Bites and Bolts

Note to self: Don’t go near Porter Ranch on Thursday nights. I was shopping at the Porter Ranch Town Center last night when I heard a customer remark to an employee that there were about 20 cops outside the store. At first she was slightly alarmed until another customer reminded her that “It’s Thursday night. Probably those ricers” and she sighed, “That’s right! It’s Thursday.” She went on to warn everyone not to turn left out of the parking lot as there are “Right Turn Only” signs everywhere.

I had exited the 118 at Tampa Ave and witnessed a patrol car pull over and park abruptly along the North side of Rinaldi before reaching the Porter Ranch complex. I thought they were just going to flip around, but now I realize they were posted up for an operation.

After leaving the store, I saw several cops cruising through the parking lot in cars and bikes. After carefully turning right onto Rinaldi, I immediately saw a neon green Ford Focus with obnoxious vinyl graphics pulled over, hood popped,  with 3 LAPD cops looking underneath. Busted! That car was screaming for a ticket or 12 with no less than 50 stickers and a drag style drilled bumper. Nice.

Heading south on Porter Ranch Dr to the 118, several more LAPD bike cops were headed onto Rinaldi. Waiting at the light, I saw an S13 and a few more modified cars cruising innocently up the street.

And just over the freeway overpass where Porter Ranch Dr dead-ends, a Dodge Magnum was pulled to the right side opposite more officers and several tow trucks. Even after entering the 118 freeway Eastbound, there was an SUV pulled over at the end of the on-ramp.

According to LAPD Devonshire Senior Lead Officer Dario Del Core at a Porter Ranch Neighorhood Council meeting on June 3, when asked about street racing,  ”…more operations are being run in Porter Ranch than any area in Devonshire”.

This was the first that I heard about the Porter Ranch meets, but it was easy to pull up posts about them from just about every car forum such as: FocusFest, E90Post, my.IS, SoCalCivic, Zilvia, Club Lexus, Honda-Tech, Maxima.org, and NicoClub. Last night’s bust was yet another in a series of raids that have been run on the Porter Ranch car meets for years now. You’d think car enthusiasts would smarten up and quit going to the same locations or be prepared for the consequences.

I for one won’t be going anywhere near the area on Thursday evenings as this seems to be the night of choice for not only the Porter Ranch meet, but a smattering of other car enthusiast meets in the valley. Thank god for TV.

Riverside County was the location of the latest police raid this past Friday. No, not for a meth lab or prostitution sting or any crime in progress whatsoever, but for the gathering of a group of car enthusiasts. This operation was apparently such an important event that over 100 CHP and local police officers from 7 cities came together to surprise about 150 vehicle owners that night. They blocked off all exits and began interrogating and processing the cars under the premise that they were gathered for illegal street racing.

Problem is, there was no actual street racing occurring, only a group of owners passionate about their cars who chose to gather and swap advice and stories. Yet it seems that according to statements by police, almost any person who modifies a car in a certain manner must be a street racer or at the very least a spectator.

And of course most street racers modify their EG Civics sparingly with a single strut tower bar and a set of NGK blue wires. Even a modestly lowered car could get a bad rap at this Riverside bust, especially if it was a budget import.

Aha! That seems to be the point here. The group of vehicles gathered at this particular Riverside parking lot were mostly Japanese imports. According to The Press Enterprise article, there were a variety of vehicles there including Hondas, Fords, and BMWs, yet Honda always gets the final demerits.

If you were ticketed or had your car impounded at this raid, I sincerely hope you won’t think twice about standing up and fighting your case. People may fall behind or make mistakes concerning car maintenance and that’s what fix-it tickets are for. The idea that others had to go through the inconvenience of not only that night but the future waste of time and money for a mere “suspicion of street racing” is ludicrous.

Sources:

theNewspaper.com

The Press-Enterprise

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