Car thugs in the pink in Aussie clampdown

0 Comments | AFP, February, 2007

SYDNEY (AFP) — An Australian local council has installed pink lights in a public car park to deter thugs in souped-up cars from cruising around the facility and intimidating other patrons.

The pink lights are the latest innovative crowd control measure from Sydney's Rockdale Council, which last year began piping crooner Barry Manilow's greatest hits into a park to discourage youths from hanging around.

Rockdale mayor Bill Saravinovski said the behaviour of loutish car enthusiasts, known locally as "hoons", had been discouraging patrons from visiting the local restaurant strip at Brighton, on Sydney's Botany Bay.

"We decided we wanted to bring the families back," Saravinovski told AFP.

"Pink is supposed to be a colour that calms people and so we...