If we really want to appeal to everyone, I think we need to concentrate on car crime. The measure I use for this is what will my parents think, and my dad's Astra Van was nicked from outside there house a few months back, and my mums L reg volvo has been scratched a few times so they too have suffered car crime and have no real interest in motoring - car and van are just functional but the car crime is winding them up too.

I'd definately be interested in being involved in this and I think car crime is something which in some way affects most families [img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img]

 

I'm all for this. Name the time and place and I'll be there. I'll even bring my wife and kid just to prove a point that not everybody with a performance or modded cars are boy racers.

 

I would be up for it guys but i live in Wales and it would cost me in fuel bills to get to London, but if its that important then i'll help out. Just a suggestion but perhaps we could organise a meet in other areas of the countries as well as in London. Maybe, maybe not??????
Theres certainly enough of us on this BBS to make an impact if its organised properly.

Regards
scrappy

 

Hhhhmm 638 reads and 35 replies Theo.

So much for all the *something needs to be done* comments all over the Forum

 

Some very good points, thanks folks.

I didn't want to artifically bump this idea to the top as I was really interested to see how many people would join in - or not as it seems.

Astraboy made a very good point (others mentioned it as well): you only need one bad apple to make a potentially perfect meet turn into a shaming nightmare. I don't think you could ever eliminate that risk to be honest. And judging by how the media look at it all (see Pete Croney interview on BBS), they would probably ask the driver to do the donut again so they could get a different camera angle...

As for the "would it help" point ... it would be just a drop in the ocean, I realize that. But ... communication is not just trying to see how much of a dent something makes, it's also about speaking your mind. Sulking won't be heard either would it ?

Katana made a good point as well ... this is not about boy racers trying to protect their little toys. It's about people wondering what the hell happened to society ... In my opinion, we would want people to take their family (parents/kids) and we would also want to see all types of cars, high performance or not.

But ... either I explained it badly, that or we would have to conclude that we are not really ready to speak up (and enjoy a meet while we are at it )

Alex C.'s story about his father being threatened at gunpoint whilst he didn't know where the keys were made a "click" in my head. This is someting that can not be tolerated. Whether the target was an Impreza or a Daewoo Matiz is irrelevant. I want to protest against this, and I want my voice to be heard. Whether people do something with that ... I don't give a toss to be honest.

People are now wondering "should I sell my car", "I feel my wife isn't safe in the car" ... so I would have thought that before giving in, people would want to speak out just once. We could still sell ours cars afterwards "as seen on TV" ...

Or maybe the idea just sucks ?

Theo

 

Bravo makes his point as eloquently as ever but he has hit the nail on the head. There are 10000 registered members + on this BBS. SDB managed to get 25 cars together in the space of a few days for the WRC timing test. I would have thought, given a few weeks, that we could get 100 sensible drivers together for a well thought out and d1ckhead free rally in London to make our point known. All we have to do is make it on a Sunday and keep the date to people we know and trust and it could be done. We could then pick about 10 cars to drive up to Downing St., deliver the letter that was dicussed earlier, then we could move to another part of London (say Battersea park) and things could get into the usual meet-up business.
The cameras and the Media could be alerted well before to give the publicity needed, so it really that difficult to organise?
astraboy.

 

good points guys, especially the 600-odd reads and 35 posts

Come on you lot, we (as a nation) are quite content to be quiet and let everything **** up. You guys who are thinking of selling the car, that's your call but you (and everyone here) has worked hard for these bl00dy things, why should you sell them? Look what happened with the speed cameras and petrol... classic examples of us not saying anything and now look at the situation... ****.

It really makes me mad that no-one says anything, lets take a lesson from the yanks and the french (of all people) and do something for a change. If we don't do anything it _will_ get worse and we ultimately have ourselves to blame. Yes the scum are wrong but if nothing is done to try to stop them, the tw@ts in government will continue putting revenue generation before crime prevention and revisions to laws etc. (after all, the police service is a 'business' right )

I'm all for the convoy, name the time and the place...

 

Good point made chaps, its time that people were made aware of exactly how many people this sort of crime effects. I'd be up for it.

 

I'm as opposed to car crime as the next man, but don't make the mistake of assuming that all members of this bbs are behind whatever anti-government agenda is emerging here. I for one am not, and I don't think I'm alone...

 

It may be an idea worth going for....there is something definately missing in terms of what the CPS is doing. I spent half a day last week chasing kids on Motor Bikes/Scramblers on a common to possibly warn/arrest/summons them and the potential fine for abusing this land (which was said to be an SSI "site of scientific intrest) was £20,000 worst case.

There are nominals stealing cars and getting no more than location/association of other nominals bail conditions and ASBO (Anti-Social Behavioural Orders) and maybe the odd custodial sentence...but somewhere down the line they aint paying for what they have done to the good folk of this world like you and I.

Something does need to be said by the masses....when will someone on here be killed for their car?

 

astraboy - does that mean the rest of you are Old Labour ? Wonders never cease !

 

So are we doing anything then?

 

I agree that something needs to be done. A lot of organised car crime is just part of a much bigger crime movement with money funding drugs and other ****.

Can you imagine having someone stick a gun in your face just to nick your car. What the hell is going on? Its seems far too easy to steal and change the identity of cars to ship abroad. Customs are under resourced and cant check the thousands of containers leaving the UK every week. The government can take steps to make it harder for theives to get our stolen cars out of the country and make it harder to change the cars identity. Each VIN is unique so why not have the VIN stamped/etched every where? Every window/mirror/light lense and major body parts can be stamped so changing the VIN would be very expensive and time consuming...?

