To improve community relations, police and property owners should ‘sanction’ weekend parking-lot car meets, and stop antagonizing the car-enthusiast community. By building a relationship between the cops and the kids, it will foster respect instead of animosity.
Weather was miserable this weekend as late-season freezing rain made driving really tricky. Car club Phantom Meets organized a gathering on the 2nd floor parking lot of the Cooksville train station, which is a ghost town after rush hour. Only minutes after the meet began, police kicked everyone out for being a noisy nuisance.
The message went out on Insta that the meet had been re-located to Lakeshore Rd in Oakville, and upon arrival, some frustrated gearheads revved their engines. Who can blame them, with the good acoustics making even a four-banger sound powerful. Within 15 minutes, police arrived with lights flashing and forced everyone to leave under threat of fines. Again, the meet was relocated, this time to an office parking structure in the west end borough of Etobicoke. This desolate spot is miles from nowhere. Not even a coffee shop close by. Pissed off about the police treatment, someone in a BMW coupe did a big, smoky burnout, defacing the pavement.
Police shoulder half the blame for this incident, which repeats itself every weekend in cities and towns across Canada. There is nothing bad or wrong about a bunch of young gearheads meeting up in a parking lot to show off their cars and meet up with friends. Back in 2020, Atlanta mayor Kiesha Lance-Bottoms proposed designated spaces in the city for unruly behaviour like playing loud music, two-step exhaust popping and even burnouts. It was a desperate act by a city struggling with street takeovers that threatened public safety. The idea was to segregate street racers from regular traffic.
Toronto is lucky that it doesn’t have the same problems. Sure, there was a takeover 4 years ago on Hwy 409 that made headlines. But these parking lot meets are ‘strictly park & chill‘ events that should not be looked at the same way.
What’s so perplexing is how easy it would be to solve the problem. Car clubs shouldn’t hide from the police, they should work with them. Let authorities know when an event is planned, and expect police cruisers to be parked at each entrance. The organizer must be responsible to make anyone doing a burnout to chill out. If they don’t comply, the police are right there to enforce the bylaws.
I love the sound of engines revving up. The cops need to go find real criminals.
I was at a car meet last night. 300-400 gearheads in a suburban parking lot doing nothing but listening to music (a little loud) and showing off their cars. The entire Aurora Police Department arrived and chased us away. All I could think was ‘go stop real crimes’.
That seems like harassment to me.