Anyone see this?

[KaptKaos]

Presented without comment (for now).

http://thenewspaper.com/news/23/2302.asp

[legion]

Sounds like y'all are subjects, not citizens out there.

Guilty until proven innocent.

[kstar]

Seems like there are some Federal/Constitutional problems here, yes?

Best,

Kurt

[Joeaksa]

Just another wonderful reason why I will never live in the socialist country of kalifornia...

~~~~~~~~~~~

California: Police Raid Car Enthusiast Gathering, Generate Revenue
Police raid Riverside, California parking lot to issue modified car tickets at local car enthusiast gathering.

Parking lot raidUsing $503,000 in federal and state gas tax revenue to pay for overtime, nine police agencies in Riverside, California sent more than one hundred police officers to surround a gathering of automotive enthusiasts. Owners of imported sport compact cars had gathered at the Canyon Crossing shopping center on Friday night to swap stories, talk about their passion for cars and show off the latest enhancements to their rides. At around 11pm police surprised participants by blocking all exits with fifty police cruisers. Officers then began a warrantless search and interrogation operation of the 150 vehicles that were present.

"If you're not into street racing, why would you need that?" Riverside Police Traffic Sergeant Skip Showalter asked an enthusiast during a similar crackdown last year. "Why would you want more power going to your car?"

Police issued a total of forty-eight tickets for "engine modifications" with police accusing the owners of the parked vehicles of being street racers. Another fifty tickets were issued for paperwork violations, dark window tinting and lack of a front license plate. The most revenue, however, will be generated from the fees imposed on twenty vehicles that were confiscated. Despite labeling the parking lot raid as taking place at a "street racing venue," Riverside Police offered no evidence that any street racing actually took place.

Across the state, gas tax funds are regularly used to fund similar crackdowns that generate big revenue. In 2004, the California Highway Patrol issued a total of 101,553 "modified car" citations worth $10.5 million according to CHP data obtained by TheNewspaper.

Other law enforcement agencies participating in Friday night's raid included the California Highway Patrol, Riverside County Sheriff's Department, and police from Baldwin Park, Fontana, Irwindale, Moreno Valley, Ontario and Mount San Jacinto Community College.

[KaptKaos]

Follow-up.

Here's an article about the same incident from another source:

http://www.pe.com/localnews/riverside/stories/PE_News_Local_R_streetrace01.4234d9b.html

[Jim Bremner]

there's 1 more reason for them to wear a bullet proof vest

sad thing is "we're just following orders"

[Tobra]

seems like a pretty slam dunk violation of Constitutional rights

Pretty much 100% of the stuff you could find on a modified car is a fix it ticket, no fine, just fix it and have LE sign off on it. This is stupid, you go hassle a whole bunch of people getting together and not breaking any laws.

Stupid comment by some Sgt Cop about, if you add power to your car the only reason would be to street race it. My tax dollars at work, fuch me

[cgarr]

Years back when attending a lot of Dawn Patrols (flyins) we had problems with the FAA always showing up for ramp checks, I don't know how they stopped it but information came out that the FAA was not going to target flying events anymore, I don't know if it was illegal or just bad PR for them but they don't do it anymore, at least here..

[nostatic]

Funny, they never do that to an R-Gruppe gathering...

I wonder what could be different?!?!?

[pwd72s]

Difference? R Gruppe cars are, for the most part, exempt from smog check laws...aged out.

Still, I found it funny as hell when I clicked on the link....and discovered How to buy seized vehicles ads at the bottom of the article...

[cgarr]

Thats like, "if you not going to kill someone why do you need a gun"

[Jim Bremner]

nostatic,


ALL of us gearheads need to stand together.

I don't care for lowriders, but it's their thing. Ricer's are getting the heat right now....who's next?

[NICKG]

well can't you just tell the officer to go away? if they ask, you can just say no to any inspection...provided they did not see you drive or do anything wrong.
I have been asked to have my car searched before and asked then why and what grounds they were using to violate my civil rights...they left me alone..but then again i am not a teen anymore

and how can they ticket you if the mods are not emmissions related? I ask because I work for an exhaust manufacturer, we make performance exhausts and the federal laws are not impuned by aftermarket exhausts....in fact we have a carb exemption on most of our stuff too...Legally these items are Legal in every sense.


what do they do give you a conspiracy to street race ticket?

[KaptKaos]

The site that the first article came from is: http://thenewspaper.com/

It seems to be a blog about driving related new stories.

[KaptKaos]

Originally Posted by Jim Bremner

nostatic,


ALL of us gearheads need to stand together.

I don't care for lowriders, but it's their thing. Ricer's are getting the heat right now....who's next?

I agree.

I don't get low riding, or 4x4s or many other aspects of car culture, but that's not the point. We need to support other enthusiasts or we will all lose.

[gprsh924]

In the second article it shows what an epidemic street racing is in Riverside. It has killed two people in recent years. Lord help us.


I wonder how many people died in car crashes caused by alcohol or simply driver error (as a result of the ridiculously low licensing standards)?

[Hawktel]

Originally Posted by pwd72s

Difference? R Gruppe cars are, for the most part, exempt from smog check laws...aged out.

Still, I found it funny as hell when I clicked on the link....and discovered How to buy seized vehicles ads at the bottom of the article...

Yeah, How safe do you think that Smog exempt thing is?

http://www.autoblog.com/2008/03/31/ca-looking-to-remove-smog-exemption-from-pre-1976-cars/

New article from the 31st.

[bivenator]

This happened in Houston about 2 years ago. It was poorly planned and executed and I believe ultimately cost some cops thier jobs. They were handcuffing kids and generally exceeding the limits of the law. If they gave tickets here for oversized mufflers, I can't imaging them having time to do anything else.

[Hugh R]

If that happend to me and I wasn't street racing, I'd be in front of the City Council with as many people who got those tickets calling for the firing of the Police Chief. and or a recall of the city council if they didn't act.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Originally Posted by Hawktel

Yeah, How safe do you think that Smog exempt thing is?

http://www.autoblog.com/2008/03/31/ca-looking-to-remove-smog-exemption-from-pre-1976-cars/

New article from the 31st.

Thank you for bringing that up. There was a post about this here on Pelican not too long ago (it outraged me to the point I wrote my state senator). Most people predictably didn't seem to shive a git, which probably means it'll sail through the legislature unopposed and the first domino will have fallen.

Another California Senate Bill to repeal the emissions exemption.

Tyrannical politicians love citizen apathy.