22 Aug 2009

Hundreds at Hamilton boy racer protest

9:50 am on 22 August 2009

Up to 2,000 people have turned out in Hamilton to protest against proposed boy racer legislation.

Hundreds of cars clogged Te Rapa Straight, just north of the city, from about 9pm on Friday night.

The proposed laws would strengthen the powers of police and courts to deal with illegal street racing, including provisions to crush the cars of repeat offenders.

Police say they received tip-offs from boy racers about the protest and had monitored social networking sites.

Sergeant Aaron Alderton says plenty of officers were present, there were no problems and no-one was arrested.