Street racers are not criminals
Street racers aren’t criminals. To me, being a criminal means intentionally hurting people, scamming, stealing, or exploiting others. Street racing is illegal, sure, but most people do it as a hobby because they love cars and racing and just becuase you break the law doesn't make you a "criminal". I hate how games like Need For Speed always paint racers as villains when the reality is way less black-and-white.
Endangering others for your entertainment makes you a criminal too.
And an all around asshole
Er, A&E nurse talking here. They are. They knowingly endanger other people. You can’t always guarantee clear streets. I still wake in the night from dealing with the aftermath of the Bristol Middleway incident. Half of the deaths were innocent bystanders.
https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/local-news/full-story-horror-crash-killed-1625468
Putting other people at risk through deliberate or careless action is also considered to be criminal, in many cases.
Rightfully so
"Street racers" are some of the worst people to exist. They have no empathy and regard for the lives and well-being of other people. Most of the time, their fatal accidents kill entirely unrelated people (including children!) that were just going about their business. Having "street racing" as your "hobby" is the ultimate display of unlimited egoism; you do not care at all about the actual humans you kill through your actions and the decades of connections you sever and memories you eradicate. And defending this abhorrent practice is almost as shameful as participating in it.
Street racers aren't just criminals, they're also extremely selfish people who put their "hobby" above the safety and well-being of the general public.
If you want to race a car, go find a track.
I came here to say just this. I used to belong to a hobbyist group that would reserve track time for races. They were timed trials for safety and had tow trucks and medics on standby. The best was when they watered the track in the winter and let it freeze overnight. Those were the slowest races I've ever seen. In addition to being safe fun, they taught how to handle your car in extreme situations.
Here's an example race: https://www.onelapofamerica.com/#!HOME
Street racing is illegal, sure
Exactly, it's a crime. And people that engage in crimes are criminals.
This isn't a showerthought, you just need a dictionary.
He's clearly stupid, so couldn't grasp the fact that this should have been posted on an unpopular opinion instance
Or, not posted at all because it's just dumb as fuck
I look forward to your changing your opinion when a member of yours family dies because of street racers loosing control of their car and smashing into them while standing at a set of lights waiting for the lights to change.
In Need for Speed, how many other cars did you hit or do you play with traffic off? In a video game there are no consequences, so you end up hitting dozens and can keep going as you learn the game. In real life, you hit one car and someone is either dead, wishes they were, or incredibly lucky.
How about hitting the trees, the road barriers, going through grass? All that stuff costs the community money to fix.
Let's say you're the best (or luckiest) player in the world and never hit anything, how much did your little cousin hit when you first gave up the controller?
Street racing is a crime because its dangerous to other people. You are intentionally putting other people's life at risk for your own personal entertainment.
I never said this on the fediverse, but FUCK YOU!
Yes you are the fucking villains.
If you want to race take it to a track. I understand the urge, but if you want to do that stuff go somewhere where you're supposed to do it instead of endangering others.
Being a criminal doesn't mean that someone did something unethical, just that they did a crime - ie something illegal. However, in this case they are also doing something unethical.
What about drunk people on the road? I'm sure most of them don't want to hurt anyone...
I hope you don't hurt anyone else when you inevitably remove yourself from the gene pool though your own stupidity.
Shower? Maybe. Thought? Not so much.
Wrong.
Next time you're in the shower, consider where the line is for what is called intentionally hurting people. As a thought exercise, pretend someone has a fully automatic weapon and for 10 seconds at midnight every day they will discharge the weapon across the public road next to their house. They don't want to hurt anyone, this is just their hobby. Ask yourself:
"My hobby is breaking and entering. I don't do it for the money, I do it for the thrill. I don't intend to hurt anyone, but I carry a gun. You know, for safety. Sometimes someone dies, but that's just an accident. Most break-ins go just fine. I only kill people maybe one out of 100 times. It's totally harmless fun."
Are they speeding? Then they are committing crimes, ergo they are criminals by the definition of the word.
Even if you ethically limit crime to harmful behavior, the risk to pedestrians and other traffic still paints them as criminals.
There are reasons they aren't racing at a track, and part of it is the thrill of someone potentially getting hurt, or arrested. So even by your definition, they are criminals.
