”
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men
to do nothing
”
said English philosopher Edmund Burke. I’ll go further out on
the limb of political incorrectness by adding I think boom box cars
are evil.
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing” said English philosopher Edmund Burke. I’ll go further out on the limb of political incorrectness by adding I think boom box cars are evil. And don’t tell me these people have “First Amendment” rights too. Their “rights” have been bankrupted with their assault tactics that are against the law (CVC 27007) and therefore invalidated.
Think about being in your vehicle and while waiting for a traffic signal, a thug runs up, pulls you from your vehicle, and physically assaults you. This happenstance of course, would demand a reasonable person to request swift police response to find the perpetrator and take appropriate action in accordance with the law. And while this might be a rather improbable example of an “assault”, the fact is that the Gilroy public is being daily assaulted in a very real sense by drivers of boom box cars who blast their damaging low-frequency noise cranked up to unhealthy and unreasonable levels.
Whether you want to believe it or not, this noise-terrorism is just as much an assault on your person as a physical confrontation would be.
Think not? Consider an email I received regarding boom cars:
“One of the more interesting but as-yet unpublicized and undiagnosed conditions almost universally experienced by people like me, who could be considered ‘allergic’ to noise, is an uncontrollable, involuntary and immediate rush of adrenalin that produces a flight-or-fight response, even in the most laid back and pacifist among us. This has got to be an organic reaction but doctors have yet to recognize it – and I believe what makes it unique is that it is not just a response to noise but to the low frequency vibrations.
“Some of us feel the [boom] cars coming long before we hear them; others, like me, get pain in our chest when these cars get too close say, at a red light. All of us have heard the astonishing words, ‘I’d like to kill someone’ come out of our mouths. We joke about not carrying guns because we’d be on death row in a matter of minutes. We joke about grenades – we’re half serious. We regard these so-called stereo speakers as nothing less than assault weapons, and we call the people who use them audio-terrorists. And don’t get any of us started about the socially irresponsible money-grubbers who manufacture these things and pander to the very lowest denominators.”
In an email I sent recently to Gilroy police chief Gregg Giusiana asking him specifically for his suggestions on what a citizen can do about these rolling noise monsters, the chief replied “You are right about there never being a cop around when you need one. The best suggestion I can give is to call us when there is a blatant violation occurring. Most people have cell phones now and they can get into our communication center using the non-emergency line 842-0350.
“It does not mean we will send someone right away but if we have someone available we will try to respond and cite the violator. It also helps when we go before a traffic commissioner that there was a citizen calling in about the excessive noise.”
While I appreciate the chief’s response, the fact remains that even with a reported boom car, it will probably most of the time escape any consequences of being stopped by the long arm of the law. And of course, that’s where the law-abiding citizen’s frustration boils over. But still, it might be worth a call. Be sure to include the license number, a description of the vehicle (e.g. white Ford) and the direction of travel on which street.
So what do we do citizens do for a long-term fix? Nothing? I hope not. I contend that the City Council needs to get really, really tough on these boom cars, by passing law that will severely financially penalize these people, and even confiscate their stereo equipment for repeat offenders.
If you agree, then please email the City Councilmen and convey your concern about these local noise offenders, with your suggestions to stop this audio terrorism. You can email ALL of them at one time via the city’s Web site: http://www.ci.gilroy.ca.us/cityhall/city_council.html.
And if you’d like to express your concerns to GPD Chief Giusiana, you can email him at
po*********@ci.us
.
