don't streetrace on lindbergh or any other street with any traffic on it. Why should I get hassled?

 

Wow. Maybe its just me but I see that if something like this really started to happen on a regular basis my normal routine and hobby would be totally stepped all over. How many of us meet together in some parking lot and talk cars??? We look at other peoples cars and just enjoy our hobby. Most of us modify our cars. Some are loud, some are goddamn fast and some are just super modified to the point that they fall outside of the letter of the law. Thats our choice. Whats with the dickhead saying "Why would you want more power going to your car?" Whos fucking dad are you????? This raises another question, why would they permit people to buy 500+hp vipers and Ferraris and lambos and all these other cars that go so goddamn fast??? Why do people need those???? I support cops and their jobs suck, but this is fucking bullshit.

I cant wait to get a "Pre" speeding ticket because my car looks fast and they think I'm going to break the law on my way home.

 

Let's face it guys, the reason the cops go after younger guys is because usually the kid is easier to intimidate tha the man that has 'been there and done that'. As has been stated in this thread, how many of our cars would be pulled over if being driven by a younger guy? How many ticketed? Towed? Crushed?? The only thing that will stop this b.s. before it grows any bigger is for all the car guys to band together and present a united front for our common interests...ESPECIALLY at the voting booth. It's funny, but in reading some of the political coverage out there now, do you know who the most courted voter is? They call him 'NASCAR Dad'. Say they (whoever) can't win without him. And guess what...NASCAR Dad is US....the hard working middle class car guys. No better time to make your voice heard and stomp some of the over the top legislators before they get any crazier. Sure has worked for a very vocal minority called the Greens!

 

Just who is this "they"???? Just because some kid has a modified Honda or Mitsubishi or whatever he's automatically a suspect? I've had it up to here with nuisance laws and cops who attempt to throw their weight/authority around. Go catch some dirt bag selling drugs to kids or the armed robber who shoots a single dad working a second job at the local 7-11 to support his family and leave the rest of us alone. It gets sickning hearing cops on the news saying how difficult and dangerous their job is..............no one is making you do it, you can always quit, of course their may not be any free dougnuts at the next cushy gig officer Fife.

 

"They" is "Us" back then when "We" were young.

 

I neglected to mention the FACT that we had permission from a deli to use that lot. Anyway, enough about that..

What it boils down to is, yes, this same problem has always been around. Harassment, plain and simple. The sad thing is it teaches people (yes, young kids are people) to disrespect law and police.
I'm 43 years old, still have a sour taste regarding cops, yet I work on police cars daily and know a lot of really nice folks who are in law enforcement.
Why is that? Its called conditioning. Once someone has been conditioned that "all cops are pigs", it's very hard to reverse that. I'm certainly not saying that all hot rodders / ricers are perfect, but the police need to work on their public relations and remember they're here to serve.

 

Regardless of which side of the fence you are on, these kinds of situations never help the relationship between car guys and cops.

If someone blocked me in like that and made me wait my turn to be harassed, I would be pissed. And I wouldn't forget it for a long time...

 

Twenty years ago it didn't ruffle feathers. At least not in our town. As a matter of fact they did everything they could to find us a large, safe place to hang out. The city "allowed" us to hang out in the south end parking lot of the softball complex. Paved, lighted, and trash cans for our beer bottles. LOL They would rather have us grouped together shooting the shit then out on the roads getting into trouble. I miss the old days.

 

I got glared at by a cop the other day while driving my roadster. It was plain to see he hated the sight of the car and I was going under the speed limit. Its just a matter of time before they figure out a way to stop modified cars. America is changing and it ain't for the better. As far as cops go, a few years ago I started riding in a patrol car with a buddy who was a DUI officer, The stuff he and others on the force did made me lose respect for cops in general.

 

They're supposedly looking for race cars, but 90% of the tickets handed out last year(info in the other article linked from the link...) were for illegal window tint and missing front plates. The kids are dumbasses for doing such visually-obviously illegal modifications. That's not to say my cars are 100% legal, but I'm a dumbass sometimes too.

But what a waste of tax dollars--half a million dollars spent in one night to bust a cruise? Great deal for the cops--pad your ticket count for the month by shooting fish in a barrel, and do it on time-and-a-half? Nice. Not so nice if one of those kids with $40K in his Civic has a rich lawyer daddy who brings an illegal search-and-seizure case against the dept. and wins it. If that happens, we all benefit, no matter what kind of car we drive.

 

Where is it they passed a law about people wearing their pants too low?
South East somewhere?

Government, whatever level, is just the biggest GANG in town, and the Cops, Sheriffs, Marshals, National Guard, Marines, etc. are their hit men.

Bill of Rights?
Read them.
THey all end with "without due cause."
That means, after the fact. the cops can utter any excuse they please for how they fucked you over and it will stick.

 

i totally agree if something is not done then when we have our club gatherings at a local drive in, or go to the park for the clubs family cook out, we could be busted. from the way the artical reads if you have any modified part then you are a criminal. "why would you want 3x2's on you flat head, why do you have pie crust cheater slicks sir, are you a racer?" all it is is bullshit nazi ways to give us a hard time and to make a dollar. how would you feel if your survivor gasser that is street legal gets crushed because some of your parts were bought at a swap meet and you dont have a receipt. hell i bet half of the cars we own were built because of swap meets, i know mine was. if we dont start standing up to this bullshit then we will be next!!! this really pisses me off.

im getting off of my soap box now...........................

 

Not so nice if one of those kids with $40K in his Civic has a rich lawyer daddy who brings an illegal search-and-seizure case against the dept. and wins it.

Which is why this bullshit doesn't go down uptown....