Bill would allow destruction of street takeover vehicles
Towns and cities would be allowed to destroy ATVs and dirt bikes seized after street takeovers, under legislation approved Tuesday by the General Assembly’s law-writing Judiciary Committee.
The bill, which won bipartisan support and next heads to the House of Representatives, has been changed since a recent public hearing on the issue. A proposed mandatory month in jail for witnesses arrested at such gatherings — in which hundreds of cars, all terrain vehicles and motorcycles meet at a spot in a particular town or city, spinning tires and snarling traffic — has been deleted.
State Sen. John Kissel of Enfield, a ranking Republican on the committee, said he had concerns for innocent people who might just be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
“I can imagine just walking down the street and if there is something crazy going on, probably my first instinct would not be to draw attention to myself by running away or something,” Kissel said. “Plus, whatever is going on, your natural tendency is going to observe.”
“There was, in fact, a mandatory minimum sentence of 30 days in prison for someone who stood there watching a street takeover, which is frankly nuts,” said state Rep. Steve Stafstrom, D-Bridgeport, co-chairman of the committee. “So we have removed this language from the bill.” He said that while other legislative committees have similar bills, the Judiciary Committee’s version will reach the House floor for debate.
“We live in a free society and we need to protect peoples’ freedom of expression and that also includes the freedom to observe if you’re not causing harm to anyone,” Kissel replied.
As currently written, the bill includes a provision for those whose drivers licenses have been revoked, if they are caught in a street takeover it would be a further 45-day suspension; and a third offense would result in a permanent revocation.
In an unrelated bill, also heading to the House for further action, police would be prohibited from stopping motorists for things like unlighted license plates, missing side view mirrors and even driving with one head light, but police would still be allowed to pull them over for having a tail light out.
Rep. Greg Howard, RStonington, a police officer, said that law enforcement officials should be allowed to do their jobs. “At some point in time we need to say to our law enforcement in this state that we can trust them to make those decisions instead of taking tools from them,” he said.
“The reason why there are more deaths on our highways is because people are driving faster and there are less police interactions; less people being pulled over for speeding and other violations,” said Rep. Tom O’Dea, R-New Canaan. “I can’t speak for my friends on the other side of the aisle, particularly my friends in the Black and brown community, and I certainly don’t want to make these opinions their opinions, but if my son’s driving around with secondary violations, tail light out or what not, I want my son pulled over. I want the highways and roadways more safe.”
“There’s definitely a difference between policing in his community and policing in my community,” said Rep. Robyn Porter, DNew Haven, of O’Dea. “There is certainly a difference between his son getting stopped by the cops and my son getting stopped by the cops. Or myself. And I have been pulled over. I was told my car was unregistered. Absolute lie. This is very problematic. We’re going to have to get this right or I can’t support it. We lose our lives getting pulled over for a traffic stop. Policing is not the same in every community.”
Stafstrom pointed out that if the bill passes, police could not stop motorists for having a single headlight, but they could for a burned-out tail light. “I think there is a universal agreement on this committee that speeding is a problem on our roads. We all share concerns about impaired driving,” he said. “From my perspective, I would prefer our police officers be focused on that.”
Rep. Craig Fishbein of Wallingford, a ranking Republican on the panel, says he isn’t hearing that police officers’ time is getting taken up with stopping motorists for minor offenses. “To even imply that officers are so busy with all this other stuff that people are dying on our highways because of that, I don’t prescribe to that,” he said.