Here's my letter that I just sent to Olaf, hope you like it, (if not, too bad, it's already sent!):
Dear Olaf: June1, 2004.
The recent article featured in the Tuesday June 1, 2004 edition of Cambridge Times, entitled “Safety Blitz on Street Racing” by Virginia McDonald is rather bias on your behalf towards a majority of performance car enthusiasts.
I will agree that the whole “Street Racing” phenomena, which was highly brought upon by Hollywood, has trickled its popularity North of the Border, and into small towns such as Cambridge, KW, and surrounding area without a doubt. But it DOES NOT pertain to one group of individuals…
I feel that we, as car enthusiasts in a selected age group of 16-25, with modified vehicles, are labeled as “evil-doers,” “rebels,” and now by society, and the Police Force’s new sensationalist word: “Street Racer’s.”
Open your eyes, Mr. Heinzel, not every modified vehicle on the road can be categorized in this prejudice “street racer” term.
Here’s what really offended me and a whole group of individuals regarding the article. It was written that “Heinzel said the blitz isn’t targeting law abiding car enthusiasts, such as STREET ROD CLUB MEMBERS.”
Are you saying that all people who do not fit into this STREET ROD CLUB are not law-abiding citizens? Or is it that you portray older groups of individuals who drive Muscle Cars as more superior to that of a younger generation with modified sport compact cars? Or moreover, do you possess a strong prejudice toward younger generations?
Now here’s a couple scenarios that I find fitting in lieu of this statement;
1) It’s a late Friday evening, at the local Tim Horton’s parking lot. You have three noisy means of transportation cluttering the lot, a Harley Davidson Motorcycle, a modified1968 Charger, and a heavily modified Civic. The Harley driver is rather scary looking, and is sporting a notorious Motorcycle club leather jacket. The Charger Driver, in his late 40’s is clean shaven and well kept. The Civic driver is in his late teens and has his hat worn to the sides and baggy fitting clothing. The polite and friendly staff of Tim Horton’s has had enough of the noise, and calls the local police. When the Police arrive, whom would they target first? (If you said the Civic driver, you would be correct…)
2) You have three empty lots, where three separate parties congregate: an organized group of Sport Compacts in the first, playing their Stereo’s loud, revving their smaller displacement engines, and hearing the endless exhaust “chirp” from the miscellaneous cars. In the second lot, you have a Motorcycle club with countless Harley’s, custom Chopper style bikes and a few Street Bikes, popping wheelies, doing burnouts, and exceeding the threshold with their ear-deafening low toned exhausts. In the last lot, you find the Oldies, the Cuda’s and Hemi’s, the Charger’s and Challenger’s, the Mustang’s and Camaro’s, and the Vette’s and the Bel Air’s. For the majority they all are well past their prime in age, but still they rev their respective engines to the max, with their 2 ft. tall blowers sticking out from under the hood which obstructs the view of the road, the constant “low hum” of Flowmaster exhausts without catalytic convertors (polluting the environment), and their 50’s and 60’s music being blared over loud speakers throughout the lot. Which party gets busted the fastest? (Sport Compact hands down!)
You can honestly say that if you were on patrol, you would definitely mark the wrong individuals every time in the supplied scenarios (according to the truth in the article).
We, as a collective bunch of car/truck performance enthusiasts are getting blacklisted by what our vehicles look like, and it needs to stop. We, as a younger generation, no longer judge people for the appearance of their skin, so why as law enforcement, judge us for what we drive?
I am part of a group called Vital Motion. We are a group of younger people that meet together for three main reasons: for highlighting performance products and modifications performed on our vehicles, for the abolishment of being wrongfully labeled as “Street Racers” by society, and for the most part, for the fun of it.
We too, have strict policies about our meets, and members, which are governed. We support the community through various events, such as car washes, which the details can be viewed at
www.carwash.vitalmotion.net . We care about our society, but get no respect in return for all the hard work and dedication put into community events. We should get praise, but we get an almost irreversible moniker of being “Street Racer’s,” by individuals such as you, Mr. Heinzel.
I would like to hear back from you regarding this matter at your earliest convenience, since I feel as a law abiding citizen that I am disrespected because of the vehicle I drive and the negative outlook that the KW Regional Police portrays us to be through not only the newspapers, but in all media sources.
If you would like to meet some of us, why not come out, shake our hands, and speak with us, instead of labeling group you don’t know through what others want you to portray us to be. You are the spokesperson for the KW Police, people obviously respect your opinion, why not abolish this prejudice, and portray us for who we are and what we stand for.
Vital Motion meets every Wednesday evening during the summer months from
7pm – 10pm at an authorized vacant parking lot at Sportsworld in Kitchener.
We look forward to meeting with you to put this incident behind us and to gain a respect towards one another, so that the peaceful coexistence between law and enthusiasts can be strengthened.
With sincerity, Derek A. Hamilton (Vital Motion Member and Official Sponsor)