The police have branded drivers who took part in illegal burnouts across Canberra over the four days of the Summernats car festival as a "subspecies".
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In highly-emotive language, Acting Inspector Mark Richardson said: "They just haven't evolved very far. I think they've really plateaued as a species or subspecies of the human race".
He wondered if the right sort of testing stations were set on the ACT border.
"It's the moron tourism that we get. I mean, if we set up an IQ testing station at the border, instead of a vehicle testing station, we would probably halve our problems," he said.
The officer said that over the four days of the festival, police had played "whack-a-mole" as organised burnouts occurred across Canberra, away from the official main event at the EPIC exhibition park.
"They were in Fyshwick. They were in Beard, down in Queanbeyan. They were all over Canberra," he said.
He couldn't understand why people did burnouts around Canberra over festival. "Summernats has their own event where they can go and do it."
Nor could he understand why burnouts were such a recreation all year round. Trying to stop them sucked up scarce police resources. "We do this all year round, and I think that the Canberra public are sick of it."
He warned drivers contemplating heading out to burn rubber that they would lose their vehicle. "Let's get serious. And let's put the car in the bin and then they can't do it again.
"If we seize it for 90 days, they go to court, they pay their fines, they lose their license for 90 days, they get the car back. As far as I'm concerned, you don't have a car to come back to."
He amplified his exasperation with a plea: "Road policing needs more resourcing. There's only a finite percentage of us. Summernats pretty much takes up our entire resource capability.
"That to me is a little bit unfair on the rest of the Canberra public," he said.
Ordinary Canberrans were trying to live their lives and drive in a safe manner, he felt.
"And yet, we literally have to babysit these morons as they go and do their organised event, laughing and carrying on, thinking it's great, while the Canberra taxpayer pays to fix the roads," he said.
"The Canberra taxpayer has to drive on these roads that are dug up by cars doing burnouts on the rims of the tires. And I just don't think they should stand for it.
"So as far as I'm concerned, you do that, your car's gone."
Steve Evans
Steve Evans is a reporter on The Canberra Times. He's been a BBC correspondent in New York, London, Berlin and Seoul and the sole reporter/photographer/paper deliverer on The Glen Innes Examiner in country New South Wales. "All the jobs have been fascinating - and so it continues."
Steve Evans is a reporter on The Canberra Times. He's been a BBC correspondent in New York, London, Berlin and Seoul and the sole reporter/photographer/paper deliverer on The Glen Innes Examiner in country New South Wales. "All the jobs have been fascinating - and so it continues."
