Boy Racers cont.

[pjay 8]

Boy racers get bad rap from aging rebels

Sunday Star Times | Sunday, 15 February 2009

The one redeeming outcome of the disaster in Victoria is how it sidelined the panic over boy racers. Death sure has a way of putting things into perspective.

In Christchurch people turn feral at the very mention of the problem, a satisfying result for the boy racers, surely.

Don't we all remember what it was like to be young and rebellious, though, and don't we recall previous panics? In hindsight, what did they amount to?

There were bodgies, ages ago, who got drunk and upset blossom festivals in Alexandra and Hawke's Bay. An annual orgy of outrage could be counted on over their antics.

We don't have blossom festivals any more, or borstals to send bodgies to, and I guess they got married, made homes, had kids and got boring like everyone else.

Their kids became hippies who wore bare feet and lived in communes. How outrageous. Long-haired schoolboys were made to have army haircuts for no real reason other than to humiliate them, and old men wrote letters to newspapers wanting to bring back public floggings, or send them to compulsory military training.

The Beatles, they said, were the spawn of Satan. Time makes idiots of all of us if we're not careful.

More recently skateboarders were the scum of the earth - until we came to our senses and built skateboard parks where they now congregate instead of hooning around car park buildings.

Now it's boy racers. As far as I know, they're not noted for serious criminal activity and they don't kill anyone; they even drive their own cars, which means they don't want to wreck them.

But they drive in an intimidating way, risk their own lives and those of other people, act aggressive, and make an appalling din.

For this we want to take their cars off them, squash them, and - just to show them who's boss - make them watch. The closest parallel I can think of is a certain kind of rape.

For every outburst from a policeman, a politician or a mayor, boy racers give an equal and opposite reaction. As young people do. And yet again we're amazed at the effrontery of youth.

What on earth gets into us? Aren't there laws about speeding? Is it really legal to have such noisy vehicles? Can't you already be booked for dangerous driving and drink-driving? Haven't we got laws about riots and unlawful assembly?

And what do we really expect when we send a sole policeman out to deal with 100 boy racers and their girlfriends? That they'll cringe and slink home with their tails between their legs? High school teachers will tell you how realistic that is.

I'm shocked at the clamour to destroy these kids' cars, the only thing they own that really means a lot to them. That should be a truly desperate last resort, only for repeat offenders, and perhaps might apply to other lawbreakers while we're at it.

What about the middle-aged creeps in business and the law who've stolen fortunes from investors and trusted clients, only to go home after jail to their mansions in leafy glades, where their purring BMWs wait in the garage, and all their assets are untouched because they're in family trusts?

Which is more antisocial - the cocky kid who keeps you awake at night, or the sleek private schoolboy who gambled away your life savings, condemning you to poverty in old age? Whose car would you wreck first?

Not so long ago we had public floggings, and not long before that we still had public executions. Some people still feel nostalgic for their special charm. But there are other ways of dealing with social pests, surely, than by just taking an aggressive stand against them.

These boy racers, like their parents before them, will have their own kids, make homes of some kind, get a job, grow older - and deep down they know it. But until that happens, we all live in an eternal now.

We found places for skateboarders to use; why can't we find somewhere for boy racers to do what they love to do, away from built-up areas?

Give them a site, maybe have them administer it themselves, ensuring the safety of everyone there, and they'll get the hang of what responsibility is.

If that won't work, try something else, but make it constructive. Whatever you do, though, don't demonise the young. Like it or not, they're our only future.

[laadeelaa 0]

GOLD.

[ashy_aye 3]

So tru!!

[*Glenn* 854]

Not again......please....this has been done to death

Start a cooking recipe thread instead

[greenday-rulz21 6]

I agree with Glenn. I'm getting tired of reading posts about this.

[Mark 178]

+1

[crazyarab 6]

Tired of this topic, yes.

Good read non the less.

[pjay 8]

I didn't post it to have everyone start talking about it again. Just thought it was a good read..

Gosh

[Boost Junky 1]

I must agree with pjay it is a good read really. This topic will never go away unless something is done about it...

[diablo23 1]

good read

[OLLIE 26]

I think it was a well written article, some very wise words. If only the people up top were smart enough to understand. The writer is someone i'd love to have a beer with.

[bravo 35]

As are half the crack-pots who write letters to the editor. The other half are arrogant, ill-informed, arsewipes who don't deserve to breathe, let alone have an opinion as it is different to mine!

But seriously, this is the first "sensible" "reaction" to the problem I have read in the media.

[Boost Junky 1]

As are half the crack-pots who write letters to the editor. The other half are arrogant, ill-informed, arsewipes who don't deserve to breathe, let alone have an opinion as it is different to mine!

But seriously, this is the first "sensible" "reaction" to the problem I have read in the media.

Too true bravo, too many people are just so one sided when it comes to serious matters such as these... im sure i could list many other problems within this country alone that have such bad responses and letters to editors where the writers clearly havnt thought about what they are writting before submitting.

But then again im one too talk sometimes

[pjay 8]

I think it was a well written article, some very wise words. If only the people up top were smart enough to understand. The writer is someone i'd love to have a beer with.

Funny thing is, read any of her other articles and you probably wont like her. First article shes struck home with me on