Street Racers' Souped Up Cars Crushed by The Law!

If my parts were stolen, Id prefer them back rather than crushed.

This whole thing is a public funds wasting publicity stunt by the city & politicians involved. I'll concede that IF (a big "if") these guys were convicted of some sort of crime, it is possible that confiscation of the property is permitted under the laws on the books. I'm OK with that as long as they were actually *convicted* ... an arrest is not good enough (which is why I have a problem with immediate property confication in drunking driving or drug arrests).

OK, so we will assume they were convicted... Why doesn't the city AUCTION the confiscated property and collect the funds? It's not like this property could only be used in the commission of a crime.... there is a ready market for tarted up rice cars! Their approach instead is to create a big wasteful photo-op by destroying what is now taxpayer property. A lot of cash goes into building these cars -- even that 10 year old Acura might have $10K or even $20K woth of work done to it. Why is this taxpayer property being destroyed? And, as Michael says ... if they are *sure* that parts are stolen, why aren't these being returned to either the rightful owners or the insurance companies that paid out on those owners' theft claims? Politicians love spending others' money. Next year they will by trying to jack up the property taxes to fill the budget shortfall no doubt.

Straight talk from Sid.

i saw this on evolutionm.net this morning, thank god i live in jersey, one of the other members made a good obsvervation, was anyone else but the owner sad that the BLUE car with the RED rims got crushed? lol

I'm going to disagree with Sid on this one, on the following points:

1. The city can't auction illegal rice rockets, because then street racers would buy them back to ... race on the streets again!

2. Most likely the stolen parts come from chopped up stolen vehicles. Therefore, there's no car to return the stolen parts to. I'm sure the owners wouldn't want engine block ornaments in their front yards. :)

3. The article did say:

Police need a court order to destroy the cars. They must prove that the serial or identification numbers on a vehicle or its parts are removed, altered or destroyed.

So it's not a willy nilly process.

4. Street racing is illegal for a reason: it's dangerous and stupid young people on rice rockets get into accidents where they kill themselves and other people. It's a particularly big problem in Southern California.

I saw the remnants of a street racing accident, where debris of the souped up cars were littered across 3 city blocks! Imagine how fast they were going. It was a residential street, too.

I agree with the law on this one.

I agree with the law, too. Vancouver also has a problem with street racers. Some of the parents of these kids actually buy their offspring these cars, and then moan and wail when they kill themselves or others. A cop was even killed a few years ago when a street racer smashed into his patrol car. People around here are fed up. I'm sure many would like to see a similar car-crushing program initiated. Unfortunately, the parents would probably just buy their little darlings another "weapon".

Crush 'em all.

The sooner these over privileged morons get a grip on the real world the better - and the tool who burns rubber outside my bedroom at three in the morning, every morning, can expect no mercy either...

OK, fine, the cars are bad. Naughty car, take that!

Well, what about the *people* ?

It seems like the perps (yes, I watch Law and Order... all of them) are BOTH a) receiving stolen property and b) street racing. Aren't either or both of these felonies, or at least serious misdemeanors? If they have enough evidence to crush the cars, why are the perps standing around watching instead of hearing about it through the prison grapevine? Answer? Because crushing cars makes a nice news story to get the politicians faces in the media.

ever since vin diesel made that dumbass movie cars like this are used for one thing..that one thing is illegal therefore I see this action as completely justified and HILARIOUS.

I think it's absolutely brilliant to destroy these cars. In my opinion it should even happen when you get caught DUI. And for just one simple reason: It's absolutely not acceptable to street race or drink and drive. You can do that on a race track if you like, but you should not expect any form of mercy if you put the life of others in jeopardy.

can they collect the insurance?

;)

"That's my girlfriend..."?!?! What a PATHETIC loser! He needs to get his priorities straight!

This just proves that we do not live in a free society. The crooked courts and lawmakers control we do. I agree that street racing is dangerous, and yes that many people have been killed but how many have been killed in day-to-day accidents? This is a publicity stunt that goes way beyond punishment. I hope there is a loop-hole that allows the carwners to sue the city for 1000 times their cars worth.
Is the city going to start cutting off limbs for stealing? When will it stop? When we have no right at all!! This is politics at it worst and anyone who agrees with this is uneducated and short sighted.

personally i dont care how illegal street racing is. if my tax dollars want to come back to destroy my car i say revolution

It's not just "rice rockets", geniuses. Go to youtube or streetfire and check out the races. You'll see that it's also Mustangs, Camaros, Porsches, BMWs, just about anything. And they way law enforcement is targeting these cars, by looking if they have ricey stuff on it...just stupid. They need to look for the sleepers. The clean Supra that does a 1/4mi in 9 secs. Or the Mustang with 600 horses at its wheels. Those are the cars you need to watch out for.