California Expands Crackdown on Modified Cars

[Fresh]

California agency issued $4.4 million in local grants for a modified car ticketing campaign that generates more than $10 million in revenue for the state.

Mitsubishi EvoThe California Office of Traffic Safety issued $4.4 million in grants last Friday to three law enforcement agencies to fund an ongoing crackdown on vehicles with "illegal" modifications. The Highway Patrol (CHP) received the largest of the grants at $2,980,587. Ontario police collected $620,000 and Irwindale police $321,044. The grants are designed to fund training and support for efforts to reduce illegal street racing. In practice, the effort has focused on issuing traffic citations to owners of modified cars with the state government collecting far more in citation revenue than has been handed out in grants.

The California Highway Patrol alone issued 101,553 citations worth $10.5 million in 2004 for modified car infractions, according to information the CHP provided to theNewspaper. These tickets were neither moving violations nor safety related. Instead, they included driving with an unapproved exhaust or intake system, using a loud stereo and driving without the rear license plate illuminated. The vast majority of citations, 82,220, were given for dark window tinting while the second greatest number, 8919, were given for driving without a front plate.

Enthusiasts complain much of the law enforcement effort has been directed at cars manufactured in Asia, particularly Hondas and Acuras. Owners of vehicles inspired by cars that race in the World Rally Championship such as the Mitsubishi Evo and Subaru WRX STi also have produced citations that showed the owner of an entirely stock vehicle had been stopped and accused of illegal modifications. In April, Los Angeles police took down the license plate numbers of Evo owners who had merely gathered to swap stories and share the experiences they had in owning similar vehicles. The police then mailed each participant an accusatory letter, even though no law had been broken and no resident had been disturbed by the friendly meeting.

"These vehicles were either gathering in preparation to race, or were actually involved in street racing." Los Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton wrote. "...We are prepared to prosecute all parties to the full extent of the law."

Police in Riverside and San Bernardino counties last week also generated publicity by inviting television news crews to film four customized automobiles, including a 1993 Honda Civic and a 1998 Acura Integra, being crushed after having been seized over accusations that the cars were illegally modified. Officials claimed that some of the parts used, despite purchase receipts, may have been stolen. The crushing took place without any of the accusations being proved in a court of law.


http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/18/1831.asp



That fuckin sucks

[Rochard]

Sucks if you have a Honda!

[munki]

Motherfucking cocksucking bastards...

[abyss_al]

have you noticed the choppers above glenoaks lately?

[Fresh]

Originally Posted by Rochard

Sucks if you have a Honda!

because hondas are the only cars that have window tints

[Jamie]

sucks to drive a rice burner

[Birdman33]

Originally Posted by abyss_al

have you noticed the choppers above glenoaks lately?

shut up you idiot

[UniversalPass Pete]

That's what government does when it's not making enough money!

[thehose]

beemers are next ;)

[Fresh]

Originally Posted by abyss_al

have you noticed the choppers above glenoaks lately?

ya bro, worse then ever

Originally Posted by Jamie

sucks to drive a rice burner

"The California Highway Patrol alone issued 101,553 citations worth $10.5 million in 2004 for modified car infractions" - "The vast majority of citations, 82,220, were given for dark window tinting while the second greatest number, 8919, were given for driving without a front plate."

Originally Posted by Birdman33

shut up you idiot

fuck off

[abyss_al]

Originally Posted by Fresh

ya bro, worse then ever

they're using them to clock the cars

[Fresh]

Originally Posted by abyss_al

they're using them to clock the cars

no waaaaaaay! what a burn man. As if the cameras on intersection werent enough

[tehHinjew]

sleepers ftw... thats all i have to say

im picking up an 05 lexus is300 turbo with a huge FMI but cant be seen since it is behind the oem bumper

[Fresh]

Originally Posted by tehHinjew

sleepers ftw... thats all i have to say

im picking up an 05 lexus is300 turbo with a huge FMI but cant be seen since it is behind the oem bumper

I <3 BOOST

[Donkey Punch]

what is a FMI

[tranza]

That's no good....

