The Hoon Laws In Practice

[MLCrisis]

Hi, all. You all know about the issues we have with the "Hoon Laws". Now is your chance to do something about them. This thread is for Victoria to gather information about the practice of the hoon laws in your state. This is what I said in the similar thread, now a sticky, in WA:

I believe that the "hoon" laws are badly drafted and give the police far too much power. They are bad law! There are sufficient laws without them. The rules of evidence are also being seriously diluted by pursuing convictions on the word of members of the public. Little old ladies phoning up to say "he was going very fast" should not constitute sufficient evidence. Hopefully it does not, but we shall see.

Populist measures are too easy for politicians, but by implementing such poorly thought out laws those politicians fail to do their duty to ensure that the laws they enact are sound. If they are not sound, they bring the whole system into disrespute. More particularly, they place the Police in the impossible position of applying those laws in an impartial manner, when their human frailty means falling short is inevitable. Hence, they themselves become undermined by the very position that these laws put them into.

I would like to compile evidence of the hoon laws in practice. So if you know of poor application of the law, inappropriate actions by police using the hoon laws, the use of questionnable evidence, or similar, please let me know via this thread and/or pm. Please only first hand experience - not "I know a bloke, who's mate's girfriend's brother".

If we compile sufficient evidence, I intend to put a submission to the Government to change the law. Let the punishment fit the crime!

If anyone else has experiences they are prepared to share, please add them on. Good experiences as well as bad. If you were done fair and square, then please say so. If the policeman was reasonable in his/her behaviour, please say so. If they were aggressive and overbearing, let us know. If you were aggressive and disrespectful, let us know. Best to have basic facts here and more detail in a pm.

Thanks everyone. Please note that I am not knocking the Police, they do a hard job that not many people would do. But a badly framed law allows them to overstep their real powers and some of them will use it - because they are not all saints!

So there you go. We need good data to support our argument. We need information in each state to fight this, as no state government will want to go it alone in repealing them.

Please be careful in what you post. This is not intended to be a thread for you to rant or argue. It is to gather facts.

Thanks guys. Go to it!!

Cheers.

[R31Nismoid]

Its gonna be a nice and wide reaching submission to the Federal Gov't being each states laws are different in thier words, applications, penalties...

With what will be mostly unsubstantied evidence that'll be added to this thread...

If you are really serious, you need to get statutory declarations by people involved, with witnesses where possible, officers badge #'s, car #'s, and so on.

Stories over the internet are not going to get you far especially in this state. Not sure what WA is like with its courts.

And once you get people to actually put it to paper legally in a stat dec, which means signing it as the truth as if it were a submission to court, id be interested to see if the recollection of events is the same

Good luck with it either way.

[twennyone]

hear hear (sp?)

well put.

[superspit]

hear hear (sp?)

well put.

hear here......??? (that one always gets me too.)

[joeyjoejoejuniorshabadoo]

srsly HTF are esl people supposed to learn this shit!

[superspit]

srsly HTF are esl people supposed to learn this shit!

lol!

[MLCrisis]

Its gonna be a nice and wide reaching submission to the Federal Gov't being each states laws are different in thier words, applications, penalties...

With what will be mostly unsubstantied evidence that'll be added to this thread...

If you are really serious, you need to get statutory declarations by people involved, with witnesses where possible, officers badge #'s, car #'s, and so on.

Stories over the internet are not going to get you far especially in this state. Not sure what WA is like with its courts.

And once you get people to actually put it to paper legally in a stat dec, which means signing it as the truth as if it were a submission to court, id be interested to see if the recollection of events is the same

Good luck with it either way.

There is no doubt that this is a big undertaking, but we have to start somewhere. I take your point about unsubstantiated evidence. Anything from here will just be hearsay. But once we have built up a body of contacts, we can then look to getting stat decs or whatever. There are already a few lawyers that I know of who are unhappy with these laws. As the body of evidence/hearsay grows, we should be able to persuade more members of the legal profession and even some journos that there is an issue here. Back in the UK in the late '70s and early '80s, there was a stop and search law that was being abused by some cops. It was leading to confrontation and clear injustices, mainly on the young and mainly on non-caucasians. Eventually a ground swell of opinion in the legal and journalistic professions forced change. This is the model I am following. It took several years to achieve then. It will take that here too.

Regarding the differences between each state, that is an issue. What it means is that each state must manage their own evidence and their own details. But we need liaison between the states, because each state's politicians will be reluctant to move out of step with the other states.

So, not an easy undertaking and I am open to ideas and suggestions of how else to approach it. Thanks for your input.

Cheers.