CAR hoons will have their vehicles crushed and the video posted on the internet in a bid to deal with the growing defiance of speed obsessed drivers in Sydney.
But first they will have to witness their car destroyed under crash test experiments in RTA labs.
The Daily Telegraph is running a new version of the moral panic story. The ‘we told you so’ story:
It was what The Daily Telegraph warned in August would continue to happen unless NSW adopt Los Angeles’ style laws that not only confiscate cars but destroys them.
The editorial notes:
Nothing – not even the most severe penalties in the Western world – has had an effect.
Every weekend, drag racers are caught tearing up the streets of Sydney. Every weekend there is an injury. Increasingly there are deaths, more often involving the innocent.
So the time has come for zero tolerance.
In truth, the destruction of the cars will make little difference to the lives of these idiots. And they are idiots.
For a car to be crushed it would have already been confiscated by the court.
But the visual and highly publicised message this will send may finally get through the thick heads of these young drivers.
Premier Morris Iemma has heard the concerns of The Dail Telegraph readers. Car hoons will no longer be tolerated.
And if it means using their cars as crash test experiments and posting the results on YouTube, then so be it.
No one can have sympathy for their loss.
Iemma and/or The Daily Telegraph, lets see some road safety and community-related policing statistics:
1) How many ‘hoon’ related accidents have there been over the last 4 or 5 years?
2) How many total accidents for the same class of accident and time frame?
3) How many cars have been confiscated under the anti-hoon laws?
4) How many complaints from the public have there been?
‘Road safety’ is a statistically guided industry, without statistics there is little indication of anything improving.
Update: Channel 7 tonight. Just did an interview. Threw down a challenge to the government… See how it is edited.
Update: For journalists who want my book chapter on ‘the hoon’ and moral panics email me at gfuller (at) uws (dot) edu (dot) au
Previous media coverage wrap up.
Update: Channel 10 tonight. Should be interesting to see the different ways the story has been reported.
Hey, have you finally submitted? Well done! If you’re having some kind of party, send me the details.
End of nov is submit. Party early Dec. woot
Saw the Chan 10 short coverage but no mention of the story on Chan 7 in the West. Hope you can put it all on this blog.
OK. I er…Ok. No hang on. is this religion? Are we pro or anti hoons here?
hi WoP, I am not an advocate either way.
Hooning is often represented as a road safety problem. The media and ‘moral entrepreneurs’ like to talk about the size of the problem and the severity of punishments. I work in my research to define problems. Going by the only available stats, hooning is not a road safety problem. It is, however, a problem regarding the use of public space (and related issues, sound, fear, etc.). Addressing the hooning issue as a problem of the use of public space is different than trying to address it as a road safety problem.
Politicians love talkng about hoons because nobody else (except for Harold Scrubby) has bothered to point out it is non-existant as a road safety problem compared to drink driving, pedestrian accidents, and young drivers. Politicians therefore use the hoon issue as a resource to make it appear as if they are doing something — taking action — when in fact they are doing sweet bugger all. Surely the government needs to provide some sort of mechanism of acountability to demonstrate they are being effective at actually making the roads safer (if it is actually pitched as a road safety problem). They can’t do this because it is not a road safety problem.
The hoon issue stands in for a whole bunch of other anxieties, such as youth, class and ethnic difference, the vale of the family home, etc. That is why it gets traction.
We should be forcing governments to stop talking about unsubstantiated bullshit and demonstrate real effectiveness and accountability.
Yeah right. Err, like, first you gotta catch me.