Whats going on ?
For the past 10+ years people who all have the same interest,which is modifying there own cars or looking what other people have done to theres has been an enjoyable hobby which has made me more friends than i could ever had imagined.But lately all this has been ruined by a constant police presence which has made us all look like criminals.
Cruising its self isnt illegal,its just a lot of people who travel along way sometimes to meet up with people who share the same interest as they do.These meetings normally take place in empty retail park car parks after they have closed for the night,and all the public have left.
Pontefract park side retail park has been one of the main places over the last few years to have one of these meeting every Sunday night starting around 7:30pm till about 11pm.People travel from as far up as Newcastle and as far down as London in some cases.
On a few occasions top car magazines such as Redline,Max power,Revs ,Fast car ect ect have come up and took photos for there magazines,last year Channel 4 came up and filmed us for a tv programme that was on tv.
But lately as the meetings have become so big and attracted more and more people a few have started to spoil what was probably yorkshires best cruise.A small number of people have seen the amount of people and started to show off doing burnouts ect in there cars.Not hurting anyone except there own pockets for new tyres ect.
Now the police have come along and realized that it is a very small number of people who are doing this,but there not just targeting these people there targeting evryone who attends which isnt fair at all.
The police have applied and issued ASBO orders on carparks top stop us meeting our friends,have been taking our registration numbers and making a database of whos coming and meeting up.
The people who meet up dont have a problem with the police coming and if someone isnt insured or hasnt got there car taxed then they should be punished as anyone else should,but treating everyone as criminals isnt right and shouldnt be allowed to carry on in my opionion.
If a few people started a fight at a football match it would be the people who were involved in th fight who were punished not everyone at the football match.In the same way as just because theres a few trouble makers that attend football matchs you cant class everyone who goes as a thug can you ? But this is what is starting to happen to people who meet up on a Sunday.
The police arnt going to stop people meeting up to show there cars off all there doing is moving it to some other location,which isnt getting rid of the problem just moving it else where.What good is this doing apart from costing us the tax payer i would hate to think how much every sunday to pay for the police which attend.
If anything is going to come out of this situation that is of any good at all then the police need to find us somewhere we can meet without been constantly harrassed for doing nothing more than meeting our friends.
West Yorkshire Police have become ASBO happy giving out ASBO`s that clearly dont work and dont solve anything.ASBO`s should be left to what they were made for in the first place to stop people reoffending not to place on carparks and effecteveryday people who havent done anything illegal.
Its about time west yorkshire police took a look at how south yorkshire police deal with the same problem as the way there going about it is wrong and i think there starting to realize that.
I will keep this updated over the weeks and see what the future holds for people like my self who love cruising and meeting people with the same interests.
Please we arnt breaking the law SO PLEASE LEAVE US ALONE is that too much to ask??
Published Date:
28/04/2006
Modified Date:
28/04/2006
At last Police Back Off
Well last sunday April 30th at last the police gave us some space and left us alone to meet in carpark.Ok it wasnt at the retail where they had 3 new pcs by the look of it .
Lets hope this is a sign of things to come and that the people who come to look at the cars start coming back as i think this week will how.
I will post after this sunday and let you know whats gone on,but for now at least its looking abit better for us than the last few weeks of harrassment from the wakefield and pontefract traffic police
Published Date:
06/05/2006
Modified Date:
06/05/2006