[tehHinjew]

Originally Posted by Donkey Punch

what is a FMI

front mount intercooler


you really cant see it...thus making it a sleeper

[beemk]

kind of retarded they would spend so much $ and time to bust people for window tint.

[smack]

cali is fucking retarded about modded cars.

i'm tired of people accusing enthusiasts of being street racers just because their car is modded.

i have a decent number of mods on my evo right now, with plenty more to come.

I DO NOT STREET RACE. period. end of story.

i like my car, my license, and most importantly my life too much. there are plenty of legal race events around to keep me more than busy.

i get harrased by the police pretty regularly. i have even been pulled over for doing nothing before. the cop told me "it took him too long to catch up to me" and that i must have been speeding, and wrote me a fucking ticket for "traffic control devices", and then was a dick to me, telling me how i was lucky he didn't give me a speeding ticket.

lucky? i wasn't fucking speeding!

it's obnoxious. but if i went tommorow to trade in my Mitsubishi for a Mustang or Camaro, i could pretty much do whatever i wanted, with little to no reprisal from the police.

law enforcement can suck my sweaty choade. as mentioned in another thread about cali no crushing people's cars, why don't they do this to drunk drivers?

drunk drivers kill WAY more people per year that street racing will. that's not to say i am justifying street racing, but i think car crushing and other heavy handed tactics should be focused on something more dangerous.

[yys]

You think you have it bad
http://www.autoblog.com/2007/06/21/o...ore-it-hits-t/

Ontario threatens to crush street racing cars before they hit the street
Yesterday we learned that California has begun the practice of crushing modified cars obtained while being used for the illegal and dangerous activity of street racing. The hope is that seeing their expensive toys flattened by a compress will deter street racers from endangering the lives of others on public roads. Judging from the news coming out of Canada, it appears that the province of Ontario is prepared to go one step further. Ontario Attorney General Michael Bryant has stated that the authorities in his province will confiscate and crush vehicles built for street racing before they even put rubber to pavement on city streets.

"Just on the balance of probabilities if we can establish that a car is being used for the unlawful purpose of street racing, we will seize it and you will never see it again. We will crush your car, we will crush the parts."

The report from The Star in Ontario tells us that Bryant's fiery edict was given just a few days after a truck driver was killed after being cut off by three youths street racing on Highway 400. The driver, David Virgoe, drove his truck off the road and down an embankment rather than cross the divider and risk colliding with oncoming traffic.

Bryant likened a "juiced-up" car for street racing to "an explosive" and claimed "...we don't need to wait until that car hits the road fully loaded." While street racing is an indefensible act of stupidity, we wonder what standards Ontario will use to judge cars as intended for street racing before they are impounded and crushed and whether or not there will be an appeals process. While many U.S. states and Canadian provinces have laws governing vehicle modifications that dictate how much a car can be lowered, how dark its window tint can be, etc., we could easily imagine a vehicle that violates none of these rules yet still looks like a street racer. And what about show cars? Visit any Hot Import Nights show and you'll find plenty of trailer queens that produce ridiculous amounts of horsepower but are never driven hard for fear their paint might chip.

We certainly don't want to minimize how dangerous street racing is, but at the same time must remember that any vehicle driven straight off the dealer's lot has the potential to be driven dangerously by an idiot. It seems that the focus of Bryant's attack is misdirected at the machines used for street racing when it should be aimed at their operators.

On top of that
Head cop in Ontario(Toronto)wants a new law enacted to seize cars driving at 50kph over the limit(i.e.150kph) and destroy them as you must be racing at that speed.

[lazycash]

This really sucks, I just got pulled over yesterday and they say next time they see my car they'll tow it unless I change it. Seems my hot ass wing is 3 inches above the allowable height.