125 replies to this topic

[vicelore]

 

this 

 

 

 

And this

 

My problem isn’t that they’re defecting delectable cars, what annoys me the most about these kinds of busts is what I perceive as the relentless “bullying” of modified car enthusiasts. Yes if your car is “legal” then in theory you have nothing to be worried about but as has been mentioned previously, just because your car is legal and/or have an engineer’s cert doesn’t make you “safe”. They can still issue you with a defect notice or worse, an EPA attendance. Even if your car is legal you may made to jump through hoops to prove it. Andy had to visit EPA three times to prove his innocence with a legally modified car. each EPA visit costs money and each day off work costs money. I don't see how anyone can say serves him right, he deserved that or that's fair when every single part on his car was made by subaru. the whole if your car's legal, your fine line is fine in theory but BS in practice because police use their own discretion with issuing notices. 

 

In my opinion the police should be working closer with enthusiast groups the way they do the USA and Europe by attending meets as a friendly force, putting on speed off the street events, driver training workshops etc. there are ways to educate people and scare tactics and intimidation is one way but all that’s doing is creating a larger divide and a real us vs them mentality that isn’t productive in the long run. I bet that in a lot of cases, a car enthusiast “daily” beaters are probably more dangerous than their weekend cars they’re too afraid to drive for risk of defect

 

I, as I’m sure a lot of your guys do too, have a lot of mechanic friends and I bet if you ask ANY of them and they will tell you that the most dangerous cars on the road are ones driven by middle aged soccer mums. Headlights, tail lights and indcators out, brakes totally worn, shocks gone, bald tyres, 20k over service etc etc. Now these are the same “respectable’ cars and owners that I see “hooning” through the three school zones I drive through every morning (often sitting up my arse as I do the posted 40kmph) to drop little johnnie and little suzie off to school. Not only that but double parking in no standing zones.

 

I sure that a defect station, EPA unit and speed trap outside Cromer Highschool pulling over school run mums of a morning would net more non roadworthy cars, more epa violations and more speeding offences than the station set up outside of the top gear festival in Sydney earlier this year but I’m thinking it’s very unlikely that’s about to happen. It’s easier to sit outside an enthusiast car event, send Tracy Grimshaw and her TV cameras down there to record the police “cleaning up the streets”.

 

I’d also like to point out that in no way am I trying to say that illegally modified cars should be allowed to do as they like, just that it seems that the police’s whole fish in a barrel approach isn’t the best way to fix the problems of un-roadworthy cars on our roads nor is it the way to gain respect or earn any influence within the modified car scene. And they wonder why they get attitude from enthusiasts 

 

Exactly how if feel man.. 

[B4TT]

Maybe someone should send something to our Roads Minister to see what the approach in NSW will be and if they are willing to work closer with the modified car community for more co-operation.

[Shaz]

Maybe someone should send something to our Roads Minister to see what the approach in NSW will be and if they are willing to work closer with the modified car community for more co-operation.

I might actually draft an email to them

[neni]

A infamous hwy patrol officer down here defected an unregistered track car outside the owners business just cause he wanted to and also defected an 86 for drl's. I witnessed this happen. There are countless stories of this infamous officer. One that stood out was an evo getting defected for its stock FMIC then still having to get rwc to get it cleared which is ridiculous.

[Liberty]

Would remind some of the guys here about that Slee bloke...

 

I might actually draft an email to them

 

That would be awesome. Good idea Josh. We can edit it as a forum as well before submission?

[Beckers]

Just think boys if they had set up a defect station @ the Hunter Valley Cruise this year.
How many cars would of got a defect / road worthy notice ??

As I agree that some mods can make a car dangerous and should be put of the road.
However does my larger diameter rear sway bar (non factory fitted) or the new rear muffler, make my standard family car dangerous ??

[Scuba-Roo]

IF that did happen i wouldn't be crying like a little school girl about it.



Dont think these boys/girls had any cop trouble at there weekend meet





 

[TSG]

And this is why I don't go to meets like Downshift. They've scared me off by hounding events like that, and my car is perfectly legal. It was an event that was fun, but over time the government has learnt about it, and is now targetting it for tax income. We don't live in a free country, in fact we live in one of the most ordered/structured countries in the world now. Nice display of public discrimination there by the government.

[vicelore]

[skillionaire]

Hi,

 

Just quietly I have a feeling this is the most sensible thread on this topic I've ever seen online.

 

Well done SC.

 

Also, the bloke in that video should have calmed down before talking. He just rambled for four minutes. Makes a good politician. 

 

Cheers,

Nik

[Adam]

I closed it after 1 minute

[skillionaire]

Hi,

 

I saw it through, but wish I'd done what you did.

 

Cheers,

Nik

[vicelore]

I don't agree with his behavior Just thought it was relevant.

 

Also seen this.. A letter from the director of the show Interesting read..

 

 

"

Dear Premier

Back in May, I wrote to you requesting assistance with giving automotive enthusiasts a place to enjoy their hobby and legitimate past-time. At that time you supported us and kindly arranged a meeting with both Police and Transport. During this meeting, Transport representatives were fantastic, while Police representatives were aggressive and not to be reasoned with. At the time, I decided that it would be better to simply avoid crossing paths in future.

Yesterday, I organised one of the biggest events for car enthusiasts that Queensland has ever seen, at the Rocklea Showgrounds. Over 1200 vehicles attended from a range of enthusiast disciplines from four wheel drives to classics, drag cars, Japanese, and supercars. The Australian Confederation of Motor Clubs and the Australian Motoring Enthusiast Party also attended and made presentations, making this a political meeting as well. The behaviour of attendees was exemplary – I have never seen so many enthusiasts behave so well. There were no burnouts, no skids, no antisocial behaviour whatsoever. The event was legal, held on private property and registered with the Special Interest Vehicles scheme.