Now skateboarding is not a crime. Public nuisance, perhaps, at worst, but not a crime.
So you want to redefine what a crime is because you're stupid
Awesome
Well argued there, champion.
Criminals are anyone who is breaking the law.
It's why I never liked the term as it applies to drug users, but it is true.
Not exactly. Most countries differrentiate between different types of laws, and criminal law is just one subsection. That's why e.g. parking in the wrong spot is breaking a law, but it's not criminal.
Street racing is in most countries part of criminal law, because it's something that's especially bad and dangerous.
Drug usage is in many countries in the realm of criminal law, and it's quite controversial whether it should be there, thus many countries move it out of criminal law.
STFU, moron.
This is just from an initial search, with strict query:
Known Cases in 2024 of Bystander Deaths or Innocent Victim Deaths in Street Racing-Related Crashes
St. Louis County, Missouri – April 2024 Construction worker killed in work-zone by street racing crash Two 18‑year‑olds racing; one lost control and struck construction workers. One, Christopher Johnson (34), was pronounced dead. https://www.wdtv.com/
Portland, Oregon – Fatal crash killing innocent bystander Young mother (Ashlee McGill, 26) killed She was struck by a vehicle that lost control during an illegal street race while she was a bystander (had no involvement). https://hoodline.com/2024/05/portland-man-sentenced-to-3-years-for-fatal-street-racing-crash-that-killed-young-mother/
Grand Prairie, Texas – August 10, 2024 Family killed by alleged street racer Four family members (parents and two children) killed when their car was struck by alleged street racer returning from Six Flags. https://people.com/four-family-members-killed-after-street-racer-slams-into-their-car-8695681
Kansas City, Missouri – December 2024 Two innocent people killed in street racing crash A street race (Chrysler 300 vs Charger) resulted in collision with a Honda HR‑V turning onto another road; both people in the Honda died. These victims were not part of the race. tonyskansascity.com
As someone who grew up in the racing community (at tracks designed for it), I've watched the safety improvements dramatically improve over my lifetime, and the number of attendee injuries drop to near zero and yet we still have crashes that exceed the math of safety engineers.
I'll add my personal experience. A couple jackasses were racing on a residential street in a major US city. Where 2 cars can barely squeek past each other at a walking pace.
One of those jackasses sideswiped my parked truck, and hit it so hard it bent the lower control arm. You know, things that are designed for major forces. $5000 in damage to my parked vehicle that my insurance paid because the prick ran off (not sure how they did that).
Imagine the smear that would've made of a human body.
I work very hard to not insult people here and rather to critique their statements. But in this case, get fucked with your selfish bullshit.
Username checks out.
A crime is contravening to a law or set of laws/bylaws, as prescribed by a state or municipality.
Think of jaywalking, in a place and time where no cars are going at all. You can still get fined for that even if nobody was hurt or even remotely impacted.
I hate how games like Need For Speed always paint racers as villains
I recently played NFS Heat, and that somehow twists it into street racers being good (at least relative to the corrupt cops). I haven't played all of them, but the only one I remember where the racers just unapologetically villains is the BMW Driver Simulator, aka NFS Most Wanted (2005), and I absolutely loved it for that.
That said, if you do that shit irl, you're a pos.
Putting other people's lives at risk for your own entertainment is criminal behavior.
It's not a crime, it's an offence. It's only a crime when you crashed into someone, injuring or killing them, but it remained an offence for driving dangerously, and it's illegal. To a lesser extent, it's a public nuisance.
Do you have a reference to the particular definition you're using?
All my searching indicates "offense" is either synonymous with "crime" or at the very least a subcategory of "crime". I couldn't find anything suggesting that an "offense" was not also a "crime".
Huh. I swear i read somewhere that define crime as in something like assault or murder or battery or robbery, something that cause harm to others, while offence is when you break the law. Like while littering or parking somewhere you shouldn't might be a punishable offence according to the law, it isn't a crime per se.
I want this random internet stranger to preside over the trial when my backyard Bald Eagle cloning/ fair trade human meat grocery business comes to light, not to mention the homemade SMR powering it all