Supernaw requests Long Beach ordinance to target street takeovers

Supernaw requests Long Beach ordinance to target street takeovers 

July 9, 2021, East Long Beach street take-over at Bellflower and Stearns

Long Beach Fourth District Councilman Daryl Supernaw has agenized a council item for July 20, 2021 meeting to “prepare an ordinance to enhance penalties for participating in or being a spectator at a street takeover”.      

The request to the City Manager and City Attorney came just days after a street takeover at the corner of  Bellflower and  Stearns on the night of Friday, July 9^th.  That takeover saw cars doing donuts in the middle of the intersection and racing up and down Bellflower, including on the wrong side of the road.   The takeover included dozens of people standing in the street videotaping the takeover.

As the police arrived, the participating cars raced south on Bellflower, some without headlights, as some turned into Los Altos Village neighborhood streets to avoid the police.

Close to the freeway, both the Los Altos Gateway Shopping Center north of the 405 and the Los Altos Shopping Center North have been taken over by social media-promoted car events.

The street takeovers promoted on social media have had deadly consequences for both drivers and bystanders. Many of the bystanders come with the cars to video the takeovers for social media. 

Regular street takeovers in the Los Angeles suburb of Sylmar  took an inevitable  dangerous turn last month when a car predicating in the street takeover almost hit a pedestrian before slamming into a nearby business and heavily damaging it.

This year the City of Anaheim passed an ordinance aimed at giving the police more power to deal with the takeovers, including charging spectators.  Both city’s responses were to incidents where people were injured in street takeovers in those cities.  Other California cities enacting similar ordinances.

The street takeover problem grew nationwide during the pandemic. In May, the state of Georgia passed a law to deal with the growing problem.  The new Georgia law creates a new crime category called reckless stunt driving, requires mandatory jail time, and increases fines and penalties on participating, organizing, or promoting the takeovers.

 For more information click on:

Supernaw’s July 20^th Agenda Item

East Long Beach  street take over with  video