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Street racing is dangerous and shouldn't happen, I agree 100%, but I still don't think these stiffer punishments will keep people from street racing. It'll just make people more likely to try and evade the police.
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People who engage in organized street racing already try to outrun the police. Just ask Sgt. Tommaso Popolizio in Newark who chased that racer...oh, wait..you can't...he's dead (Not making a joke, just illustrating the seriousness of the consequences of street racing). The crotch rocket folk do it routinely; in fact, I'm told by some in those circles that a majority of them run rather than face prosecution. The stiffer penalties obviously don't stop everyone from drunk driving or people wouldn't still be getting arrested for it. You are just as likely to be killed by a street racer as you are by a drunk driver, so should we reduce those fines too? If the change of penalties (Within reason) is a deterrent to at least a percentage of people who street race, or at least makes people think before engaging in such behavior, I'm for it.
A ton of responsibility rests on the police when it comes to pursuits, but the bottom line is this: The police do NOT start the pursuit; the violator does. The police officer has the massive responsibility of ending the pursuit should it become too dangerous. For all of the pursuits you see in the news that result in an innocent bystander getting hurt or killed, there are hundreds you don't read about or see on TV that end because the officer or their supervisors end the pursuit. If they don't end the pursuit when it becomes too dangerous (Residential areas, which is a majority of NJ, school zones, hazardous road conditions, too much speed, etc.) or are ordered by their supervisors, they run the risk of losing everything, starting with their jobs and ending with civil lawsuits.
Yeah, most of us have street raced, I'm not going to pretend I haven't done so once or twice in the past. And I'm really lucky that I didn't get caught and even luckier that I didn't kill anyone, including myself. Had I gotten caught, I'd have been P.O.'d, but it would've been my own fault. And I'd have had to pay. What it comes down to is if someone wants to gamble with their life, and the lives of everyone out on the street, they can go ahead and pay for it if they get caught. You're absolutely right; street racing will probably go on as long as there are streets, but that doesn't mean that the lawmakers should sit back and do nothing about it.