Los Angeles Struggles To Curb Brazen And Violent Street Takeovers

Authored by Beige Luciano-Adams via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Two infernos, a vandalized storefront, a Metro bus slamming into three cars, drones spitting fireworks at drifting, souped-up muscle cars. Relatively, it was a tame Labor Day Weekend in Los Angeles County, where illegal street takeovers continue to terrorize neighborhoods that have been co-opted as tourist attractions for drivers and spectators seeking internet clout.

Contemporary “takeovers”—in which drivers commandeer intersections and perform dangerous stunts for a scrum of onlookers—are a kind of successor to classic California car cultures including drag racing, cruising, lowriding, and sideshows.

But propelled by the manic, mimetic spectacle of social media, they have become a uniquely dangerous part of the landscape.

Vehicle thefts, shootings, flash mob robberies, and pedestrian fatalities associated with illegal racing and takeovers have all increased from pre-pandemic levels, according to officials.

Law enforcement agencies say they are cracking down with a zero tolerance approach, and a multi-agency task force dedicated to addressing the issue, investing in educational programming and diversion, enhancing technology, and deploying street modifications has been used at problem intersections.

Despite all this, the problem appears increasingly unhinged.

“What we’re seeing is this increase in violent behavior—looting, cars on fire. Recently, we had two kids shot and one murdered at a takeover, at a spin,” Craig Valenzuela, commander of the Los Angeles Police Department’s (LAPD) Traffic Group, told the L.A. County Board of Supervisors at a July 30 meeting.

He was referring to a July 22 incident in which two 15-year-olds involved in a takeover were shot after an alleged robbery, including one fatally.

“That’s really what concerns us—it’s the level of violence and us trying to get in there to end those and keep our communities safe.”

At the meeting, other agencies and county staff presented a final report on illegal racing and takeovers in unincorporated county areas, nearly a year in the making.

They painted a rather bleak picture, acknowledging the scope and scale of the problem, and the fact that existing enforcement, as well as outreach efforts by authorities—seeking to influence the behavior of an anti-authority youth subculture—are not working.

“It has risen to that level where we really need to dedicate all of our resources and address this epidemic that’s wreaking havoc on our communities,” L.A. Assistant Sheriff Myron Johnson told the board.

Supervisors ultimately voted to direct staff and the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department (LASD) to report back on funding and an action plan in 60 days.

To advocates who have been lobbying for years to stave off the inevitable casualties of illegal racing and takeovers, it seems a long time coming.

“Unfortunately, I think it caught everyone by surprise,” said Lili Trujillo Puckett, founder of Street Racing Kills, referring to a surge of takeovers during the pandemic.

Puckett founded her organization after her 16-year-old daughter, Valentina, was killed in a street racing crash in 2014. She now runs diversion programs for youth offenders, as well as legislative and education campaigns.

“There were no laws in place. I started asking for bills a long time ago, but nobody saw it was a problem,” she told The Epoch Times.

Donald Galaz, founder of Project Street Legal, an organization focused on providing legal venues for street racing, says the problem has outgrown law enforcement’s ability to corral it.

“It’s just way out of control,” he said. “No task force is ever going to stop it—there are too many individuals, these kids out there, they just continue to move from place to place.”

Galaz is a longtime member of the Brotherhood of International Street Racers, a group that developed legal avenues for racing, which he credits with getting him off the streets and out of gangs in his youth. And while there is a “level of disrespect” and chaos in today’s takeovers that wasn’t part of the covert sideshows and drag racing of previous decades, then largely confined to industrial areas and parking lots, he says officials could still put a major dent in the problem by giving kids a safer alternative.

“I’ve been advocating for this for over 12 years—let’s do something. I’ve been through many city council members and mayors that promise to help,” he said. Galaz said he ran phone banks for a mayoral campaign, but the effort ended in a long line of “unkept promises” to address the issue.

“In the meantime, people are dying. The public is at risk. Businesses are getting destroyed. Streets are getting destroyed,” he said. “And then you see on the news all the time that people are getting killed, and still elected officials have done nothing.”

Uneven Impact

The destruction tends to be concentrated in certain areas, and often perpetrated by people who live elsewhere, say locals.

The city of Compton has long been an epicenter of Southern California car culture, home to motorcycle and racing clubs, and a Sunday lowrider cruise that continues to this day.

But in recent years, it’s also become a hotbed for out-of-towners in search of street cred and Instagram likes, a launching pad for drivers to make their name.

“If you want internet clout, you have to go to Compton,” Galaz said. “That’s no secret.”

During a July 28 takeover in the city, California Highway Patrol (CHP) arrested 63 spectators, issued 66 citations, and impounded 28 vehicles, according to the agency.

Recent LASD data show the vast majority of takeovers in the first quarter of this year—219 out of 289—happened in the county’s Second Supervisorial District, which includes South L.A. and parts of the Harbor Region. Most of those were in the cities of Compton and Carson, which had 90 and 109 incidents, respectively. This is an increase over the previous quarter, when there were 173 takeovers in the District, out of a total 234 incidents, with 74 and 58 in Compton and Carson.

