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Thread: Cars with loud speakers may be seized in the city??

  1. #1
    JBL Dog
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    Post Cars with loud speakers may be seized in the city??

    Just ran across this in the local on-line newspaper. Good thing we don't have such restrictions on our home rigs!

    Read on:


    Cars with loud speakers may be seized in the city

    POST-DISPATCH
    01/27/2006


    St. Louis police will be able to seize cars blasting loud music under a bill passed today by the Board of Aldermen.

    The bill mirrors laws in other cities, prohibiting the use and even installation of some enhanced speakers.

    Alderman Craig Schmid’s proposal easily had enough votes to pass, but not after aldermen turned up the volume on their own concerns. Impounding a car for playing loud music is to severe, opponents said, and ripe for abuse.

    “God damn it –- it’s America,” Alderman Stephen Conway said. “We’ve got a constitution.”

    Schmid said he wanted to send a “strong message” to drivers who cruise through residential areas, jarring neighbors and rattling windows.

    “I analogize it to auditory graffiti,” Schmid said.

    Other aldermen said loud music coming from cars is among their top complaints from constituents. The music gets so loud, Alderman Dionne Flowers, that when “you’re in bed, you fall out.”

    The bill prohibits operating car stereo equipment that creates “louder volume than is necessary for convenient, normal hearing,” which is the same language as the city’s current anti-noise ordinance.

    But the new law outlaws possessing or installing any car stereo with a speaker over a foot in diameter; having more than one speaker 10 inches in diameter; more than 10 speakers overall; more than two amplifiers; and any amplifier over 300 watts.

    In addition to impounding the car, possible penalties include a minimum of $250 fine on the first offense and $500 on subsequent offenses within a year.

    Aldermen complained that the law was heavy-handed. Stephen Gregali, who represents the 14th Ward, questioned whether police would get rulers to measure the length of speakers.

    “It’s like killing an ant with a howitzer,” Alderman Charles Q. Troupe said.

    Bob Pfeiffer, who has been installing custom car stereos for 23 years in St. Louis, said the law could destroy his business.

    “I might as well lock my doors now,” said Pfeiffer, who operates Automotion Alarm and Car Stereo on N. Broadway.

    Not all “tricked out” stereos are used for cruising and thumping music, Pfeiffer said. His clients include jazz musicians.

    “What a crock,” Pfeiffer said. “It’s really a bogus bill.”

  2. #2
    Senior Member kingjames's Avatar
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    This has been law here for some time

    Here in Chicago this has been going on for years. Once they take your car you have to pay $500.00 to get it back. It's happened to my son a couple of times already. there is no recourse either.It sucks! Just have to turn it down quickly when you see a cop.

  3. #3
    JBL Dog
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    Quote Originally Posted by kingjames
    Here in Chicago this has been going on for years. Once they take your car you have to pay $500.00 to get it back. It's happened to my son a couple of times already. there is no recourse either.It sucks! Just have to turn it down quickly when you see a cop.
    I've seen the local cops issue tickets for loud car stereos, but this car seizure thing is something I did not know was going on in other places. My homes back up to a secondary artery where I live. For those familiar with the area, Clayton Rd. is about 40 feet from my bedroom window. Up until we installed new siding and windows about 5 years ago, I was being awakened at all hours by obnoxious car stereos. I have no problem with, say, a $50 fine + court costs. Seizure of the vehicle is a little extreme. A rountine traffic stop for speeding could escalate into your car being seized if you have a sub box containing dual 10's behind your truck bench? And, it doesn't even have to be on? That ain't right!

  4. #4
    Obsolete
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    I prefer shooting the offending vehicles with an RPG. Problem solved in a flash - no pun intended. Confiscating and impounding them is a wee bit extreme.

  5. #5
    JBL Dog
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  6. #6
    Senior Member briang's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by JBL Dog

    But the new law outlaws possessing or installing any car stereo with a speaker over a foot in diameter; having more than one speaker 10 inches in diameter; more than 10 speakers overall; more than two amplifiers; and any amplifier over 300 watts.
    There are many factory OEM car-fi systems that will exceed the 10 speaker maximim, more than two amplifiers or the 300 watt amplifier law.

    In addition, the seizure clause is a bit extreme in my opinion.
    Paying debt to Karma...

  7. #7
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    Extreme mobile audio systems = extreme law to stamp it out.

    Maybe if they played real music on these systems, it would have never came down to this???

  8. #8
    Dynacoman
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    I'm all for the law. No need to use a car stereo as a weapon to anoy anyone in it's path.

