Arrested for watching!

Digitalchaos

Registered User
Has anyone heard the recent news reguarding street racing in Florida? It seems that now not only are people arrested for the act itself, but they are now being arrested just for watching!!!

In my opinion, this hardly seems like expected behavior from a democratic government. Penalties for being involved in a dangerous act are one thing, but arresting people becuase they have chosen to walk down the sidewalk and view the nightly activities is ridiculous! Whether its dangerous being within 500 feet of this type of activity or not, I am highly against the notion of punishing innocent bystanders.

Perhaps the media is simply blowing this out of proportion and its not exactly like it sounds? What are your opinions?
 
yea "spectating" or something, being involved in the illegal activity without trying to put a stop to it or whatever, makes sense but still lame. They usually get the person that runs the fastest away from the crowd, so park far away and walk slow:)
 
Being arrested for spectating is not something that happens just because you happen to be walking by when the race is going on. What it is for is for those who park their cars along the roadside where the race is taking place, obviously for no other reason than to watch, or for those who gather around the cars at the "starting line". I've been to plenty of these races, and that's how is goes down. In no case is it innocent bystanders who get in trouble.
 
the cops watch whos there first, most of these arent held where people just walk by, usually held in industrial parks where people dont walk by anyways:D
 
Out here....

In chicago, I've heard rumors for years about cars getting impounded and people getting numerous tickets. As told to me by a friend, who is a chicago cop, "City cops are either too lazy to deal with street racing, feel they don't get paid enough to mess with that kinda thing, or have badass cars of their own and love to race on the off days. Intresting huh, then again, its been going on in the same sport for almost 40 years now.

Now, i'll elaborate before sayin my next peice. There are a lot of idiot spectators/DumbAss people that come out to watch, and are either high or drunk. Not good in any way. Many accidents have happened from people coming down the street while a race is going down. You either hear screetching brakes, or a crash for a car jumping off to miss being hit.

Recently, about 2-3 weeks ago, a girl was hit, probably drunk or stoned herself, due to standing in the street when cars were racing. They didn't get a + ID on the car, just that it was white with tinted windows. She died the next day do to internal bleeding. It was on the news also. Apparently, the parents are pissed. But, if you look at the glass from both sides, why was she standing into the street. Everyone who goes out there knows what they're doing, what goes one, and the risks they're taking. As unfortunate as it is, it was her own fault. I'd classify this almost as standing to close to the railroad tracks when a train is coming. You know what's goin on. Go figure, It's always the idiots that ruin the fun for the rest of us.

Anyways, that's my $.02
 
Well it certainly makes sense if they are doing things to place themselves and others at risk. Walking around in the street especially stoned or drunk when cars are driving in this manner is pretty ignorant.. I imagine it could become a problem real fast too.

I could still see myself watching the activities from a safe distance, however. :D
 
Street Racing

When i was in Okinawa, there was a lot of street racing...right outside the main gate of Kadena AB there was a drag race....not a typical drag race though, it was one that like 20 people would line up in 3 lanes, and the object was the one that wouldnt back down at high speeds won...there were only a few cars that could actually handle high speed racing, weaving in and out of traffic...not to mention trying to get away from the cops. there was one place called Aja, that used to have the truck trailer bins, anyway, people that were really good only drifted there. people used to get up on the bins just to watch the race, well there was an inexpirenced drifter going thru this little course, he messed up, hit two bins, knocked the people off the bins, and crashed into a pile of jacks...the jacks are what they used infront of the seawalls...killed himself and 3 other people. needless to say they closed that area off to racers...after that incident and a few others somewhat like it, they outlawed any type of "reckless driving"...if you were caught your car was impounded, license taken away for 3 years, and a year of hard labor in prison...little harsh, but people were dying about every 3 months from racing and the cops were wrecking there cars trying to catch them...

anyway the whole watching thing is completely understandable...you are participating in an illegal event, if you werent there watching them, the racers would have no need to show off to you guys. although im not one of those typical racers that need to have other people watch me...if i screw up, i dont want anyone to know....

sorry about the long story...i have the furman disease, which cause me to tell long stories that have little or no relavence to the story at hand, before i get to my point...but you guys already know that..

stephen "furman disease" furman
 
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Yes I think that the whole idea is to stop the killing and dying that's going on because people street race. Here in the Atlanta area it seems like every month a teen or other young person dies in a crash due to racing, sometimes taking out whole families with them. Did anybody see the segments on the network news on thursday and friday about friday nite racing at the local dragstrips. Atlanta Dragway and Capitol Dragway in Maryland I think it was were featured. If people would take it to the dragstrip where it's relatively safe instead of the street everyone would be better off. Things haven't changed from the 50's when I was a kid except that there's a lot more cars on the road and the likelyhood of a crash is very high. Now, I like to fool around a little with mine, too, but I shut it off at 5 over the limit. If I haven't smoked him by then I won't do in the next 2 miles at 100+ either.
 
I saw that news story

If there were dragstrips everywhere it would'nt stop the street idiot from making it bad for everyone. I mess around on the street a little, but only if there is no chance for injury. Many times I've had some moron that wants to race when the street is full of traffic and pedestrians. Here in Chicago on the south side, south chicago blvd between 75th, and 79th street is a major route from the east side to the south side, and it's not uncommon to have the racers completely block off the street where you cannot drive down the street. They make you detour. Not the cops, the racers!
 
