Adelaide's In The News

[SoulSearcher]

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-a...3-1225870268546

 

 

Police assert hoon drivers will be charged

KEN MCGREGOR, KATE KYRIACOU From: The Advertiser May 24, 2010 12:01am

 

 

POLICE have begun "targeting" car enthusiast groups that allegedly ignore road laws, charging the head of a notorious Adelaide car club with an anti-hoon law that has not been used before.

 

All Car Club president and self-confessed "hoon" Peter Wayne Barnes is yet to plead to a charge of promoting an event involving the misuse of motor vehicles.

 

Barnes, 20, of Seaton, is the first person to be charged with the offence, which relates to a "car cruise" at Parafield in September last year.

 

Inspector Philip Newitt, officer in charge of the Major Crash section, yesterday said police will "continue to target and arrest the organisers of these illegal events".

 

"There is a clear intention from organisers to incite, solicit and encourage drivers to commit serious and dangerous traffic offences," he said.

 

Barnes, however, yesterday claimed the All Car Club no longer existed and that another popular cruise club, Ragers Commodore Klub, had barely 10 members - down from 400 a year ago.

 

He said police, who follow the cruises and impose unwarranted defect notices on roadworthy cars, were victimising him.

 

"They have won," he said. "People are too scared to come on the cruises now for the fear their car will be targeted by police."

 

Barnes is also listed as the creator of an anti-police Facebook page titled "I've been f**** over by the Taskforce Diagonal one too many times.!!!" The page, which berates the SA Police anti-hoon squad, has 173 members.

 

"Please let us know what happened and if u were a victim of there b*****(sic)", Barnes writes on the site. As part of his bail agreement, Barnes is not allowed to participate in "any kind of club cruise, most especially Ragers Commodore Klub and All Car Club."

 

A curfew prohibiting Barnes from being outside between 8pm and 7am also had been imposed, but was revoked last week.

 

Police recently laid charges against another man who allegedly is the head of South Australia's other main hoon car club.

 

Barnes has previously told The Advertiser "male testosterone" and the need to "show off" is behind his club's car cruises.

 

After a cruise in July, which involved about 250 cars, Barnes said he had told police "what happens when I finish the cruise is not on my shoulders", despite it shutting down sections of the highway and leaving it coated in oil and rubber.

 

He was also photographed participating in a "breakaway" group of the cruise where drivers took turns doing burnouts and "circle work" in a 100km/h zone.

 

"I'll admit that I'm a bit of a hoon," the Findon father of two said last July.

 

"I'll go to their burnout spots but I've got kids now and I'm back with my missus."

 

Barnes, who has previously lost his licence over traffic offences, also said the nights were about "showing what your car is made of".

 

"It's a bit of male testosterone my-car-is-better-than-your-car type of thing," he said. "It's fun. It's just showing what your car is made of. We're just letting off a bit of steam."

 

He faces a fine of up to $2500 as well as a licence disqualification if found guilty.

 

He will appear again in court next month.

[7shades]

Hmmm. I'm torn here.

 

Yes, its more posturing and victimising easy targets to keep the unremarkable suburbanites appeased.

 

But

 

While the Commonwhore halfwits are out there dragging their knuckles and hooting and shrieking at each other's antics, the Police attention is diverted...

[jono1986]

How long will it take for them to start targeting all car clubs though, like this Barnes guy said "nights were about "showing what your car is made of"". Which kinda makes it seem like all car cruises are about is showing off and acting like hoons, it will take this one scenario to stuff everyone around.

[Evan G]

man a car club is about everyone sharing the same passion/ learn a thing or too/ go for a cruise, have a good chat with other members

 

i think rolla club has made it very clear that no one likes topic about "highest speed" "cut springs" "how to lock diff" and very clear pointed out NO STREET DRIFTING/RACING in the motorsport section

[Redwarf]

This article was found earlier and has been a point of discussion in Moderatorland.

 

I think the line that should be most concerning is this one:

 

a charge of promoting an event involving the misuse of motor vehicles.

 

Now, if you have organised your cruise on Rollaclub, and 250 of your best and nearst friends have turned up, and half a dozen of them decide to "show... what your car is made of" where does that leave you, the organiser in the big scheme of things?

 

Following on from that, where does it leave Rollaclub as the conduit for organising said event?

 

The is not and should not be anything illegal about going for a drive in your car. The problem stems from people carrying out illegal activities whilst on the cruise. NO excuse can be or should be allowed for said activities and bringing disrepute upon the modified car scene as a whole.

 

Thoughts?

[MYSTIK[RL]]

some forums/clubs in recent history started using the statement the "hoon like behaviour" would not be tolerated on cruises and gatherings and that details of those who were deemed to be acting like "hoons" by the organisers would have their details handed over to police. I do believe this to be a double egded sword though as it can bring unwanted attention to your cruises and no turns up or everyone turns up and acts like tool(an not a useful one either)

[jono1986]

I guess from my point of view i can't have an opinion as i haven't been on a rolla club cruise yet, but when i went on a tribute to brock cruise a couple of years ago the organisers were very assertive on the rules of the cruise.

