San Francisco business owner calls for police to crack down on sideshows
A San Francisco businessman is demanding that police do something to stop sideshows after a vehicle lost control and slammed into his building.
Between the broken bricks, a boarded up window, and a notice posted on the plywood protecting his business, John McDonell looks at what may be the last straw to his long history of running his bike shop, Market Street Cycles.
"Unsafe building is the violation, it says to obtain a permit within 60 days, all work completed within 90 days," he said, pointing at the notice. "There was a car that had been doing donuts. The marks are still visible in the middle of the intersection here. Apparently lost control of it, hit a curb or something, came across the intersection here, and went through the lower brick façade of the building."
Although there is no indication this was the result of a full-blown illegal sideshow with spectators watching on, a driver doing donuts in the middle of the road is a behavior commonly seen at illegal sideshows.
It's a problem that many Bay Area cities are trying to tackle.
"The unbelievable part is not that they happen, it's that they're not policed better," McDonell said. "If there's no incentive to stop, why would you? If you enjoy it, all your friends are going to be there, and girls think you're cool, why would you stop?"
He says enforcement needs to step up significantly.
"I think impoundment and confiscation of the cars would be the first step. If it's a stolen car, then you get charged for a stolen car. It's not rocket science," he said. "The only thing for sure, which has empirical evidence is, if you do nothing about it, it not only doesn't stop, it grows larger and larger in scale – up to the point where they're stopping traffic on the Bay Bridge to have their car parties, and the rest of us get to deal with the fallout from that."
A sideshow along the Embarcadero in June found participants lighting a vehicle on fire. San Francisco police chief William Scott insisted that his department would hold the participants accountable, but there have not been any confirmed arrests in that incident.
The problem has grown big enough that more than a dozen law enforcement agencies came together for the first of what will be many meetings to figure out regional solutions to stopping and policing sideshows. The San Jose Police Department is spearheading the effort.
The agencies included:
- Sunnyvale DPS
- Daly City PD
- CHP (operating in Hayward, San Jose and Oakland)
- San Francisco PD
- Antioch PD
- Alameda County Sheriff's Office
- Campbell PD
- Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office
- Oakland PD
- Sacramento PD
- Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office
- Santa Clara County Probation
- San Leandro PD
- Fremont PD
- Northern CA Regional Intelligence Center (NCRIC)
- Regional Sideshow Enforcement Team (RESET)
SJPD provided CBS News Bay Area with the following statement:
The San José Police Department is tackling sideshows head-on as they continue to threaten our public safety. We are no longer dealing with simple donut tricks. We are dealing with violent, mob mentality events that demonstrate pure lawlessness. Recognizing that this issue extends beyond our city's boundaries, we have established a Bay Area Working Group to meet regularly with the objective of identifying comprehensive solutions. Through this Bay Area network, we are leveraging our collective resources and knowledge to best address this regional problem. Whether through strategic plans, policies, or other forms of collaborations, we hope that this Working Group can result in tangible solutions to address these violent sideshows and hold all involved accountable. Our first meeting was a success and we are excited for this continued partnership with our Bay Area law enforcement agencies.
San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan echoed the need for a regional approach to solving this problem.
"I think with sideshows, kind of like organized retail theft, we have to collaborate across jurisdictions," Mahan said. "They're not just disruptive, we see a lot of other illegal activity at these sideshows. We've had people discharging firearms, we've had vehicles fly into people's businesses or living rooms at 3:00 in the morning. We've had people killed at these sideshows."
McDonell hopes the cities put their money where their mouth is.
"At least they're talking about it – at least the right words are coming out of their mouth," he said. "Drivers seem crazier than ever and less concerned about other peoples' safety. And just, the nutso behavior of guys like that, the sideshow stuff."
But in the meantime, with what he estimates to be upwards of $50,000 worth of damage and question marks about how that'll get paid for, he's figuring out if he has a future operating his business on the corner of Market and Franklin.
"I don't want to leave like this. I'd like to leave on my own terms," he said. "I'm not a big charity guy – to be on this end of it – but I have relented this time around and am letting folks help. It's a brand-new thing. But if you look for Market Street Cycles on social media, you'll certainly see links to it."