Meanwhile, the Fourth and First Districts, which cover the southeastern and eastern parts of the county, had 55 and 15 incidents in the first months of 2024. There were no takeovers reported in District Three, which includes West L.A. cities, or District Five, which covers the northern part of the county.

“The increase in illegal street takeovers is deeply troubling,” Compton Mayor Emma Sharif told The Epoch Times. “It goes against the values of our city—it really does. This issue has had a severe impact on our community, affecting both the safety and the well being of residents.”

Both Compton and Carson do not have their own police forces but contract with the L.A. Sheriff’s Department, which coordinates with other agencies like the CHP on traffic enforcement. Carson city officials did not respond to a request for comment.

Looking at LAPD data for the city of Los Angeles, it appears that street racing and takeovers peaked in 2020, with 912 incidents. There were 319 in 2019, and the numbers have fluctuated since, dropping to 482 last year.

That shows redistribution, not eradication, observers say.

“Just because it has peaked in the city of Los Angeles doesn’t mean it’s gone down across the county,” Damian Kevitt, executive director of the nonprofit Streets Are for Everyone, told The Epoch Times.

As the LAPD’s street racing task force has gotten more aggressive, he said, the crackdown has pushed the problem to outlying communities like Compton and unincorporated areas.

The CHP, which enforces vehicle code in Los Angeles County, responded to 100 street takeovers, issued 2,000 citations, arrested 500 people for reckless driving, driving under the influence, spectating, and weapons offenses, and impounded more than 400 vehicles in unincorporated areas of L.A. County last year, according to the agency.

“Street racers will show up, do their takeovers, spend 45 minutes—they know how long it will take for the task force to do their thing, then they’re off to the next location,” said Kevitt.

LASD and LAPD data show takeovers increased in the first months of 2024 in both the county and the city, but the county saw an overall 15 percent dip in the second quarter over the first, from 289 to 245 incidents, LASD officials told the board at the July meeting.

That’s still more than the fourth quarter of last year, and Compton is trending upward.

‘More Brazen, More Violent’

In its June 12 report responding to a directive from the city council, the LAPD pointed to the diminishing ability of law enforcement officers and first responders to intervene at takeovers, which often include hundreds of spectators and countless vehicles.

Spectators use laser pointers to blind officers and helicopters, launch fireworks at police, intentionally ram and swarm cars, and resist arrest.

“I think they feel like they’re untouchable,” Galaz said. “And because it’s one police unit with two officers that shows up, they’re outnumbered right off the bat. So now you’ve got these kids that are out there blocking the cars, throwing rocks and bottles and shooting fireworks and doing that type of stuff to the police. … They just don’t care.”

Street racing has always been anti-authoritarian, but Galaz notes racers used to be more concerned with demonstrating their skills than taunting law enforcement.

“The last thing we wanted to do was get the attention of law enforcement while we’re out trying to get something done, you know? But it seems like they’re taunting them,” he said. “I don’t understand the logic behind wanting to do these things and just the amount of disrespect.”

Law enforcement and first responders are already stretched thin by budget deficits, understaffing, and an all-consuming homelessness crisis. For all the above reasons, agencies are looking to outsource some policing to technology.

“We’re not going in the center of the takeover anymore. It’s just too dangerous for us,” CHP South L.A. Commander Joe Zivi told the board in July. “There is no doubt these takeovers are more brazen, more violent.”

The CHP already monitors hotspots with helicopters and airplanes equipped with infrared technology and recording that can be used for prosecution, and soon it will have high-powered cameras to read license plates in real time, which they hope to bring to judges to get 30-day seizures, and then impound the vehicles at a later date, Zivi said.

Meanwhile, LASD hopes to expand a pilot program that uses drones to help with racing and takeover enforcement, while some cities are initiating their own programs.

In March, Carson debuted a new drone policy to “enhance city services,” and in April, it announced the installation of a multi-million-dollar, “state-of-the-art” surveillance system across the city to help “reduce suspicious activity” and increase stolen vehicle recovery as part of LASD’s License Plate Recognition Camera Project.

But some question the logic of investing in high-tech cameras to photograph license plates when many of the cars involved are stolen—and the drivers may be long gone by the time police show up.

Culture Clash

For older generations in racing and cruising scenes, contemporary takeovers and their attendant chaos are casting a long shadow.

“I think the car culture has been, and still is under attack from different angles,” Galaz said. “People will say law enforcement is just taking the fun out of things. But then the takeovers are giving a black eye to the whole culture,” he said.

Developed by Mexican Americans in the post-WWII era, lowriding is a beloved and recognizable part of the Southern California cultural mosaic, memorialized in art exhibitions, books, films—and now imitated by adolescents with disposable income in places such as Saudi Arabia.

Last year, Governor Gavin Newsom signed a bill legalizing lowriding and cruising—or driving “low and slow” to show off modified classic cars, overriding previous restrictions.

At the July 30 board meeting, public speakers from racing and lowrider clubs came out to remind the government that cruising is legal and should not be painted with the same brush as illegal takeovers.

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