Summernats crowd branded 'sub-species of the human race' by top cop
Frustrations are growing over the anti-social antics at the annual four-day festival in Canberra.
Controversy continues to swirl around Canberra's annual Summernats festival, with a top cop taking a swipe at the visitors he calls "morons" involved in anti-social behaviour and hooning during the four-day event.
ACT Police Acting Inspector Mark Richardson branded festivalgoers "a sub-species of the human race" and said, while most of the revellers were well-behaved, the event unfortunately attracts "moron tourism".
The festival attracted 130,000 revheads who lined the streets with their roaring engines to celebrate their love of cars. However, the festival wasn't without its fair share of problematic behaviour, ACT Police said.
The anti-social behaviour extended beyond the festival grounds and involved loud burnouts and revs along Canberra's main roads as well as the incorrect use of electric scooters, including people doing donuts in crowded public places. There are also reports of rocks and bottles being thrown at police.
"If we set up an IQ test station at the border instead of a vehicle-testing station, we’d halve our problems," Richardson told reporters on Monday following the event. "I don’t know what goes through their mind, but they just haven’t evolved very far these people involved in these organised burnout events".
"The real car enthusiasts are not the problem, it's the moron tourism," he continued. "They were all over Canberra, and we’re literally just going around playing Whac-A-Mole."
Anti-social behaviour slammed by police
Several organised burnout events were held in various suburbs kilometres from the festival. These antics have continually frustrated locals and law enforcement.
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Handful of arrests made
ACT Police seized 13 cars, including a Holden Commodore for doing a burnout metres from pedestrians. The 22-year-old behind the wheel was suspended for driving in the Territory for three months. Two children and two adult passengers were also in the car during the manoeuvre, police said.
He is expected to be charged with dangerous driving, driving an unsafely maintained vehicle, plates not properly issued, running a red light and speeding. Two people were also arrested on Saturday for anti-social behaviour.
Police are also investigating footage of a fight posted to social media between a group of crowd control officers and revellers. "The footage that we saw was quite disturbing," Acting Superintendent Rod Anderson said.
'Growing frustration' among police
The Australian Federal Police Association applauded and "agreed" with Richardson’s comments in a Facebook post on Monday. It said "these comments come from a growing frustration among Australia's policing cohort regarding the behaviour of motorists on Australian roads."
"The road isn’t a playground, a burnout pad or a personal race track," it wrote. "It beggars belief that some attendees feel the need to behave irresponsibly to place significant risk to the public and attending police."
"Where is the ACT Government's response in support of our police in calling out this bad behaviour? The silence is deafening."
An extra 100 officers were on duty on each day of the event, but according to the AFP, they're still "under-resourced".
"Our members across the AFP are becoming extremely frustrated. They are overworked, under-appreciated, and are the lowest-paid police officers in the country. Summernats again highlighted how understaffed our members were in dealing with such a large event," it said.
with AAP
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