[SLO-030]

Thoughts?

 

 

Honestly..... I think it is ALL BULLSHIT!!

 

The fact that an organiser can be held accountable for the wrong doings of a few individuals.

 

Also the fact that someone who obviously has a strong Cro-Magnon heritage has been quoted and publicised, Making all cruises look as if they're out to do skids and scare old people.

 

The way things are going, personal expression will be a thing of the past.

[MYSTIK[RL]]

The way things are going, personal expression will be a thing of the past.

 

we've been heading that way for a long time ;)

[fusion]

I am not 100% on this, but I think there has been some big cruises in the past which have stated that the police have been told and wlecomed to the cruise event itself.

 

Would this therefore, to an extent, warrant the organiser not guilty unless caught behaving badly themselves? As they have made the intentions clear to the proper authorities? Or just simply work in there favour if ever taken to court over such a matter?

[SoulSearcher]

when i was heavily involved in another club, we had, on each cruise, regardless of the TYPE of cruise, CAMS approval. We had to pay a pretty high premium per cruise, something like $100, when you're a club member and you plan an event, you're responsible. If for instance, one of the drivers of one of the cars (who was being a wanker) slid round a corner and took out a fence, the owner could see that there were 10 cars that were the same and sue the club. CAMS covered your legal liability. Most clubs aren't as organised, and a cruise is a post on a forum and people attend.

 

However, what the police are doing is this: if I suggested a cruise, and some of the regular rollaclubbers attended but also a couple of their friends rocked up, who were unknown to me and one of them started acting like a wanker and had an accident and the police found out it was on a cruise, they could quite easily look up the forum, see that I organised the cruise and charge me.

 

Most likely they monitor the forums anyway. There was a cruise a couple of weeks ago, in July I think the meet point was at Mount Lofty, the police set up a defect station at a number of points on the cruise. The club organiser advised the police what what happening, but they used the opportunity, not to rock up and promote safety on the roads, but to set up a defect station. Now, there are two trains of thought, if your car isn't road worthy, don't take it out on the road, but the police in this instance were being arseholes and treating it as a revenue raiser (IMO).

 

Then there was the cruise last year where undercover police were video-taping the parked cars, probably running rego, licence, and personal checks on the owners, or having them flagged as possible "hoons".

 

I really don't like where this is heading.....it's the very few, irresponsible, most often, young male drivers that are causing the police to take a tough stand on their irresponsible behavior, but all car enthusiasts are being held accountable and individuals who are not involved are being put at personal risk through being charged.

[Karllos]

As ive mentioned in topics like this before, the possible 5% +/- of drivers out there that seem to have to make a point by driving like douchbags ruins it for the rest of us.

 

As a result, society as we know it has gotten to the point where the bad people (drivers) in this case are supposedly the tip of the iceberg and therefore the rest must behave like this also. Sure i agree totally that you should be fined/booked for doing wrong on the road, but when all your doing is driving seeing what other people have done to their cars and are content that you car is legal then why chase down everyone for the small amount of people that do wrong.

 

As per what lesley has said, the cruise that was held where the meet was at lofty, i attended said cruise and there was police attendance, bar the fact that they were notified is not the point, they took total advantage of said notification. Setting up defects all along the given cruise route. As per a memorial cruise last year (that was also notified to task force and police) I also attended and throughout the entire cruise no police cars were noticed by me or others. So why change now?

 

As i said before its the small amount of people that screw it up for the rest of us. It used to go through stages of who was targeted, commodores then imports then falcons then back to commodores, possibly throw euro cars into the mix. Now unfortunately they decide that we can have no more liberty as to what we want to do and make it extremely difficult to meet new people who are passionate about cars. Having said that there is a fine line between being passionate and being, honestly lets face it... dumb, and those who decide to drive on the road with their cars unroadworthy IMO deserve to be pulled over and or proceeded to have their car checked over to be deemed roadworthy again.

 

All in all it irritates me that they target one certain group of people, although the demographics who don't have an interest in cars is probably greater than those who do, and therefore are the majority, so who is the government going to try and please???

[Raven]

Do we class people who drive on the wrong side of the road hoons as well?

 

I had some f*&kwit do that to me just two days ago and nearly have a head on with me!

 

How about the Government concentrate more on driver training and getting a Motorsport park active than booking people for doing skids?

[2EZEM8]

Do we class people who drive on the wrong side of the road hoons as well?

 

I had some f*&kwit do that to me just two days ago and nearly have a head on with me!

 

How about the Government concentrate more on driver training and getting a Motorsport park active than booking people for doing skids?

 

+1 on this reply.

[200Boy]

How about the Government concentrate more on driver training and getting a Motorsport park active than booking people for doing skids?

Cause one costs money and the other makes money?