  9. #9
    Senior Member edgewound's Avatar
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    I like the spirit of the law, in that car audio noise has come to the abuse point of fellow citizens. I don't like the measurement of system components however. That could lead down the slipperry slope of limiting engine performance, etc, etc. Noise laws have become necessary because of stupid, inconsiderate, rude, a-hole people. Cars can get impounded for speeding....so why not?
    Edgewound...JBL Pro Authorized...since 1988
    Upland Loudspeaker Service, Upland, CA

  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by Giskard
    I prefer shooting the offending vehicles with an RPG. Problem solved in a flash - no pun intended. Confiscating and impounding them is a wee bit extreme.
    If you start to see St Louis police cruisers outfitted with the sickest mobile audio systems-you'll know why they started confiscating. Police also confiscated 20 pounds of weed, no make that 11. revise: 2 ounces. Police found a roach.

  11. #11
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    Quote Originally Posted by John
    Maybe if they played real music on these systems, it would have never came down to this???
    Perfect! I just had to let people read that twice because it's so true! Good point.

  12. #12
    JBL Dog
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    Update:

    Alderman withdraws ban on booming car stereos

    By Jake Wagman
    ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
    02/03/2006


    With the specter of a mayoral veto looming, a St. Louis alderman has withdrawn his get-tough plan on booming car stereos.

    Alderman Craig Schmid’s proposal to allow police to impound cars with enhanced stereo equipment was criticized as overly broad and intrusive. The bill would have allowed the city to fine motorists with some sound systems straight from the factory, even enabling police to take their cars regardless whether the volume was way up – or turned on at all.

    “I’m trying to do the right thing,” Schmid said after this morning’s Board of Aldermen meeting.

    Schmid asked the board to basically undo last week’s approval of the bill, sending it back to the Public Safety Committee for revision. The committee will meet on Tuesday, where Schmid said he will propose an amendment that requires loud music to be actually playing before a motorist is in violation of the law.
    The move represents an about face for the city’s aldermen, who only a week ago approved the stereo ordinance by a 22-4 to vote.

    But even the hint of a mayoral veto apparently was enough to reverse the outcome. Mayor Francis Slay, himself an alderman for a decade, has rarely exercised his veto power during his five years as mayor. This week, his office issued a statement saying that while Slay agreed with the spirit of the bill, he had concerns about its methods.

    Schmidt said he pulled is bill, in part, in order to prevent Slay from being in the position of being perceived as siding with the car stereo industry over neighborhood concerns.

    “If he didn’t sign it or did sign it, he would be in a spot. And I didn’t want to do that,” Schmid said.

    Joining those with concerns about the bill was Comptroller Darlene Green, who made a rare speaking appearance on the board floor. She told aldermen that plan would hurt some city businesses.

  13. #13
    Alan Fletcher
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    There is no match in the universe for the stupidity of pop culture and its resulting noise pollution.

    For four and a half years, I lived in Danbury, CT with my former fiance, in a three level townhouse. Directly in front of our unit was a Citgo station with a payphone in its parking lot. On a nightly basis, at random times, some drug dealing, chrome rim flashing idiot would invariably pull up to the payphone with his headlights shining directly into our living room. With stereo turned up to full volume, engine running, headlights dimming and the door (or sometimes two) open, pictures shook, windows rattled, glass vases on various shelves would vibrate, all in time with the dimming headlights of the offending vehicle.

    One night, while I was trying to relax and enjoy my own music, I lost my shit. I waited for the offender to leave, and then I went down to the garage, grabbed a pair of bolt cutters and proceded to walk over to the gas station. I grabbed the receiver from the payphone, cut the cable at the base, and chucked the receiver a conveniently placed garbage can..

    The problem stopped for three weeks until the phone company came out and finally, aparently in response to numerous complaints, removed the phone.

    Use it responsibly, or lose it. Period.

    -A

  14. #14
    JBL Dog
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    Quote Originally Posted by Alan Fletcher
    There is no match in the universe for the stupidity of pop culture and its resulting noise pollution.

    For four and a half years, I lived in Danbury, CT with my former fiance, in a three level townhouse. Directly in front of our unit was a Citgo station with a payphone in its parking lot. On a nightly basis, at random times, some drug dealing, chrome rim flashing idiot would invariably pull up to the payphone with his headlights shining directly into our living room. With stereo turned up to full volume, engine running, headlights dimming and the door (or sometimes two) open, pictures shook, windows rattled, glass vases on various shelves would vibrate, all in time with the dimming headlights of the offending vehicle.

    One night, while I was trying to relax and enjoy my own music, I lost my shit. I waited for the offender to leave, and then I went down to the garage, grabbed a pair of bolt cutters and proceded to walk over to the gas station. I grabbed the receiver from the payphone, cut the cable at the base, and chucked the receiver a conveniently placed garbage can..

    The problem stopped for three weeks until the phone company came out and finally, aparently in response to numerous complaints, removed the phone.

    Use it responsibly, or lose it. Period.

    -A
    Bravo!


  15. #15
    Senior Member Rusnzha's Avatar
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    Some of these guys with the big car stereos cruise streets to set off the motion sensors with the vibrations from their subwoofers. They take note of the cars that sleep through this and come back later to strip them.

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