Shit, I probably should have been in jail.

"These kids are gathered in a parking lot, probably private property, in the middle of the night, almost certainly loitering by the legal definition of that word, or creating some kind of other public nuisance with their subwoofers, hollow mufflers, and spinning tires."

When I was in high school (a long time ago), we'd always go to McDonalds or Bob's Big Boy to hang out on Friday nights after the football game.  There were literally hundreds of cars of kids doing the same thing (they were adjacent to large shopping center parking lots).  Some street racing inevitably took place.  I did my share.  Open mufflers?  My first motorcycle had a straight pipe.  It wasn't too bad at low speed, but when it hit 10,000RPM, it could probably have been heard for miles.  

I was just the typical hormonally-challenged teenager.  I got over it, and never hurt anyone.  Kids are kids sometimes, and most of them, grow up OK.

there's only one way to find out...

Christ on a crutch, man. What are you, 80 years old? Are you gonna be yelling for 'em to keep off your lawn next?

These kids are gathered in a parking lot, probably private property, in the middle of the night, almost certainly loitering by the legal definition of that word, or creating some kind of other public nuisance with their subwoofers, hollow mufflers, and spinning tires.  So the cops come along, search the cars, and write tickets for the modifications that are illegal.  What's the problem?  When a bunch of asshats get busted for making a nuisance of themselves with their polluting, loud, illegally modified cars, I call that justice.

I call that flim-flammery and ass-hattery of the mad variety.
Your whole argument boils down to that you regard them as being certainly guilty of something and to hell with the law, logic, or circumstance.
If people are genuinely caught doing something illegal, fine, bust 'em and let 'em take their lumps, but let's not advocate some kind of quasi-legal preemptive strike doctrine on people and their cars just because we're sure that they'll be doing something illegal sometime.

Somewhere in my soul, there's always Rock -n- Roll... Joe Strummer

Are you seriously arguing that the cops issued them 150 tickets for things that aren't illegal?

Are you going to seriously argue that the Riverside PD is going to blow $500K in overtime pay and not come away with enough in ticket revenues to justify the bust?

Illegitimi non carborundum.

C'mon, Bob.  For one thing, there doesn't seem to be any backing for the overtime claim except for the breathless, baseless pseodojournalistic rant of your final link.  The newspaper article on this subject says the raid was paid for with a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety.  The cops showed up because they knew it would be fish in a barrel, which it was.   From the television reports (the follow-ups, not the short one you posted) it sounds like they netted a number of stolen vehicles, a bunch of people without licenses or insurance, and some outstanding warrants.  Good for them!  I encourage the police to continue concentrating on obvious high-crime areas in the future.

Read the coverage from the Press-Enterprise.  These drivers were gathering in the parking lots of two local businesses, and the businessmen, to the surprise of nobody, wanted them gone.

Neighboring business managers at Hooters Restaurant and John's Incredible Pizza are glad the problem was addressed. At times, they said, cars speed through their parking lots, threatening the safety of others and scaring away customers.

"They seek a big parking lot and ours is huge," said Jim Finigan, director of operations at John's Incredible Pizza.

He was seconded by Chris Guillet, manager of the Riverside Hooters Restaurant, who said problem drivers speed through his lot, barely avoiding collisions