I have to comment on this..Some of us do not have a dragstrip locally....And a majority of these so called drag racing deaths are generally not from (illegal)organized racing events. Generally its two kids weaving in and out of traffic on a busy highway or roadway in which one of them looses control,,Very rarely does an idiot loose control in a straight line in a desolate area...Which is were most organized street racing occurs. I bet more kids die of drug and alcohol abuse year then drag racing
 
Damon, you are quite right. Very few people really get hurt or killed in the real street racing that goes on in this country compared to all the other deaths related to DUI.

The cops and the media both love to use the term street racing to blanket cover anything bad that happens with kids and cars involved. If street racing wasn't exciting EVEN for the prudes that sit at home and only watch TV, then it wouldn't be all over the news. Problem is that even those who claim "OH I would NEVER do anything like that!" find it sensational and exciting.

Somehow if a kid takes some form of illicit drug and his parents or the school find out, well "he made a poor choice", but we know how tough it is to be a kid, so we support him and hope he realizes his mistake. Or some crap like that. But catch him street racing and they want to take his car, license, lock him up for 15 years and make his insurance rates so high he can't afford to drive anyhow.

Hey, there's a good one. If a person gets caught using illegal drugs, dui, or underage drinking, take his car away and his license for 3 years and jack his insurance rates through the roof. How would that go over? I bet it would be effective.
 
I love street racing, but i don't need to show off for spectators. I do love to watch other people race tho. we (spectators) have not been messed with by the cops here in Texas yet. i would rather race at the track, because i have absolutely NO wheelspin. :)
 
Evidently you haven't hung out at the street races in Dallas. The cops were nuts there. It was a chase every single night. Sometimes they would shut down the strip and give every single car tickets. - that would be about 150 cars easily. Happened to me once. Sucks real bad. :(
 
IN NYC they would thro wyou in jail and take your car//The get out of jail free car dwas handing over your car..NICEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
 
Out here, I've gotten 2 BS tickets from Chicago blocking off Doty Road. One for parking the wrong way and another for obstruction of traffic. Both were while I was out spectating/racing. Both were later dropped in court. I've also gotten 3 parking tickets for non-existent adresses. They were also dropped when I proved that the adresses didn't exist. How stupid is that. Chicago PD doesn't like paperwork. They prefer to give bs tickets and make the quota.
 
To answer your question about FL!!

It's not blown out of proportion, I live on the east coast of FL and my son is into the ricer scene in Orlando, he got nailed for watching and then if that wasn't bad enough he went again the next night they had the street racing (stupid kid!!) and the cops waited till he started that little crap can of a car he has and nailed him for $54 for a "other than stock" exahust.

:mad: Damn kid, I thought I tought him better than that for 17 years of his life!!

There is actually a law here in Florida that if your exahust is ANYTHING other than stock they can ticket you the $54... Thank god they didn't enforce that 25 years ago when I had my Challenger with open headers running around downtown Orlando huh??

I think the comedian James Gregory has it right in one of his stand up routines... America new gerenation is made up of nothing but pissers and moaners. They can't take care of their kids, "Mr. Congressman please pass a bill to make my kid do what he's supposed to!!" My Neighbor makes to much noise after 5PM "Mr. Senator please pass a bill to make him stop" My neighboor's dog craps in my yard, "Mr. city counelman please pass an ordanace to make him stop!!"

I aggree totally with James on this one, in the old days if the neighboor's dog crapped in my yard, I'd of shot the dog and left the crap on his doorstep!!

Just my 2 cents..

RJ
 
I agree, no one wants to take responsibility for anything. Why should you when you can put just about anything onto someone else? :rolleyes:

I guess it also cracks me up how the whole street scene is considered so bad now, but it was ok to run around with open headers in the 50's and 60's. I hear stories about guys going around with SBC's welded into 30's roadsters that would pull the front wheels off the ground - no seatbelts! and that was somehow ok, but now a fart cannon exhaust is considered horrendous. How many people were killed when their 600hp hemi's got out of control? A lot.

Kids are always going to do crazy stuff, and street racing is not the worst of it by a long shot.
 
In my area two old airports that got shot down for drag strips. The cops bitch about kids street racing, but don't support getting a strip in the area (closest one is >2 hours). People who don't even live remotely close to the site complain that they don't want the noise, even though they have never been within a mile of a drag strip. Hell, one proposal even included sound barriers around the strip and requirements for a full exhaust. If you were too loud you don't pass tech. The locals allowed that airport to be converted into a dump, I guess the smell is better than the sound of an engine.

When I was street racing, we used the local industrial park because it was about as safe as a drag strip. It has a four lane divided main strip with brush and small trees on either side with only one entrance/exit other than the parking lots. Weekend nights the place was dead and had good lighting. Now the ricers run the busy highways because the locals park a cruiser at the entrance every weekend. A lot of cars got pulled out of the trees but few people got badly hurt, now we have plenty of crosses on the highways.

Aaron
 
its really sad when people cant afford 20 bucks to go to a drag strip and race there. grant it i am guilty in the past of doing this as well but now it just aint worth it. you just dont know who you are racing and their experiance at racing. at least with a drag strip it is a somewhat controlled environment and the safety crews are there.
 
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