Legal 'Side Show' Still Prompts Neighbors To Call Police
RIO LINDA (CBS13) - Loud noises in a Rio Linda neighborhood sent residents calling for police Saturday evening.
Officers arrived to find people running a "side show." But this time, it was all legal.
Drivers were drifting in figure 8's or doing donuts while passengers hang out the window, or drifting with the car doors open. It was on private property, behind a fenced in area. The show is usually impromptu, illegal and dangerous. Joseph Ramos knows what it's like.
"If you are on the streets and the police will show up and when that happens a lot of the people will get scared and they will instantly jump in their cars and drive off," Ramos said.
That's exactly what happened in Oakland November 2014. Police blocked off about a hundred cars. A van trying to escape through a fence got caught on train tracks.
In January of 2015, Stockton also dealt with rocks thrown at police during a side show.
"We are doing this to get everybody off the street. It sucks to get up in the morning and see on Instagram, so and so is dead."
At Evans Towing Yard in Rio Linda, a group was trying something new: They hosted a legal and safer event.
"This right here is a controlled environment we know who's going to go inside the pit, at what time."
This is a car culture that has been experiencing fines in the thousands, not to mention impounded vehicles.
"We had two officers come in, amazing people, they understand what we are doing, we understand them. They left letting us do this."
But angry neighbors presented a road block of their own, unhappy with the noise, and traffic.
Russ Smith lives down the street.
"I know some of the neighbors were upset, some of my family was upset," Smith said. "They are not in the streets, leave them alone."
Organizers of the event say they will do more to work with neighbors in the future, to perhaps steer clear of any problems. They want to be able to do this again.
"Some people go fishing, some people go hiking, we want to drift our cars."