Officials with the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) have issued a statement that they have seen far enough illegal activity on its streets, announcing that law enforcement officers will now be starting to take extra steps to fight the street takeovers that have been afflicting the city.
As part of a Thursday release, Ryan Moreno, a detective with the LAPD, stated that those taking part in or attending illegal street takeover events will see their cars officially impounded for up to 30 days. As stated by Moreno, the department usually only impounds roughly five to ten cars on a weekend, but warned that if the street takeover events go on, that number to spike rapidly.
“We really want to stop this from becoming a new trend where they think that they show up and take over a street or a freeway or any part of the city, that they’re just going to be able to do whatever they want,” expressed Moreno as reported by Fox 11.
“Cars will start disappearing really soon,” he went on.
This most recent announcement takes place after the most recent street takeover on Sunday out in L.A.’s Willowbrook neighborhood led to the shooting death a young boy, as reported by the Los Angeles Times. the Sheriff’s deputies for L.A. County responded to the reports about the street racing and a possible shooting only to discover a young unresponsive male with obvious gunshot wounds.
Reportedly that same night, another street takeover event happened just over a mile away and ended up sparking a mob to attack and loot a 7-Eleven store, stealing lotery tickets, tobacco products, and foodstuffs. The mob was seen on a video that rapidly went viral on social media. Police did not manage to get to the area until after the looters had left the scene, per the LA Times.
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These various street takeover events have been assailing the city’s newly rebuilt $600 million 6th Street Bridge. Just this past month, the city shut down the bridge four separate times over the course of five days due to people continue using it to try and do illegal stuns and record various TikTok videos.
At the time, LAPD Chief Michel Moore claimed that the department just could not rely on arresting people to put a stop to this expanding trend of illegal activity around the bridge. “We’re not going to arrest our way out of this,” he remarked. “Despite the hundreds of impounds and citations and arrests, we still see the proliferation of this. So I’m asking for the public’s help and support and assistance.”