Despite this, Queensland Police set up a sting operation where officers from as far afield as Ipswich were invited to shoot fish in a barrel. I immediately spoke to officers in charge at both locations, but was met with arrogance and an inability to be reasoned with. At one point, an officer compared defecting car enthusiasts to, I quote “if you want lollies, go to a candy store”. I have heard of dozens of stories of unreasonable force by officers. One example was where a representative from the Motorama Holden car dealership brought along a brand new vehicle from the lot to display it, and was held up for 30 minutes while officers went over it with a fine tooth comb in an effort to find something wrong with it. When he protested, he was told that they would keep going until they found something. I have the gentleman’s contact details if you would like to verify this disgraceful occurrence yourself.

The icing on top of the cake was when two officers attended from another branch closer to the city, and requested to gain access to the grounds to find a child who had been missing for over 2 hours. We assisted them to locate said child, who has been reunited with his family (and had a great time at the event). The community has rightly questioned why the 30+ officers who were manning the defect stations were unable to lower their fine books to look for a missing person for a few minutes, and the more cynical have suggested that it may be that locating a child doesn’t pay as well as fining people for truly trivial things such as slightly too dark window tinting (which I may add was done using un-calibrated equipment).

As a result, there has been a significant backlash from our community of 50,000. I would not be surprised if you and your party lost at least 20,000 votes at the upcoming election as a direct result of this blatant harassment yesterday. All it would take to fix the situation is to command Police to work with us; avoid specifically targeting events where people are trying to do the right thing; and respect an exclusion zone around sanctioned, legitimate events.

When I received your response to my enquiries last time, I was hopeful that we would be able to work together with government and give a significant part of the community events that would be supported by the government instead of being specifically targeted and discriminated against. You claim that you want to address the problem of hooning. So do I. Targeting well-behaved enthusiasts at a legal, sanctioned, registered family-friendly motoring event is not the way to do that. At this point, I’m disappointed and promoting an alternative political party who is able to respect people doing the right thing.

Matyas Fulop
Director
DownshiftAus
contact@downshiftaus.com

[vicelore]

And his response

 

Campbell Newman Hi Matyas, Thanks for sharing your concerns about your experience at Rocklea yesterday.
These police enforcement activities are an operational matter for the Queensland Police Service under the direction of the Police Commissioner. I cannot direct the Police Commissioner in these matters. 

However, I do agree with you that it is not okay to single out car enthusiasts, if that’s what has occurred.

You should know that you can refer this matter to the Crime and Misconduct Commission for investigation. If you are not comfortable contacting them directly, I would be happy to refer this issue on your behalf if you provide me with specific details of what happened and your contact details. 

I understand that the majority of car enthusiasts do not set out to break the law and I recognise the efforts of community leaders in encouraging safe and responsible behaviour on our roads.

I’m sure you can appreciate that the Queensland Police play an important role in keeping our community safe by enforcing road rules while also meeting the high standards the community expects of them.

You can email me via http://www.thepremie...ls/contact.aspx

Rgds.
Cam

[mark300]

im actually surprised by Campbell Newmans response. rather well written and seems like he is willing to help out in the issue

[skillionaire]

Hi,

 

Newman(Liberal) is a good egg, from strong military (I believe 15 years?) background. Not bad for a Tasmanian. 

 

On from there, the arrogance and outright stupidity of this person to tell people they should change their vote over this is more infuriating than the road block. Nobody has the right to tell someone to vote in a certain way, and definitely not that carry on bloke with the microphone. Most of the people there would be of the younger generation.

 

I cannot believe that someone in FUCKIN' QUEENSLAND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! would tell people to vote against a Liberal government. How much contempt, and sheer audacity does this man possess, to tell a population that will be battling their way out of the hole Labor created economically and socially, for years to come, to vote against Liberal - over what? He's upset that a bunch of people breaking the law got caught?

 

I'm an alcoholic. Should I invite a bunch of people to my place, serve them up as much piss as they want, or tell them to have a few drinks on the way here, and expect because the actions taking place in my tavern are legal - it's all OK? Then when my mates get pulled over leaving my establishment, and they blow over, hence breaking the law - do I then start a media campaign against the cops targeting us?

 

Cheers,

Nik

[mark300]

Nik,

 

i have to agree with you. bringing politics into this topic as the guy did really isnt justified, its a completely different thing. its not as if the targeting of modified vehicles and hoons is a huge topic in the election currently, and even so, the federal election has no real control over what the QLD police or QLD roads to in relation to such operations that occurred at this meet.
 

[Shaz]

I think its good that Mr Newman responded to Matyas. (Whether that be himself, or an assistant..)

 

I facespaced Matyas last night to advise him not to send his letter of details not to the CM Commissioner directly, but rather to Mr Newman, who would pass it on. You'd be surprised how much more traction an email from a .gov.au email address will get over a @downshift.com or similar. 

 

Then, a few days later, send the same email directly to the CM Commisioner, just to make sure.

 

Whether you agree with it or not, this event is getting a lot of air play at the moment, and lots of people are voicing their concern.

 

Cheers,

Shaz 

[mark300]

getting alot of attention

 

interested to see what the outcomes of this will be

[SAV84C]

Even with this AMEP forming they have a long hard expensive fight ahead of them too even be heard...

 

 

At the end of the day it will always be us (car enthusiasts) vs them (revenue raising police).

 

 

We are no longer in a free country...