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

[JBL Dog]

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

By Jake Wagman

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.”