The Richmond Police Department used a drone and spike strips to help bust participants of a sideshow on Sunday.
During the afternoon, officers responded to a report of a sideshow at the dead end of Canal Boulevard, in the parking lot of the General Warehouse. The officers used a drone to identify two main vehicles and “then moved in to take enforcement action,” police said.
One of the drivers attempted to flee but the RPD used spike strips to flatten three of the vehicle’s tires, police said.
The drivers were cited and their cars were impounded for 30 days. One of the cars “will have to visit the state smog referee” when it gets out of impound, police added.
The RPD released drone footage from the incident. The incident was separately reported on former Richmond Mayor Tom Butt’s e-forum, which provided links to video from on the ground of the sideshow. The former mayor said it was a quiet Sunday evening on the Richmond waterfront when “all hell broke loose.”
“Hundreds of people and vehicles converged around the General Warehouse, just behind the Riggers Loft and across from the Red Oak Victory ship, for a gigantic sideshow,” Butt said. “Where the smoke from welders’ torches and the clanging of cranes once filled the air, the waterfront became dominated by smoking and screeching tires and the crunch of colliding vehicles, hallmarks of a full-blown sideshow.”
Mayor Butt said that parking lot and the general area has recently become “dominated by graffiti, trash, garbage and sideshows.” He blamed the current City Council for defunding the Richmond Police Department and for having “no interest in preserving Richmond’s rich heritage.”
Richmond City Councilmember Cesar Zepeda, whose district represents the area, told CBS News Bay Area that the city has taken a number of measures to prevent sideshows, not just police enforcement but also traffic calming measures like roundabouts and barriers, as well as cameras. He said new cameras were installed near Canal Boulevard and that other vehicles that participated are under investigation.
