Good Riddance: LA Suburb May Permanently Confiscate Street Takeover Cars
Let’s be clear: Street takeovers, sideshows, or whatever you want to call them are not held or attended by legitimate car enthusiasts. They often feature stolen vehicles and frequently end with crashes and injuries – many times to the people on the sidelines watching. One Los Angeles suburb has had enough, and its city council recently passed an ordinance directing police to permanently confiscate vehicles seized during the events.
The Pico Rivera City Council also created new fines for spectators, totaling up to $2,000 just for showing up and standing within 500 feet. This may sound harsh, but the number of incidents during and after these takeovers has escalated in recent years. The state of California has passed strict legislation aimed at curbing the nonsense, including charging drivers with vehicular manslaughter if someone gets killed.
Government overreach never sounds like a good thing, but this is one case where the penalty matches the crime. Street takeovers cause towns and residents to lose faith in the car community so that even responsible owners are targeted by police and legislation. Those of us willing to take our angry driving to the track end up being penalized for the actions of a few idiots, and any resulting damage from a takeover becomes the fault of all enthusiasts, not the smooth-brained “drivers” among us.
[Image: DarSzach via Shutterstock]
Become a TTAC insider. Get the latest news, features, TTAC takes, and everything else that gets to the truth about cars first by subscribing to our newsletter.
Chris grew up in, under, and around cars, but took the long way around to becoming an automotive writer. After a career in technology consulting and a trip through business school, Chris began writing about the automotive industry as a way to reconnect with his passion and get behind the wheel of a new car every week. He focuses on taking complex industry stories and making them digestible by any reader. Just don’t expect him to stay away from high-mileage Porsches.
More by Chris Teague
Comments
Join the conversation
May be defunding police may help? Or psychotherapist?
How about installing a few low speed bumps in the parking lots where these idiots do their donuts? Bust a few wheels and suspensions and maybe they will get the idea.
In my town almost every intersection has donut marks in it. There are just a few of these morons, but they get around. They should put their mugshots in the newspaper and post videos online of their cars being crushed.
California is lost
Is this any different then hot rodding down a Main Street in the 50's or 60's with crowds of kids lining the road. There's many a grandma who used her sweater as the starting flag.
Today, kids get the app for their Dad's EV and drag race thru the subdivision.
Nothing new here...just a different format.