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 NT 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.

[Sklyn]

Here in Alice the police just don't have the resources to fully monitor and enforce the hoon laws, as they have more important things to deal with.

Not that there is a hoon problem here anyway. Theres no point having a law if you can't enforce it.

Police here are mostly pretty reasonable so long as you show them the respect they deserve.

[steveo_r33]

Situation:

2 cars, 1 VL Stock Shitbox, 1 33 GTS-T 96 SII Silver basic basic mods, end of a culdisac, lined up next to each other, skyline accelerates, pulls in front of VL by MAX 80km/hr. Speed limit 60km/hr. I had changed to seconds about a second before I saw flashy lights.

Police block off the end of the road, invite 4x detective unmarked vehicles, they approach us hand on holstered weapons. Cops had no speed radar, but told by visual assessment qe were doing well over 120km/hr!

Policemen claims me flicking a cigarette out my window was my hand indication of GO! RACE!

In court police claimed I skidded a huge distance to a grinding halt. To which I replied not possible as I have ABS and brand new brakes.

Takes skyline and vl, impounds 3 months, court result - guilty as charged - license gone 1.5 yrs, charged with street racing. On return of license, I have restrictions on my license so forcibly had to sell the car. Not to mention all the thousands in fines / court / solicitor costs.

Location: NSW Sydney.

Edited June 10, 2009 by steveo_r33

[MFP]

Alice Springs first & only "Hoon" caught under the new laws. I think this must be the guy in the commodore caught at maccas doing burnouts.

How's that for a stereotype?

http://www.nt.gov.au/justice/mctlist/today/crim/ras.html 14/7/09

MAG1 TIVER Paul

20921042 10.00 AM Mention

1 Burn outs

2 Damaging surface of road or Public place

3 DRIVE VEHICLE RECKLESSLY

4 Drive motor vehicle unsafe to drive

5 Drive motor vehicle with defect notice

C1 TIVER Paul

20921264 10.00 AM Mention

1 DRIVE VEHICLE RECKLESSLY

2 Burn outs

C1 TIVER Paul

20921266 10.00 AM Mention

1 Burn outs

2 Damaging surface of road or Public place

3 DRIVE VEHICLE RECKLESSLY

[MFP]

Shame job!!!

http://www.pfes.nt.gov.au/index.cfm?fuseac...y=2009&mo=8

http://www.ntnews.com.au/article/2009/08/1...891_ntnews.html

[R TUNE]

Pukapunyal army base Victoria 08.

I had a Milarty police member going over my car while i was at the base bup.

upon aprocing him, he informed me that a senior ranked member at writen a statement that i had 'hooned' out of the base shopes.

basicly went threw me with a fine tooth comb and was gona throw in another 5 charges, but in the end droped them as i was prepared to take on the person who complained and had 3 work mates in the car at time of question.

Just so you know the MP's pretty much have the same power as the civi police so if you see them in town still be cearfule and dont think they can pull you over and charge you. they will just grab all your detales and take you to the local cop shop.

[GTR_Lover]

thats kai rzy

[Plugg3r]

The Hoon laws have changed nothing up here too be honest, all it has changed is a few people have purchased dirt cheap cars and thats about it.

[MLCrisis]

Firstly, my apologies for not checking up on this thread for a while!! I realise that the laws are different from state to state and that NT may not have the same issues - yet. The point is that the various versions of these laws around Australia all share the same key characteristic - that they are fundamentally unjust and unsound and represent an attack on civil liberties. I have no doubt that many young drivers, whatever their ride, are irresponsible and need to be brought to book in some way. However, the standard laws already on the statute, for dangerous driving, reckless driving, etc. present sufficient means for that, without the imposition of laws that allow unfettered discretion to the boys in blue.

I would add that maintaining the argument in each state's thread is also beyond me and the time that I have available. So I will leave this one to those of you in NT who care to think about the matter. Perhaps there are some amongst you who will appreciate the greater issue, see it as something worth fighting for and take that fight on in your own way.

Cheers.