Filed under: Etc., Government/Legal
Rockford, Illinois decrees: Don't pump up the volume
It's hard out there for a pimped out ride. As of this month, Rockford, Illinois will start seizing vehicles that play music too loudly. The kicker is that your car can be seized if someone merely accuses you of playing loud music, because "hearsay evidence shall be admissible."
The ordinance is worded in a way that actually disallows many OEM stereos: ""No person shall operate... any device used to... reproduce any recorded sound if the device is located... in any motor vehicle on the public way and the sound can be heard from 75 feet or more from the device." And you don't have to be playing music at the time -- someone could have heard you blasting tunes on your way down the street and reported it to the police. By the time the police show up your stereo's been silent for hours. But if the police determine there's probable cause that it was you, your car goes away.
The fine is $150 to $750, plus $75 for towing and $20 per day for storage. If the officer has to wait more than an hour for the tow truck, it's another $60 per hour for his or her time. And if you want to fight it, the city keeps your car while you go through the appeals process, charging you for storage fees, of course. Silent running might be the phrase to keep in mind while rolling through Rockford.
Thanks for the tip, F451!
[Source: The Newspaper]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Drewboy 5:09PM (9/20/2007)
Hearsay evidence admissible? Can that be legal?
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Lisa Beamer 3:00PM (9/21/2007)
I think ten or twenty thousand people need to organize a "drive through" of Rockford all with their music blasting.
Civil Disobedience!
Don 12:06AM (9/22/2007)
I'll thank God when all music after the early eighties is bulldozed into the sea.
Gerrit 1:14PM (9/22/2007)
It's legal because this isn't actually hearsay. Hearsay is when someone else experiences an event, and tells you. Your testimony of an event that you did not yourself experience is then not admissible in court.
But this describes charging someone with a crime after they've stopped committing it, which is normal. In order to prosecute a guy who beat you up, the police need not arrive *while he is beating you up.* They can nab him later on your testimony that he beat you up.
I don't see anything wrong with this implementation.
chad.dawkins 5:10PM (9/20/2007)
I hate an idiot with a loud stereo at 2am as much as the next guy, but this is bullshit.
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bill 5:15PM (9/20/2007)
Chad, I have to agree. It would make more sense to remove the offending stereo equipment and beat it to a pulp in front of the owner. Care should be taken to not damage the car. That way the owner can buy replacement equipment and take another run at enjoying his music without disturbing people within a 3 block radius of his vehicle.
paul34 9:23PM (9/20/2007)
Agreed.
I guess the residents of Rockford would rather be impounding cars that play their music in an enjoyable fashion rather than having their police force deterring and arrested child molesters, thieves, rapists, murderers, etc.
It's just a simple matter of priority.
Anyway, there is already a deterrent for this. AFAIK you can be given a citation for this if it is *too* loud at an inappropriate time of the day. Why not just enforce that law instead of creating useless laws and creating additional burdens on law enforcement?
Oh wait, that's right. Because its always ok to get a few more votes by way of appeasing paranoid and ignorant citizens' concerns and abusing law enforcement even further. Hey, anything for a vote, right?
Ted 5:11PM (9/20/2007)
This is a good thing. I hate being at a light and hearing/feeling other people's boom boom music.
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Dylan 12:10PM (9/21/2007)
No, this is a bad thing. Take this for example. You pull up to me at a stop light, and a few hours later your car is being impounded because I claimed that your music was too loud.
See what I did there?
dacree 10:58AM (9/25/2007)
Fortunately, our laws aren't intended to protect you from what you 'hate'. Please, just stop pushing your nanny state on me.
Unless harm can be demonstrated, I don't see that this ordinance has a leg to stand on.
Hooper 5:15PM (9/20/2007)
Last week, here in New York City, in the middle of the week and not on the weekend, someone was parked outside my window with his car stereo blasting (and a couple of skanks on the sidewalk dancing) at 2:30 in the morning. A police car drove right by them and didn't stop, even just to tell him to turn it down. Thank you, New York's "finest"!
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RicardoHead 9:10PM (9/20/2007)
Dude, a plastic shopping bag full of water out the window and on the idiots takes care of the problem quite quickly.
I've done it, and am able to get the window shut before they know it's me. It works.
bill 5:15PM (9/20/2007)
Good news! There is a clown that drives by my house in a VW Golf with the volume turned way up on his car audio system, and the reverberating base beat scares one of my cats enough to send him scurrying to hide under the bed at the back of the house.
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judd 5:15PM (9/20/2007)
I see this turning into a racial discrimination issue. This will be fun.
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Lucas 5:20PM (9/20/2007)
If the radio shack sub enclosure fits the 99 Impala...
AIS 5:20PM (9/20/2007)
http://www.autoinsurancestories.com
I'm really doubting this one is going to stand up. It's understandable that they want to curb this activity, but the limitations are pretty strict. If I have my window down, you could hear pretty much anything even at low volume 75 feet away.
If you don't think so, a pitching mound is 60ft 6 inches from the batter, so, you add another 15 feet to that and the batter says "you pitch like a girl" - do you think the pitcher, let alone the short stop wouldn't have heard that? Maybe it's a bad analogy but the 75 ft isn't much of a distance to use a specific measurement for noise violation.
Couple that with the "hearsay" crap and you're looking at some serious backlash.
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TJF 5:20PM (9/20/2007)
I doubt it. I live in a village and stupid people of all colors, genders and ages (mostly younger people) blast music to the point where it shakes the building. Blaring music with subwoofers is soooooooo 1999
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Richard 5:21PM (9/20/2007)
I guess no more ice-cream trucks.
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AZ 6:34PM (9/20/2007)
Hahahahaha, that is so funny!!!
Lemmiwinks 1:52PM (9/21/2007)
Wow. You won the internet before noon PST. Good show!