If you've listened to the radio, or watched Channel 7 news lately, you're probably of the opinion that Antilag is a "hoon" club whose members "openly flout the law" (Officer Ian Clarke, 07/10). If you've listened to any legitimate members, you're probably already aware that Antilag had nothing to do with last Fridays (27-7-10) events (3 cars on a cruise not affiliated with us AT ALL were confiscated).
Ironically, we held a legal driver training event on Saturday. I am very curious as to why that wasn't reported, but I think we all know the reason for that. Who wants a nice factual story about people doing some good in the community, when you can sensationalise a video ripped from YouTube? One requires actual journalism, and getting out to an event with a camera and crew. The other requires nothing but the internet, and a muffin / coffee combo from McCafe.
The Antilag forum has over 7,000 active users in WA alone. For us to verify the whereabouts of 7,000 internet users is impossible. The Antilag team including myself do what we can to promote lawful behaviour at our events, and have even co-operated with the police in the past to report dangerous driving.
For Ian Clarke (the Traffic Enforcement Group spokesperson) to come out and publically say we are an underground car club, whose members openly flout the law, is a huge slap in the face; especially considering we have a public domain, open membership forum, and are a registered company.
We know there are police on this forum. We have no issue with this as we have nothing to hide. I'm not sure how much more public we could be.
The current policy in WA seems to be based on punishing someone after a road offence has been committed. We're being proactive, trying to prevent the offence from occurring in the first place. This is why we organise so many driver training days, and fun motorsport days, to allow people to enjoy their cars in a legal manner.
To be honest, we believe this is simply frustration from the TEG over the fact that their sting operations regularly fail and as such, they need to find a scapegoat. In this case, it has been Antilag.
Officer Fyfe earlier admitted that they trawl the forums for information. At the same time, the Police Commissioner is constantly harping on about not having manpower. Here's a suggestion, get police out from behind the computer, and put them on the street where they can actually do some good.
Police can track down and arrest someone who is seen doing a burnout on YouTube within 24 hours, yet they're incapable of finding the person who attacked me on CCTV 6 months ago.
Maybe they should take a second look at their priorities, and reconsider who they're targeting; especially when one of their own is caught doing 170km/h on public roads.
There's an old saying - "don't let the bastards get you down". To everyone on Antilag, and in the WA car community, I implore you to adopt this philosophy.
What about the video shown?
Well if you actually watch the entire video, it's filled with footage from LEGAL events, including drag passes at the Motorplex, and the main footage that was displayed was actually from a skid-pan day we organised on a members private property, which was all completely legal.
Unfortunately when certain segments are extracted, it can be made to look bad. For example, the burnout they showed in what David Cooper described as a busy carpark was actually at Motorvation, on private property well after public access had been shut off to the facility.
The only footage showing racing on the street wasn't in our video, it was simply added into the middle of the compilation for the news segment. As such, this video didn't have our watermark, but only the eagle-eyed among us will pick that up.
Am I surprised by all of this? Not at all.
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by 405ATW
Bookmarks