Queensland Police is pointing to pop culture as the cause of Brisbane’s growing car theft problem
Queensland Police Assistance Commissioner for the Brisbane Region, Brian Codd, this morning said the growing culture of car thefts in Brisbane that recently resulted in the death of two innocent pedestrians and their unborn child is a result of the culture of video games and movies such as Fast and Furious 7.
“People that were raised on a diet of Fast and Furious 7 and see too much on TV and computer games about assaults and car crashes and everybody gets up and walks away, and they think it’s real,” Mr Codd said.
“It’s not real, and it’s something we need to address as a community.”
Mr Codd was speaking to Channel 9 this morning about a tragic incident in Brisbane, where a 17-year old allegedly stole a Toyota LandCruiser, ran a red light, collided with a truck, and fatally struck two pedestrians while walking their dog – all while allegedly under the influence of drugs.
“The reality of it is that we’ve got people that are either adults or juveniles that think it’s okay to hurtle down roads with 2.5 kilogram (sic) missiles at high speed and then disregard things like red lights and then not see that, that compromises people’s lives,” Mr Codd said.
“It does my head in, that people think that its acceptable to do this.”
The tragic incident, while no doubt a caused by running a red light and potentially breaking the speed limit, could arguably be blamed more on the juvenile driver’s alleged intoxication and car theft than low-level traffic infringements.
Mr Codd also failed to mention Brisbane has the highest rate of car thefts in Australia. In 2019, 14,239 cars were stolen in Queensland, a 68.6 percent increase from the 8443 stolen in 2015.
Car thefts in Queensland were only beaten by the 16,721 stolen in Victoria that year, but the Sunshine State has a higher theft per registration given the lower population.
In regard to speeding, Queensland Police removed warning signs on mobile speed cameras in July 2015 and started using unmarked cars (as pictured below), suggesting the enforcement of speed limits is less about deterring the general public from speeding and more about catching low-level speeders without notice.
In 2014, when the tolerance for speed cameras was further reduced in Queensland, low-level speeding fines increased a massive 47 per cent.
Despite the heavy-handed policing on speed limits in Queensland (and speed being blamed for nearly all accidents in 2020, a year which saw a significant reduction in traffic due to the pandemic) 57 more people died on the state’s roads than in 2019, with a total of 276 deaths.
Watch the full interview with the assistant commissioner here.
Fast and Furious 7, officially known as Furious 7, was the last film in which star actor Paul Walker appeared in the popular franchise before his death in a single vehicle accident.
Mr Walker was a passenger in a rare Porsche Carrera GT driven by his friend Roger Rodas, an accident also initially attributed to speeding but later found to be a result of decade-old tyres.
