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Oakland Police Shut Down Two Large Illegal Saturday Night Sideshows

OAKLAND (CBS SF) -- Despite even tougher coronavirus shelter-in-place orders, large crowds gathered at two illegal sideshows on the streets of Oakland Saturday night.

Oakland police spokeswoman Johnna Watson said officers arrived and broke up both sideshows, but that no arrests or citations were issued. She said the license numbers of the vehicles at the gathering were recorded.

Police responded just after 7 p.m. Saturday to the intersection of Maritime Street and Middle Harbor Road, within the Port of Oakland, where approximately 100 vehicles, and an unknown number of spectators, had gathered.

Another gathering in Oakland was broken up a short time later, Watson said.

Three groups of officers were handling sideshow detail Saturday night, Watson said, with a helicopter available and several tow trucks
standing by.

Sideshows have been a problem on Oakland streets even before the coronavirus outbreak began. But since early March, Oakland and other Bay Area cities have been under strict shelter in place orders that carry with them the possibility of $1,000 fines. Still, the illegal activity has continued.

Late last month, hundreds of young people gathered on two East Oakland street corners on a Sunday evening, cheering on illegal sideshows and violating the shelter-in-place order. Oakland police said three people were arrested during the sideshow activity, and 12 vehicles towed. Another two dozen people were cited.

Social media videos showed vehicles doing donuts in the intersection as the large crowd cheers on the drivers.

Oakland Side Show Muscle Cars by sainero25 on YouTube

There also appeared to be another sideshow in an Oakland neighborhood on a corner on Foothill and Bancroft.

75-year-old Levi Wells lives in senior housing on the corner on Bancroft and saw the large crowds gather, noting that they were standing "neck and neck."

"Shoulder to shoulder? No...neck to neck. People were climbing on top of each other. I'm serious," Wells said. "These kids don't care. They are not thinking about that. They are thinking about having their fun."

Oakland police told KPIX that two blocks away from Bancroft and 55th Avenue, they arrested a driver under the influence who smashed his car onto a front porch of a home, killing a pedestrian and injuring three others.

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