Fast & The Furious After Effects?

Josh Brockman jwb1@cec.wustl.edu
Tue, 26 Feb 2002 10:10:43 -0600


> I
> don't think the writer was saying that more thieves went out jacking
Hondas
> because there were car-thief characters in the movie, but rather more
> because it raised the profile of cars such as those seen in the movie.

If he didn't mean that, he wouldn't have said it in the first line of the
article.
"'The Fast and the Furious,' a film about street-racing car thieves," was
the opener. I also find it hard to believe that people were stealing civics
"so the pieces can be ... used as replacement parts by the thieves in their
own racing cars", as they said. Thieves have always stolen cars that are
common and have high parts demand in greatest numbers. Civics are easily one
of the most common cars in any area. And there are many other models that
recieved more attention in the movie that aren't mentioned in the article. I
don't buy his argument.

Believe me, I am not defending street racers or car thieves in any way, they
deserve whatever they get, but I am tired of the media (and, to a lesser
degree, overzealous law enforcement) sensationalizing what truly are mundane
statistics, and trying to create a story where there isn't one. I would call
it irresponsible journalism, but it's really more fiction than journalism.

> Often when thieves go out to look for a particular car they will first
> steal something else to go driving around in so that if the police sniff
> them out all cars involved are untraceable to the people inside.

I did not know that. So, how do you know so much about stealing cars? ;)
Seriously, I still don't see the connection between the two - why would a
thief specifically steal a Camry so he can go look for a Honda in it? Why
would the cops make that assumption? Camrys are very common cars too - it
seems their theft would be easily explained otherwise.

Josh