Crazy, II

[KiwiHopeful]

I wish I had a text link for this, but I'll have to narrate it instead:

Last night on Campbell Live there was a segment on Boy Racers who have been raising hell on a particular stretch of road here in Chch. This road runs between Orana Wildlife Trust Park and MacLean's Island. A few years ago, a stray spark from a motorcycle caused a fire there, and there is fear that this could happen again. Furthermore, their pealing out, loud exhausts, etc. etc. are causing distress for the animals.

The woman from Orana said she was hesitant to speak out because the last time she was on TV, the Boy Racers had fired fireworks into the park.

They then showed someone from Chch City Council who said, that there was essentially nothing they could do. They couldn't ban the Boy Racers from the road (though they had already banned them from other streets within Chch), so their hands were tied.

Okay, do we not have police here in Chch? I could have sworn I see these white, orange, and blue cars that have the word 'Police' written on them, but I could be mistaken.

I mean, honestly, WTF?

[nolasmom]

And don't even think about traveling on Bealey Ave on a Saturday night. We had to go to the emergency clinic at Bealey and Colombo at 11:30pm this past Saturday (everything's fine now). We passed a police car parked on the street presumably monitoring things. We then passed a car whose passenger threw a beer bottle at us.

Did the police respond? Nope.

Had there not been an emergency, we would have looped back around and demanded to know why the officer failed to give chase.

[kokopeli]

The Orana situation has been getting steadily worse since the Council imposed a night time ban on cars on 4 roads in Templeton earlier in the year. It seem sthat the cops asked for the ban to cover 29 roads, including the ones near Orana, but the council said it would infringe the Bill of Rights. Obviously, that legislation only applies to hoons and doesn't extend to residents and business owners.......

I don't know whay the cops don't take a proactive stance and deal with the hoon. The Speedo Cops would be more effective than NZ Police!
Here's a link to coverage of this story in today's Press

Hoons near Orana

[MotherBear]

Boyracers face more street bans
5:00AM Wednesday December 19, 2007

Christchurch City Council is to ban boyracers from more streets after reports of hundreds of youths terrorising residents at a popular meeting place last weekend.

Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker said he would consult police and the Ministry of Transport today about implementing a ban.

He did not name roads but residents of McLeans Island Rd and Coutts Island Rd last weekend reported boyracers in their area. One farmer reportedly drove through hundreds of abusive youths to get to a house to rescue his frightened daughter.

Representatives of Orana Wildlife Park on McLeans Island Road have also complained about the impact of noise on animals and the potential for fire in the tinder dry semi-rural area.

Mr Parker said he wanted the ban in place before Christmas.

Critics say the bans just shift the problem to new areas and that will be the effect of any new ban.

More here .

[KiwiHopeful]

What I don't understand is the whole 'ban' thing. I've seen it in the US to prevent 'cruising' (which I don't really understand either), but it seems to me that they should just send some squad cars out there and start writing tickets and impounding vehicles. Problem solved.

[Taffy]

Yeah, banning it does move it around. There's a whole manner of laws being broken there, such as unsociable behaviour, large gathering without permits on top of all the traffic violations.

Te Rapa Road in Hamilton is the same. You drive up there after dark and it's like being in the film 'The Fast and the Furious' - heavily modded Japanese cars in every available gap possible!

As it seems this problem wont go away, instead of just moving them around, why dont they actually provide an area, away from anyone and anything, where they can hoon around in their cars as much as they want? Sure, it'll cost a bit to lay out some tracks, but the savings the other side in Police time, Fire Service etc would outweight it in the end. Just get some Police to monitor it now and again for drink & drugs etc, and everyones happy.

Other than that, as KH says, get up there with 50 cops and a load of towies and start taking cars off people.