Police doing nothing about boy racers

A PAPHOS woman yesterday accused police of doing nothing as youths raced their bikes along residential streets until late into the night.
“The police blame drivers for all the accidents and road deaths and yet they do nothing. They sit in coffee shops all morning and in the afternoon they park their cars in fields and take a nap. Nobody does anything,” the 55-year-old Emba resident told the Cyprus Mail.

The woman, who wished to remain unnamed for fear of repercussions from the young racers whom she termed “dangerous”, said she and others had repeatedly called police but that no patrol car had ever come to investigate.

She said there were about four motorbikes and six quad bikes that tore up and down Theodorou Petrou Street in Emba every day between 5pm and 2am.
“This has been going on for about four or five months. We have called the police about 50 times and yet they have never come once,” she said.
The 55-year-old said she was tired of drivers being blamed when the authorities sat idly by.

“Police should be patrolling the main streets day and night but they are not… I’m telling the truth. That’s why the young are dying. Because the police are not on the roads when you need them,” she said.

She said the area where she lived used to be quiet but that the appearance of the youth racers over the past few months had transformed a sleepy residential area into a noisy death trap.

“There are also a lot of children and pets on our street. It’s not right. The police never come.”

She added: “I’ve seen boys racing motorbikes on main streets in broad daylight without any helmets on and there are no police to stop them. Where are the police? They complain but they do nothing. They are good for nothing.”
Asked about the claims, Paphos police headquarters told the Cyprus Mail they had to be untrue, simply because it was the authorities’ duty to investigate all complaints.
“If she has a complaint, why isn’t she making it to us? Why wouldn’t we look into it? Anyone can say what he or she wants. We are the police and we are here to serve everyone,” a duty officer said.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.