*On three different occasions, I witnessed in person a street takeover. The first time it was a block from my house. It was last Sunday night near midnight. I went to the corner where the crowd which looked like a little UN of about three to four hundred had gathered. I asked some of the participants why they were there, and did they knew or cared that they were disturbing the residents and presented a clear and present danger to motorists. They gave me a blank look.
The second time I witnessed the tail end of the deadly street takeover near Florence and Crenshaw that claimed the life of a motorist passing by at the time. The third time I publicly challenged the LAPD, LA County Sheriffs, and CHP at the corner of Century and Western Avenue in South L.A. to make their street takeover task force permanent,
The perplexing question which in one case went unanswered by the participants and that has confounded law enforcement, public officials, and community residents is why street takeovers not only happen but seemingly have gotten bigger, bolder, and more in the community and law enforcement face in the past year? The other equally perplexing question is what can be done about them?
The starting point to answer question one is just who the individuals are involved in the street takeover and why. There has been no detailed profile of the typical street takeover participant or their motive for participating. From my observation, they are mostly young, comprised of all ethnicities and even genders, and treat the street takeover as part thrill, part happening, part sense of momentary empowerment, and almost certainly part defiance of authority.
Certainly, it is thrill-seeking taken to the extreme, since there is also a sense maybe even expectation of an accident, injury, or even in extreme cases death. Social media has made it simple for individuals to gather at a designated street corner at a designated time once the word goes out. In the two street takeovers I directly observed I was struck by how fast the crowd gathered at the location, and how fast they dispersed the moment the LAPD and the LA County Sheriffs showed up. This made it more difficult for law enforcement to quickly intervene with arrests and the impounding of vehicles.
Source: Earl Ofari Hutchinson: Take Over the Street Takeovers and End Them Once and For All | VIDEO
