{"id":20839,"date":"2024-05-15T01:25:38","date_gmt":"2024-05-15T07:25:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/?p=20839"},"modified":"2024-05-13T16:29:04","modified_gmt":"2024-05-13T22:29:04","slug":"public-safety-street-racing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/2024\/05\/15\/public-safety-street-racing\/","title":{"rendered":"Public Safety & Street Racing"},"content":{"rendered":"

BY ISAIAH FRIZZELL<\/em><\/p>\n

Asking for a friend?<\/strong>
\nDo you drive a Kia? Do you have a TikTok account?
\nThere\u2019s been a long trend on YouTube and TikTok of crews, who started in Cincinnati, that bust in through a Kia\u2019s back passenger window, use a flathead screwdriver to rake off the plastic steering column, pry off the ignition, and hidden below is a spot where they fit the end of a USB cord into the ignition and make it vroom! This \u2018great accomplishment\u2019 can be done in under a minute and a half.
\nWhat follows is a Grand Theft Auto-style tearing through streets, driving in the same lane\u2014the opposite direction\u2014frightening drivers and eventually drifting, crashing or even flipping the cars. Some of these Kias are then sold for as little as $50\u2013$100 after the jacking.
\nWill this come to Blaine County? Unlikely! But due to the rampant racing that HAS been happening for years in the Valley, it\u2019s worth being aware of some of these ridiculous trends that kids, mostly gang affiliated, may get into. Watch your vehicle.<\/p>\n

The Fast and the Foolish<\/strong>
\nThe street racing in Blaine County is not even remotely new. If you frequent Facebook groups like Blaine County Rants and Raves or You Know You\u2019re Old School Ketchum or Hailey, you\u2019ll see people posting, livid and frightened, by the cars and commotion. Disruption of the peaceful by the rebellious. The illegal racing is rampant on Main Street, 1st and 2nd Avenues and Myrtle Street in Hailey. On Highway 75 they get going around 9 p.m. In Bellevue, they blast around 8th Street near O\u2019Donnell Park\u2014leaving everyone\u2019s nerves shot.
\nEvery city has a crew of folk who hotrod and blast the streets, drifting and raging for the adrenaline and rebellion. What\u2019s in rebellion? A chance to be oneself, taste the forbidden fruit and socialize in some motorized cultural way. Perhaps fueled by movies and video games but really it\u2019s an age-old culture. Street racing has been going on since cars.
\nAnyone who\u2019s seen \u201cTwo Lane Blacktop\u201d or \u201cAmerican Graffiti\u201d knows the role. It\u2019s also well-known that Hollywood stars like James Dean or Steve McQueen, \u201cicons of cool,\u201d would race their cars up and down Mulholland Drive. It is cultural\u2014part and parcel of having a car and the teenage lightning that splashes from the pores of the young and aimless. Idle hands? In Minneapolis, a giant drag-racing event was broadcast on Snapchat by a large event promoter. They were summarily busted by their very posts to social media. Some call it \u201cself-snitchin\u2019\u201d. Story here (https:\/\/www.hometownsource.com\/abc_newspapers\/news\/publicsafety\/law-enforcement-busted-massive-street-racing-event-in-blaine\/article_35a78d0e-ac44-11ea-878d-5bd98d2f1231.html)<\/p>\n

Solutions<\/strong>
\nThe situation begs for proactive action. Set up a social media account, share it with others, take photos or videos \u2014 everyone can post anonymously \u2014 and tag the local police department. It\u2019s optimal to get license plates, show make and model of the car, and the perpetrators\u2019 vehicles will be flagged for future violation backed by video evidence. Make no mistake, social media is a double-edged sword. Like all forces, it can be used for good, evil and all in between.
\nThe issue is street racing. Is it kids being kids? For sure it\u2019s all ages, but it\u2019s not cool. The racing up and down and all around has everyone in the community spiraling. There are some things that just don\u2019t fly and recklessly putting people, oneself included, at risk of injury or death is socially bankrupt at best and morally cavalier.
\nSpeaking out is necessary but ranting and raving with text in a general Facebook forum isn\u2019t going to do a whole lot without evidence, though it does spread the word. People are happy to announce locations of the nuisance but photos would seal the deal. A community forum for this type of thing is in order. The community must nip it in the bud by vigilance and the ever trusty phone camera. No one wants to play this game but when the hand is forced? The police are doing their best and it\u2019s challenging to be in all places at once. Photos and anonymous tips could change the game. Perhaps there is a solution in the making\u2014as a citizen\u2019s duty.<\/p>\n

Keeping the community safe<\/strong>
\nPlaying devil\u2019s advocate, there are places these adrenaline escapades could proceed where no citizen would be harmed. The idle will continue to rival\u2014perhaps they just need a venue? What if there were a designated, lonely, haunted country road where the wild could rip their rods? Perhaps for a trophy or a taxed money pot? That\u2019s an interesting but somewhat reasonable example of finding a solution that offers a compromise without the boot on the face of the word \u2018No\u2019.
\nKids will be kids, and maybe just giving them a space to be kids could work. People like to say \u201cthere will always be outlaws\u201d but is that type of language really useful? Proactive solutions begin with collaborative words. Encouraging all manner of freedoms generally results in a win for everyone involved. Do mothers and fathers like to see their children join MMA fighting or go off to battle a banker\u2019s war in a foreign land? Usually not, but they do it to activate some semblance of a greater good. Yes, it\u2019s somewhat controversial but that\u2019s where the rubber meets the road in life. Striking a balance between freedom of expression and public safety.
\nAn example of this can be found where drag racing is measured and metered. \u201cIt\u2019s easy to forget how far drag racing has evolved in 60+ years since the car-crazy \u201850s got everything going. The early drag strips were funded largely by fraternal social groups, like the Elks or the Lions, as a solution to rampant street racing and all the trouble that was often the result. The goal was to get the speed-obsessed kids off of the streets and into a better and safer venue where they could feed their compulsions without danger to the general public. It worked, and drag racing became hugely popular. Car clubs now had a place to settle their beef and once the flag dropped, loudmouths were forced to put up or shut up. And not much has changed.\u201d (https:\/\/www.drivingline.com\/articles\/drag-racing-101-understanding-the-basics-of-1320-racing\/)
\nEverything is a compromise. How can you flip a problem into a solution\u2014and potentially profit from it? Courageous thinking and diplomatic action.
\nWhich type of hand creates harmony\u2014the iron fist of constraint or the velvet glove of compromise? Of course, yes, they have to stop doing this on the streets of Blaine County; however, they may not have to stop doing it altogether. Diplomacy and forward thinking help harmonize the heinous and, as a community, it can be done. Solutions, sublimation and the diplomacy of proactive thinking could result in a safe, metered path to winning on all sides.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY ISAIAH FRIZZELL Asking for a friend? Do you drive a Kia? Do you have a TikTok account? There\u2019s been a long trend on YouTube and TikTok of crews, who started in Cincinnati, that bust in through a Kia\u2019s back passenger window, use a flathead screwdriver to rake off the plastic steering column, pry off […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":20840,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_pvb_checkbox_block_on_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[72,73,85,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-community","category-crime","category-investigative","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20839"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20839\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20841,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20839\/revisions\/20841"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}