If this rally/demonstration is going to work we really need the backing of the RAC/AA and similar. This would add credibilty and make media coverage more certain.

 

I'm still all for this. As I said before, name the time and the place and I'll be there in a jiffy..

 

I'm sure this could be organised and the relevant authorities, car magazines and media notified. I wouldn't be interested in a closed "select" band of 100 and we need not limit it to Scoobys.

Suggested venues.

Regents Park Inner or Outer Rings - causes least disruption on a Sunday to traffic in general, and would be nice to loop the whole ring with performance cars but is hardly Central London

Hyde Park - A fairly simple and long loop using Park Lane and a prime location, tends to be quite busy on a Sunday.

Downing Street to Buckingham palace. A very nice loop via The Mall, Buckingham Palace Road, Downing Street and prime location, guaranteed best media coverage, but not many legal parking options.

 

Hi guys & gals ... I'm still for it, but I don't think there's a lot of enthousiasm round this idea ... besides, this is a plot against Labour right ? All *INTERNATIONAL* meets are

Funny thing is, I mostly think protest meets are ridiculous... this one could have been big/fun/impressive.

Theo

 

Sorry, but I can find plenty of reasons to defend any biker or car speeding, but not videoing himself doing it. Reminds me of the famous clip in one of the Police Stop videos. I'm sure the guy was in a Ferrari and in Japan filming his speedo when flying.

If you are going to speed and video it, at least find some way of getting the needle stuck at 80mph. Also if he was clever enough to do 160 and video it, he should be clever enough to outrun the OB.

Motorists and bikers are easy targets and we don't have a civil liberties or recognised pressure group to defend ourselves.

 

But the point is, real criminals seems to get away with just a slap on the wrist.

 

i'm up for it but we must have a common goal!
less car crime!

 

I'm not disagreeing and I'm all for protesting.

Unfortunately the way I see it tackling crime + proper sentencing + appropriate RELATIVE sentencing requires investment in people, procedures and more jails. This means more of taxpayers money which means more Tax and it is here that the system fails because no-one in power (or the opposition) want to DIRECTLY raise taxes, although they are fully prepared to do it indirectly. It's virtually accepted that raising taxes loses votes.

I'm 35, not political, in fact I've never voted so I therefore don't complain. Choices at last election were T*sser A wearing red T*sser B wearing blue and T*sser C wearing yellow, only the colours were different.

Now if the government of the day were prepared to tax me an extra 5p in the pound and guarantee that the 5p is ringfenced and can only be adjusted with an act of parliament I might vote. The ring-fenced 5p could be spent on beefing up the police, improving NHS and education.

Unfortunately no-one is prepared to stick their neck out and do it.

 

bttt before you guys forget about this.

 

sounds a great idea, get the Evo and GTi-R/GT-R, Supra boys (etc) in too...

What do I want?

Better use of police resources (speed cameras and traps are _NOT_ better use of resources)
More effort put into car crime detection and prevention (neighborhood watch for cars perhaps?)
If the know there are people that do it, do something about it.
Harsher penalties for car crime in general, especially for the terrible events that happened the other day.

Getting a convoy together would be cool, couple of hundred of us would bring london to a standstill, that would make the at least notice someone was pissed off.

Matt



[Edited by mattski2 - 3/5/2002 12:02:11 PM]

 

John's comments noted, however, if you want to complain to someone....

A few weeks ago, I and other motorcyclist got rather narked at a letter that was written by Michael Meacher to leading Police Officers about restraining/restricting (you intrepret) motorcyclists in National Parks.

A web site was set up to complain, and links were posted to allow contact with MP's. All above board.

Here is the article in Motorcycle News that carried the news...

http://www.motorcyclenews.com/news/d...umentID=132733

Might be worth something similar about car crime? ( I do have a Scoob)

If want to find your local MP?? Try here...

http://www.locata.co.uk/commons/

Or if you want to find if your MP has e-mail so you can drop him a line? Look here...

http://www.parliament.uk/commons/lib/alms.htm

You could try contacting Mr David Blunkett, John Denham or Keith Bradley of the the Home Office - resonsible for crime, criminal justice etc.

e-mail them at - "public.enquiries@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk", or through the above links.

The bikers are planning a few events to vent their feelings. I know the situation is different here, I'm just passing on the info.
Pete


[Edited by phd - 3/5/2002 1:39:43 PM]

 

maybe they should spend some bl00dy money on more prisons then, either that or send them to Australia Actually, what happens to all of the revenue they generate from speed cameras, speed traps?

I bet criminals are laughing their heads off, they now know they have a good chance of not going to prison, FFS, what has this country become?
I'm in on the Convoy guys, we had better all take our decats off tho as it would smell like a 747 driving down the road

M



[Edited by mattski2 - 3/5/2002 5:27:39 PM]

 

*Spot the New Labourite*

edited to add smilies

[Edited by astraboy - 3/7/2002 11:20:26 AM]

 

If there's another good reason to protest look here.

Now are we going to keep on being sheeps and let them get away with pathetic judging like this, where a guy who actually harms someone gets much much less punishment, or are we going to finally vertebrate and stand up for our rights?

[Edited by Katana - 3/8/2002 10:45:22 PM]