Events a year ago this weekend turned violent, with confrontations between a large crowd and police in Levin. Photo: NZ Police / Supplied
Levin residents say police and hoons are already out in force on the anniversary of earlier conflict.
Last year, a gathering of more than 200 people and cars in Levin turned violent on Saturday 1 June, with a crowd blocking the town's main street, and officers reporting projectiles thrown at them.
A year later, on Friday night, "riot police" had closed State Highway 1 through central Levin, the administrator of popular Facebook page Traffic Fox said.
Video showed police standing in formation with shields and body armour, across the highway at the central Queen Street and Oxford Street shops, with multiple sirens heard and many thick dark tyre skid marks seen in circles on the intersection in front of them.
"At around 10pm, hundreds of car enthusiasts, or "boy racers" converged on Levin and tried to close off the main highway doing burnouts and skids, police were prepared and stopped a lot of it," the Traffic Fox administrator said.
"Yet bottles were smashed, rubber was laid, a couple of people were arrested for carrying weapons, riot police were out in force, cars were rammed etc. Even the Police Eagle helicopter was brought down from Auckland!"
Much of the group had left the town by about 11pm, and were heading north toward Palmerston North, she said.
More than 100 comments on Levin social media groups showed locals were following the progress of the police helicopter across the town, with many reporting the helicopters were tracking boy racers.
"Sounds are going hard now, from police sirens to choppers, to burn outs, to police chases ... quite uneasy for Levin locals," one person said on a local forum, shortly before 11pm, Friday.
"[We] will see if this current government puts its 2025 boy racer legislation where it's mouth is," another commenter said.
Stuff reported a large gathering of boy racers were expected in the town for King's Birthday Weekend, but were not wanted.
Horowhenua District Mayor Bernie Wanden told Stuff the town has "had a gutsful", and did not want hoons coming back and causing "mayhem".
Police were aware of the event and had plans and resources to respond, he said.
Police did not respond to RNZ's request for comment.
Earlier this month, the government announced stiffer punishments for those convicted of offences related to boy-racing, and for drivers who fail to stop for police.
Those caught doing burnouts or taking part in unauthorised street racing or intimidating convoys faced vehicle destruction as a presumptive sentence, while fines for making excess noise from a vehicle were also raised.
At the time of the announcement, Transport Minister Chris Bishop said New Zealanders were sick and tired of seeing "idiot drivers" put the community at risk.
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