As crime soared in 2023, Oakland leaders zeroed in on a visible nuisance: sideshows.<\/p>\n
In past years, residents had reported hundreds<\/a> of these dangerous street takeovers where drivers rip donuts in intersections, often surrounded by cheering crowds. Sometimes participants set cars on fire and shoot guns into the air. Injuries aren\u2019t uncommon, not to mention acrid smoke and noise.<\/p>\n In June 2023, after months of debate, the City Council approved an ordinance that outlawed sideshows<\/a> and targeted those who organize them. Anyone caught violating the law by participating in or organizing a sideshow can be thrown in jail for up to six months. It also gave Oakland the power to impose penalties, including fines of up to $5,000 for repeat violations, and the ability to have courts shut down the social media accounts used to organize sideshows.<\/p>\n Councilmember Noel Gallo, the author of the law, urged his colleagues to approve the ordinance, citing the explosion of sideshows across Oakland and the fact that other cities like San Jose<\/a> were introducing similar laws.\u00a0<\/p>\n Councilmember Carroll Fife asked police officials at a May 2023 meeting if the penalties would help officers reduce sideshows, saying, \u201cIs this the legislation that you all feel as the Oakland Police Department to be effective in minimizing the occurrence and sometimes the severity of the sideshows?\u201d <\/p>\n An officer reassured Fife that the ordinance was \u201cvery well crafted\u201d and would \u201cabsolutely give us the authority to hold those accountable who are doing this to our city.\u201d<\/p>\n But nearly three years later, city officials acknowledge they have never used the law.<\/p>\n City spokesperson Jean Walsh told The Oaklandside last week that Oakland has not sought injunctions or imposed penalties on violators under the ordinance.\u00a0<\/p>\n The city attorney also shared that no investigations have been referred to it since the ordinance was adopted.\u00a0<\/p>\n Walsh did not respond to questions about whether the city has ever referred cases to the district attorney\u2019s office to prosecute people who violated the ordinance. We reached out to the DA to see if they have ever prosecuted anyone under Oakland\u2019s ordinance, but did not receive any information.\u00a0<\/p>\n We asked city officials, including Gallo, for an interview to discuss why the ordinance hasn\u2019t been used, but did not receive a response.<\/p>\n OPD has relied mostly on laws that existed before Oakland\u2019s get-tough ordinance<\/p>\n Oakland\u2019s failure to use its sideshow law doesn\u2019t mean sideshow organizers and participants are going unpunished. In 2025, OPD reported towing 195 vehicles<\/a> and arresting 23 people for police evasion, reckless driving, and \u201cillegal sideshow activity\u201d in the city. According to KTVU, OPD also issued 21 citations<\/a> in connection with a massive sideshow last August at 41st and Howe Streets. It\u2019s unclear what those citations were for.\u00a0<\/p>\n In September, OPD announced that two sideshow organizers had been taken into custody on felony warrants connected to the promotion and facilitation of the August sideshow. The department said in a press release<\/a> it would continue to take actions to disrupt sideshows and hold organizers accountable. \u201cWhen appropriate, this includes seeking felony criminal charges,\u201d the department stated.\u00a0<\/p>\n As of February this year, Oakland had seized more than 70 vehicles<\/a> allegedly involved in sideshows. In none of these announcements has OPD mentioned the ordinance approved by the Oakland City Council.\u00a0<\/p>\n But the failure to use an administrative penalty is concerning to some local officials.\u00a0<\/p>\n Councilmember Charlene Wang, who recently introduced legislation to penalize spectators<\/a> at sideshows, told The Oaklandside that the Alameda County District Attorney is under-resourced and must prioritize cases for prosecution. When the DA doesn\u2019t prosecute a case, it\u2019s useful to have the option to pursue a civil fine, Wang said.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cUsing administrative fines could be a powerful tool that addresses these gaps while also bringing revenue to the city,\u201d Wang said.<\/p>\n In general, Wang said, she\u2019s concerned that Oakland struggles to make use of its civil enforcement tools. As an example, she pointed out that Oakland has failed to collect fines from people caught dumping trash<\/a> on the street. Wang is worried that similar bureaucratic snags could prevent the city from fining people under an ordinance she introduced earlier this year that targets people who purchase sex<\/a> in Oakland.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m just seeing this as a theme across the board,\u201d Wang said.<\/p>\n “*” indicates required fields<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As crime soared in 2023, Oakland leaders zeroed in on a visible nuisance: sideshows. In past years, residents…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":277030,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[21737,12735,22371,110243,8551,143,5365,145,144,407,59706],"class_list":["post-277029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-alameda-county-district-attorney","tag-carroll-fife","tag-charlene-wang","tag-jean-walsh","tag-noel-gallo","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-city-council","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-oakland-police-department","tag-sideshow"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277029","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=277029"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277029\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/277030"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=277029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=277029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=277029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}